A ‘Last Resort’ or a ‘Bypass’? Development of Enhanced Cooperation and Its Meaning for the Problem of Stagnation of Integration in the European Union

Abstract

Completion of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was the last successful ‘grand project’ in the European Union (EU). Since then, the EU has either failed or, at most, quite effectively – but only responds to the emerging challenges and problems. At the same time, along with the stagnation in the deepening of integration between all the EU member states, differentiation of integration in the EU is progressing very rapidly. This phenomenon is a consequence of a mainly two processes: reform of the euro area and the development of the enhanced cooperation. The aim of the article is to try to analyze the problem of whether enhanced cooperation is really treated as a ‘last resort’ or, rather, gradually, as a specifi c ‘bypass’, which make it possible to overcome obstacles relating to launching a new integration projects. The starting point of this analysis is the thesis on the stagnation of integration in the EU, that has been taking place for more than a dozen years. Very synthetically this issue is addressed in the one part of the study. The succeeding two parts concern the development of enhanced cooperation and its importance in overcoming the stagnation of integration in the EU.