Integrating diversity or fostering cleavages? : differentiated integration in the EU : a view from Romania

Abstract

In March 2017, the European Commission issued a White Paper on the Future of Europe, outlining five scenarios for Europe by 2025. This triggered intense debates across the European Union (EU) regarding the direction and speed of integration that citizens and governments were prepared to pursue in order to foster ever closer ‘unity in diversity’. The concept of differentiated integration (DI) emerged as a solution for accommodating diversity within the EU, as it implies that individual countries – be they EU or non-EU countries – can have different levels of involvement in particular European policy fields, as well as different degrees of institutional engagement and participation (Laffan 2020). However, DI can also be seen as an approach that can foster cleavages between the more economically advanced, typically older EU member states, and the newer EU member states. Seeking to grasp a better understanding of how new member states perceive DI, we have undertaken a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Romanian decision-makers’ official communications between 2006-2020, regarding the future of EU integration. Through this paper, we argue that leaders in Romania are among the staunchest supporters of deeper and wider European integration, and are strongly against any development scenarios that are based on a two-speed, or two-tier EU, that would divide member states into different camps.