About the project
The implicit assumption in mainstream EU research is that integration is, if not quite uniform, then at least quite unidirectional. However, European integration has to a certain degree departed from the initial assumption that it should aim at a uniform acquis communautaire in which the same policies apply in the same way at the same time in all participating countries. The idea of asymmetric, differential, or flexible integration pre-dates the crisis.
EuroDiv’s assumption is that Europe is moving towards a permanent situation characterised by a more diversified EU. The European crisis seems to be accelerating a process in which the member states end up with different statuses. From this perspective, Norway’s relations with the EU is no exception, but one of several variations in the diversity of integration in Europe.
EuroDiv will study the crisis and analyse the sustainability and democratic legitimacy of ongoing transformations in Europe. By distinguishing segmentation from the more widely used conception of differentiated integration, integration and disintegration will be analysed simultaneously in order to better understand the present crisis developments.
Objectives
The primary objective of EuroDiv is to establish how the crisis is transforming Europe and the implications this has for Norway as a closely associated non-member of the EU.
Greater differentiation may give rise to particular patterns of segmentation, with profound democratic and constitutional implications. EuroDiv seeks to establish how prevalent such segmentation trends are, and whether there are important – democratic – countervailing forces.
A major objective of EuroDiv is therefore to identify what the democratic and constitutional implications are of current patters of transformation, what they entail for the sustainability of the European political order, and Norway’s role in relation to it.
The secondary objective is to develop new analytical tools and reconfigure existing ones so as to improve the manner in which we combine the study of European transformations (including Norway) and their democratic and normative implications.
Sub-projects
Law and democracy
What is the impact of segmentation on democratic and constitutional processes? What are the implications for European citizens?
Through the crisis, the very viability of the EU as a political arrangement has come under scrutiny. The crisis brings up the prospect that states may come to occupy permanently different roles and statuses and that this is a recognized and defining feature of the EU. If so, we may talk of a uniquely structured segmented political order. So has the assumption that integration goes hand-in-hand with democratization. Hence we need to reconsider the core assumption that has long underpinned the integration project, the neo-functionalist assumption of an 'ever-closer union'.
‘Law and democracy’ is one of four EuroDiv sub-projects (Integration and division: Towards a segmented Europe?). It focuses on the crisis, segmentation, and democratic and constitutional implications. The assumption is that greater segmentation is associated with weakened democracy and de-constitutionalisation, whereas democratic constitutionalism is a countervailing force. This is examined through the following studies:
Segmentation and democracy
How has the crisis affected parliaments at the EU and national levels? The assumption is that increased segmentation weakens democracy, which implies that executives and independent expert bodies are strengthened at the expense of parliaments. Different decision-making processes are examined to investigate forms of access and how influential executives and experts are versus representative bodies at different stages. How different Norway is in this regard will also be studied.
Citizens’ resilience and mobilisation
What are the effects of increased mobility and mobilisation on accelerated cultural change and fragmentation? The crisis challenges the core founding myth that integration leads to stability and growth, and promises ‘equal living conditions’ across the Union. Broader patterns of social strife and fragmentation are investigated in order to discern possible segmenting trends. At the same time, constitutionalisation of rights can contribute to weakening segmentation, and it is investigated how the Europe of rights and citizenship confront a Europe of increasing inequalities.
Towards a segmented Europe?
This sub-project will also pay attention to some of EuroDiv’s overall questions: Is the crisis ushering in a broader pattern of segmentation? If so, what are the democratic implications? To what extent can one detect counter-forces? How might this be addressed in democratic-constitutional terms?
Coordinators
Erik Oddvar Eriksen
John Erik Fossum
Participants
Cathrine Holst
Asimina Michailidou
Espen D. H. Olsen
Hans-Jörg Trenz
The European executive order in times of crisis
How does the Euro crisis impact on administrative systems at the EU and national level?
This sub-project studies the emergent European executive order: a multilevel EU administration consisting of supranational bodies (primarily the European Commission, the EEAS and EU agencies), and national bodies (primarily regulatory authorities). Thus, the project deals with centre formation at the supranational level as well as the relationships and networks which develop across levels of governance and across national borders.
One key idea has so far been that the multilevel administrative configuration we currently observe is in important respects significantly different from the one installed at the start of the European integration project, for example in the way it partly ‘side-tracks’ national political executives (ministries). The function of this new executive order doesn’t seem to be ‘only’ implementation; it also structures policy formulation. How robust is the new order in times of crisis? Do crises lead to a breakdown or a highly differentiated system, or, on the contrary, to more centralization, e.g. in the form of new institution-building?
