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Concentric circles of flexible ‘EUropean’ integration: A typology of EU external governance relations

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

The deepening of the EU's acquis communautaire, transformations of the European continent, and intensifying webs of interdependence have, since the 1990s, prompted a progressing blurring of the functional boundaries of the European Union. Whereas the integration project has produced externalities early on, the EU has engaged in an active promotion of its norms and rules beyond the member states, designing concentric circles of flexible ‘EUropean’ integration. This article offers a typology of these evolving external circles of EU rule-export focusing on the European Economic Area, Swiss-EU bilateralism, the stabilization and enlargement policy towards the candidate countries of the Western Balkans, the European Neighbourhood Policy and countries beyond the neighbourhood. Drawing on the theoretical notion of external governance, it will be shown these outer circles of ‘EUropean’ integration fall into three groups. While the first group, the ‘quasi-member states’ of Western Europe, combine far-reaching regulatory alignment with limited opportunities for organizational inclusion in EU structures, the Eastern and Southern neighbours face less legalized forms of rule transfer along with the establishment of parallel regional organizational structures. Links with countries beyond the neighbourhood finally stress the functionally differentiated rather than political and territorial dynamics of EU external governance.

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Notes

  1. The first and second phase of EU studies were, accordingly, the investigation of the dynamics of integration (‘Communitarization’) and of the repercussions of integration onto the member states (‘Europeanization’), see Magen (2007).

  2. Iceland applied for EU membership in July 2009 and has obtained candidate status in June 2010.

  3. For a qualification of this characterization based on the analysis of modes of governance at the level of individual policy sectors see Lavenex et al (2009).

  4. These are the European Environment Agency, the European Medicines Agency, the European Maritime Safety Agency, European Aviation Safety Agency, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European Railway Agency and European Network and Information Security Agency as well as Frontex, the EU's Agencies for Operational Cooperation at the EU's External Borders.

  5. The first round of bilateral agreements concluded in 1999 cover the free movement of persons, land transport, air transport, agriculture, research, public procurement and technical barriers to trade. The bilateral treaties II concluded in 2004 extend to processed agricultural goods, statistics, association with MEDIA, association with Schengen/Dublin, taxation of savings, the fight against fraud, association with the European Environment Agency, pensions of EU officials and education, occupational training and youth. In addition, Switzerland has signalled its willingness to conclude agreements on free trade in agricultural goods, cooperation in public health policy, electricity, cooperation with the European Defence Agency, participation in Galileo, participation the EU's emission trading system and an agreement on cooperation in European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) Missions.

  6. The newest candidate, Iceland, forms an exception to this group given, among other things, its membership in the EEA. Although we do not deal specifically with Turkey in this article, this country shares similar external governance arrangements as the WB countries.

  7. These are Moldova, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

  8. The ENP countries are Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.

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Acknowledgements

This article was written in the context of the project ‘Inside out. New modes of governance in relations with non-member states’ within the NEWGOV consortium. Funding under EU contract no. CIT1-CT-2004-506392 is gratefully acknowledged. The author thanks Dirk Lehmkuhl and Nicole Wichmann for earlier research cooperation in the project. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

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  1. University of Lucerne, Seminar für politikwissenschaft, Hirschmattstr, 25, PO Box 7992, Luzern 7, CH-6000, Switzerland

    Sandra Lavenex

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Lavenex, S. Concentric circles of flexible ‘EUropean’ integration: A typology of EU external governance relations. Comp Eur Polit 9, 372–393 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2011.7

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