Brexit and the Differentiated European (Dis)Integration

Abstract

On 25 March 2017, the European Union celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which established ‘an ever-closer union’ as a fundamental principle for European regional integration. Only four days later, the United Kingdom delivered an official letter triggering its withdrawal process from the Community. How could we comprehend Brexit integrative and disintegrative dynamics to the EU? The UK’s decision to leave the EU alongside recent crises in the Community and the spread of Eurosceptic movements fostered studies about disintegration dynamics. This article presents the current debate about differentiated (dis)integration based on up-to-date related literature. Next, it proposes a framework to assess the recent shifts in the UK-EU relationship and its contradictory effects on the EU project. The main argument of the paper is that the UK’s relationship with the European Union moved from an internal differentiated integration to a proposal of internal differentiated disintegration and, thereafter, to a process of external differentiated disintegration. Moreover, although Brexit means disintegration by one Member State, its effects on the EU project are mixed, initially promoting an integrative boom among the EU27 members, while at the same time neglecting disintegrating forces that could undermine the traditional European integration model.

Integration/Disintegration Theories and European Union’s crescent of crises: 2008-2020

“…However, considering the current crises, European disintegration is becoming increasingly possible (Zielonka, 2014, P. 22). The twenty-first century has witnessed significant challenges to the process of regional integration in general and the European Union in particular, which has faced (Szucko, 2020).…”

Glass Cliff and Brexit: Theresa May’s legacy as Prime Minister

“…In this vein, the outcome of the 2016 British referendum symbolises an unprecedented crisis in the European integration process, as, for the first time, a Member State decided to withdraw from the bloc (Nolte and Weiffen 2020). Brexit brought a sudden break to the UK-EU traditional relationship based on an internal differentiated integration pattern (Szucko, 2020). Until the referendum, the UK and the EU were able to overcome divergent interests within the regional bloc by granting, in some cases, derogations to the communitarian legislation.…”

Brexit Dilemma and the Future of Euroscepticism

“…The UK's decision on leaving the EU sparked fears whether other EU members would follow and lead to a disintegration process of the EU. Indeed, as Szucko (2020) states, a prominent aspect of Brexit other than the previous crisis is that Brexit caused a disintegration process of a full EU MS for the first time in EU's history. In a similar manner, Hooghe and Marks (2019) consider Brexit as "one of the episodes of European disintegration" that have been witnessed since 2008.…”