Coordinators
Morten Egeberg
Jarle Trondal
Participants
Åse Gornitzka
Johan P Olsen
Economic development as segmentation?
Will crisis reforms in the monetary union lead to a more segmented political order?
Reforms in the design of the monetary union have been implemented in the wake of the crisis. If this leads to segmentation, what does such a development imply for the sustainability of responses to the crisis? What does it entail for Norway’s position in the European economic and political order?
‘Economic development as segmentation?’ is one of four EuroDiv sub-projects (Integration and division: Towards a segmented Europe?). The investigation covers three important changes in the design of monetary union: changes to fiscal coordination; banking union; and the interpretation of the rules for joining both the single currency and for being eligible to join it through EU membership.
The changes and their implications are addressed through the following studies:
Segmentation
The crisis might result in the euro area developing into a qualitatively different polity within the Union’s polity, based on its own ‘community of fate’, its own governance structures, its own obligations and its own treaties. To test how far changes to monetary union increases segmentation of the EU’s political order the project studies epistemic communities, permanent structures of functional and territorial differentiation and authority structures, as well as democratic processes and management of decisions.
Sustainability
Is the changed form of monetary union that is emerging from the crisis sufficiently legitimate to be sustainable? To help answer that question the sub-project will reconstruct key decisions taken at critical junctures in the redesign of monetary union to establish how far those decisions were shaped by normative questions of democratic control and justice.
Implications for Norway
What are the implications for Norway of changes at the European level? Since 1999, monetary union has posed the problem of how to coordinate the management of the Norwegian economic cycle with that of the euro zone in a manner that allows Norway sufficient monetary autonomy to avoid harms to its domestic economy. The sub-project therefore investigates how far closer coordination and centralisation within the euro zone affects the options available to Norway in deciding how to structure its own relations with the overall political economy of the EU.
Coordinator
Christopher Lord
Participants
Agustín José Menéndez
Bent Sofus Tranøy
The domain of foreign and security policy at times of crisis
To what extent does differentiated integration take place in the domain of foreign, security and defence policy in the context of crisis?
Do developments within this field point in the direction of segmentation or rather towards centralisation and democratisation? To what extent can the emerging order be expected to be sustainable? What is the position of Norway within it?
‘The domain of foreign and security policy at times of crisis’ is one of four EuroDiv sub-projects (Integration and division: Towards a segmented Europe?). This domain is at the outset differentiated and unstable compared to other policy areas. It operates according to its own decision-making rules and is served by a separate set of institutions. There is some evidence of greater centralisation and democratisation: institutional reforms and so-called soft power approaches can work as countervailing forces. The overarching questions are addressed through the following studies:
Segmentation or constitutionalisation?
In order to discern the direction of developments, formal institutional designs and rules of decision-making, as well as their interpretation and practice, are examined. Particular attention is paid to possible shifts in the understandings of rules and in the practices of participation – also with regard to third parties such as Norway.
Sustainability
To what extent is this domain reinforcing and refining its separate institutional structures and/or opening these to other actors and organisations outside of the Union? Both developments may indicate tighter integration, but to what extent may they be expected to be equally sustainable? Furthermore, what may be the driving forces of integrative moves?
Coordinator
Helene Sjursen
Participants
Guri Rosén
Johanne Døhlie Saltnes
Johanna Strikwerda
Anke Stefanie Schwarzkopf
Previous events
Lecture: Counter-revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat
Time and place: Sep. 18, 2018 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Fritt Ord, Uranienborgveien 2
Jan Zielonka, Professor of European Politics at Oxford University, will discuss his latest book Counter Revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat on 18 September 2018 at Fritt Ord.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, liberalism was the only game in town from New York to Tallinn to Athens. This era is over. Anti-liberal insurgents are doing well at the ballot box not only in the post-communist democracies of Eastern Europe and indebted democracies of Southern Europe, but also in the most affluent European countries. Can open society survive? Is Europe disintegrating? How to overcome the economic crisis? Will Europeans feel secure again? Jan Zielonka will tackle these questions in his lecture “Counter-revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat”.
He will argue that Europe and its liberal project need to be reinvented and recreated. There is no simple way back. Europe has failed to adjust to enormous geopolitical, economic, and technological changes that have swept the continent over the past three decades. European models of democracy, capitalism, and integration are not in sync with new complex networks of cities, bankers, terrorists, or migrants. Liberal values that made Europe thrive for many decades have been betrayed. The escalation of emotions, myths, and ordinary lies left little space for reason, deliberation, and conciliation.
