Fundamental rights as constraints to and triggers for differentiated integration

Abstract

This set of five policy briefs draws the conclusions of five larger studies dealing with the legal feasibility and constitutional acceptability of the various mechanisms of differentiated integration (DI). Those conclusions also reflect on the future prospects for DI from the legal and constitutional perspectives. The policy briefs deal, in turn, (i) with the conditions set by the European treaties for the various mechanisms of differentiated integration, (ii) with the consequences of DI for democracy and the institutional balance in the EU, (iii) with the question whether, or to what extent, fundamental rights and the rule of law can be the object of DI, (iv) with the practical constraints imposed on DI by national constitutional laws; and (v) with the particular legal and institutional characteristics of DI in the relation with third countries.