The European Union - between Scylla and Charybdis?
Time and place: Apr. 26, 2018 9:00 AM – Apr. 27, 2018 5:00 PM, Oslo
The conference 'The European Union - between Scylla and Charybdis?' gathered European academics to discuss the challenges the European Union has been facing lately.
It is widely held that the post-war liberal order that heralded in an international regime bent on promoting human rights, peaceful co-existence and free trade is facing unprecedented challenges. One set of challenges emanates ‘from within’ and pertains to the manner in which the rise of neo-liberal economic globalism has emptied out space for human rights and democracy and is instead fostering technocracy and rights of corporations. Another set of challenges emanates ‘from without’ through various forms of populist-driven ethno-nationalist resurgence.
The Trump presidency and its insistence on America First has sparked grave concerns as to whether the United States – historically one of the main pillars of the post-war liberal order - will continue to sustain this. Trump has held up immigrants and asylum seekers as security threats. Fear of terrorism and hostility to Islam are drawn on to actively foster securitization and are intrinsic to a nationalist reaction that engulfs most of the West. The Brexiteers are typically divided along these lines, with the Farage wing stressing nationalism and anti-immigration, and the Johnson wing stressing open international trade unencumbered by social and environmental regulations. The post-war liberal human rights based order is thus faced with the Scylla of ‘internal’ threats from a de-politicizing economic neo-liberalism and the Charybdis of ‘external’ threats from re-politicizing nationalist and securitizing reactions.
This conference will discuss these challenges with explicit reference to the European Union (EU). The EU faces a range of existential threats and has since 2008 gone through a significant structural mutation. We are particularly interested in the agents of transformation; the implications for the European Union as a system of governing; and the prospects for constitutional democracy in Europe.
There is a curious transnational character to the nationalist reactions that requires explicit attention. What is the EU’s role – is it a mere recipient, or might it also precipitate such reactions? What is the nature of the EU’s structural mutation? How has that affected its governing ability and legitimacy? One aspect of the structural mutation is a hardening of governance, a pattern of de-constitutionalization, and increased technocracy. Do we witness new forms of governing that represent new constellations of politics and administration? A case in point is what we will term the rise of the pseudocrat and pseudocracy that refers to a particular combination of politics and expertise.
What is the relationship between these EU structural transformations – technocracy – and populist reactions? How to understand populism?
The role of media appears to be janus-faced - it might be helping to foster populism, and it might serve to hold populism accountable. The media may undercut as well as underwrite democracy.
What are the implications for ‘the democratic chain of governing’? We focus on the constitutive features of constitutionally entrenched representative party democracy, including citizenship, political parties, representative assemblies and systems of governing.
Programme
Day 1: Thursday 26 April 2018
09.00 – 09.15 Opening
09.15 – 12.30 Session 1: Two parts of the trilemma: Populism versus technocracy
Chair: Mads Andenæs, Department of Private Law, University of Oslo
Presentations by:
Daniele Caramani, University of Zurich
Chris Bickerton, University of Cambridge
Cathrine Holst, ARENA, University of Oslo
Erik O. Eriksen, ARENA, University of Oslo
Sverker Gustavsson, Uppsala University
Discussion
13.30 – 17.00 Session 2: Two parts of the trilemma: Populism and mediatization
Chair: John Erik Fossum, ARENA, University of Oslo
Presentations by:
Benjamin Moffitt, Uppsala University
Asimina Michailidou, ARENA, University of Oslo
Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo
Tuukka Ylä-Anttila, University of Helsinki
Michael Hameleers, University of Amsterdam
Discussion
Day 2: Friday 27 April 2018
09.00 – 12.00 Session 3: European Reflections
Chair: Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo
Hauke Brunkhorst, University of Flensburg
Monica Eigmüller, University of Flensburg
Dario Castiglione, University of Exeter
Jonathan White, London School of Economics and Political Science
Chris Lord, ARENA, University of Oslo
John Erik Fossum, ARENA, University of Oslo
Discussion
Organiser
ARENA, Integration and division: Towards a segmented Europe? (EuroDiv) and Department of Private Law, University of Oslo
This conference is organised as a part of Integration and division: Towards a segmented Europe? (EuroDiv)
EuroDiv Conference: Towards a Differentiated Europe
Time and place: May 18, 2017 1:30 PM – May 19, 2017 1:30 PM, Auditorium 2, Georg Sverdrups hus, University of Oslo
In Oslo on 18 and 19 May, this conference discussed the current internal dynamics in the EU, the different models of partnership with the EU and the future of Norway-EU relations.
The UK vote on its EU membership shook up the political and academic debate – regardless of whether and in which form the British will ultimately leave the Union. The referendum follows a series of persisting, some might even say existential, crises the EU has been facing for several years. The pronounced need for action has led to new dynamics within the EU. The Bratislava summit of the EU27 in 2016 represents a first attempt to tackle the current challenges. In the same vein, the Brexit vote has put a new focus on differentiation and alternative forms of partnership with the EU onto the political and academic agenda. Which concepts of close cooperation do exist beyond membership? Have existing models proven themselves? How are the EU’s semi-integrated neighbours affected by the current developments?
The conference jointly organised by COMOS, CETEUS and ARENA will throw light on the current political developments and academic debates. In three thematic panels, the conference will discuss
- the current internal dynamics in the EU
- the different models of partnership with the EU, and
- the future of Norway-EU relations.
With the conference taking place in Oslo, the organising committee will seize on the opportunity to integrate a practitioner’s perspective into the debate, for instance by inviting a representative of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a key note speaker. The conference will gather both senior scholars and up-and-coming academics from diverse backgrounds to Oslo. Beyond the academic exchange and debate, the event will serve to foster the academic network in the area of EU studies among scholars based in the EU and in Norway, and to strengthen the links to relevant scientific institutions in Oslo.
Programme
Day 1: Thursday 18 May 2017
13.30 – 16.00 Plenary session
13.30 – 13.45 Welcome
13.45 – 14.05 Key note speech I: Norway-EU Relations. Elsbeth Tronstad, State Secretary of EEA and EU Affairs, Norway
14.05 – 14.20 Q&A
14.45 – 15.30 Key note speech II: The European Council as the EU's Constitutional Architect: Leading or Misleading? Wolfgang Wessels, University of Cologne
16.00 – 17.30 Academic workshop:
New Dynamics or Disintegration in the EU? From Bratislava to Rome Chair: Johannes Müller Gómez, University of Cologne
Democracy and Differentiation in Europe by Erik O. Eriksen, ARENA/University of Oslo
Current Challenges from a Legal Perspective by Christophe Hillion, Universities of Leiden, Gothenburg and Oslo
Politicization, Populism and the Future of the EU by Barbara Lippert, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
Differentiated Integration Reconsidered by Hartmut Marhold, Centre international de formation européenne
Day 2: Friday 19 May 2017
09.30 – 11.00 Panel session I: Alternative Forms of Partnership of and with the EU.
Chair: Wulf Reiners, Turkish-German University
EU Differentiation and the Role of the EEA by John Erik Fossum, ARENA/University of Oslo
Issues of Citizenship in the EU and the Nordic States by Espen D.H. Olsen, ARENA/University of Oslo
Concepts of Differentiated Integration in Europe by Funda Tekin, University of Cologne/CIFE
EU-Turkey: Towards a Strategic Partnership? by Ebru Turhan, Turkish-German University
Implications of Brexit for International Agreements: Will Treaties Concluded be the EU Continue to Apply to the UK? by Birte Windheuser, University of Cologne
11.30 – 13.00 Panel session II: Norway’s Role in Europe and the Future EU-Norway Agenda
Chair: Andreas Hofmann, University of Gothenburg
European and Norwegian Environment and Energy Policies by Elin Lerum Boasson, University of Oslo
Brexit: Implications for Norway by Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen, Bergen University
EU & Norway in the Arctic by Andreas Raspotnik, Arctic Institute
EU and Norwegian Foreign and Security Policy by Helene Sjursen, ARENA/University of Oslo
13.00 – 13.30 Conclusion: Summary of findings and outlook
John Erik Fossum, ARENA/University of Oslo
Wolfgang Wessels, University of Cologne
Book Discussion: Quo Vadis Europa? Reflections on Europe’s Past and Present
Time and place: – , Auditorium 2, Georg Sverdrups hus, University of Oslo Library (UBO)
On Tuesday 4 April Professor Bo Stråth and Professor Hans-Jörg Trenz will present main conclusions from their newly published books on Europe's past and present.
Europe’s history exhibits a profound tension of unity and diversity. Efforts at unification have met with staunch displays of defense of diversity. The various projects have unfolded during periods of peace and war. Today’s Europe has seen an almost unprecedented period of peace coupled with a continent-wide effort at integration driven by the European Union. At present confronted with a panoply of crises the European Union faces serious questions about its continued existence. The financial turned political crisis; the refugee crisis; the Ukraine crisis; and the prospect of Brexit (and the domino effects it might engender) are cases in point.
The purpose of this seminar is to discuss Europe’s present with reference to two important recently published books that provide us with in-depth assessments of Europe’s past and present. The first book by Professor Bo Stråth provides an essential historical backdrop to the present by discussing Europe’s efforts at developing lasting peace since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The second book by Professor Trenz provides us with an up-to-date assessment of Europe. How well-entrenched in Europe’s societies is the process of Europeanisation? What kind of process is this?
Both books underline the role of historical contingency and the need to understand the available options as the actors have seen them at different points in time. The authors will briefly present their books. Scholars from different disciplines: history of ideas, law, and political science will comment, followed by a general debate.
Organiser
ARENA and Faculty of Social Sciences
Narrating European Society.Toward a Sociology of European Integration, Hans-Jörg Trenz
Europe's Utopias of Peace. 1815, 1919, 1951, Bo Stråth
Integration and division: Towards a segmented Europe?
This event is organized as a part of the World with Trump (Verden med Trump) series (UiO)
Workshop: Who is the European citizen? Who is the refugee?
Time and place: Jan. 13, 2017 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM, UiO
On 13 January 2017 Agustín J. Menéndez and Espen D. H. Olsen convened a workshop on European citizenship in light of the refugee crisis.
The refugee crisis is the latest in a series of crises that have hit Europe and the European Union. Often taken to be a crisis of institutions and management, it is also a crisis of real people ‘on the ground’ of European politics, both citizens and refugees alike. At the same time, the member states of the European Union have experienced a surge in calls for 'renationalisation' and a move back to more pronounced notions of national citizenship. The handling of the Eurocrisis and the reforms of national economies that followed in its wake have revealed a crisis of representation and increased discontent with politics 'beyond the nation-state'. Once seen as part of the democratic solution, European citizenship is now increasingly seen as a part of the problem.
Under the title 'Who is the European citizen? Who is the refugee? Personal statuses between globalisation, Europeanisation and the refugee crisis' this workshop critically discussed the current relationship between citizenship and European integration.
The participants addressed two sets of inter-related challenges. The first set of interventions probed and critically discussed how European integration has impacted conceptions of citizenship in a political and legal sense. The second set of interventions drew attention to how the conceptualization of European citizenship has impacted on the definition of the other personal statuses in European law with a particular emphasis on the definition of European and national asylum policy.
The interdisciplinary workshop brought together legal scholars, political scientists, political sociologists and historians to address these issues.
Programme
Session I
Chair: John Erik Fossum, ARENA
9.00 – 9.30 European citizenship: Looking back and looking forwards
Espen D. H. Olsen, ARENA & Agustín J. Menéndez, ARENA
9.45 – 10.20 What has European integration done to citizenship
Catherine Colliot-Thélène, Université de Rennes 1
10.30 – 11.05 The economically non-active: Inclusion and exclusion in EU citizenship law and politics
Sandra Mantu, Radboud University
11.15 – 12.10 Debate led by Mads Andenæs, University of Oslo
Session II
Chair: Anne Elizabeth Stie, University of Agder
13.10 – 13.45 Brexiting citizenship?
Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA and University of Copenhagen and Charlotte Galpin, University of Copenhagen
13.45 – 14.20 European citizenship since 1951: public or private autonomy or both?
Stefanie Pukallus, University of Sheffield
14.30 – 15.05 The refugee crises as reflex of the impact of Europeanisation on other personal statuses
Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, CNRS
15.05 – 16.00 Debate led by Cathrine Holst , ARENA
16.00 – 16.30 Closing reflections
Massimo La Torre, University "Magna Græcia" of Catanzaro
Organiser
Agustín José Menéndez, ARENA and Espen D. H. Olsen, ARENA
Publications
European Solidarity in Times of Crisis by Asimina Michailidou and Hans-Jörg Trenz.ARENA Working Paper 5/2018
EU Institutions and the Drive for Peace: The Power of Ideas by Mai'a K. Davis Cross. ARENA Working Paper 10/17
Equal Sovereignty: On the Conditions of Global Political Justice by Kjartan Koch Mikalsen. ARENA Working Paper 9/17
Democratic Accountability and the Changing European Political Order by Johan P. Olsen. ARENA Working Paper 8/2017.
Not so Humanitarian After All? Assessing EU Naval Mission Sophia by Marianne Riddervold and Ruxandra-Laura Bosilca. ARENA Working Paper 5/2017
After the Euro Crisis: A New Paradigm on the Integration of Europe by Sergio Fabbrini. ARENA Working Paper 05/2014.
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