Under the lead of Prof. Brigid Laffan (EUI) and Frank Schimmelfennig (ETH Zürich), the conference brought together leading European academics and EU practitioners to discuss differentiated integration as one of the possible scenarios for the Future of Europe. We discussed the causes and consequences of differentiated integration, its application in concrete policy areas such as the EMU and the EU’s relations with neighbouring countries, member states’ integration preferences, as well as policy and regulatory alternatives to differentiated integration.

We discussed differentiated integration from a number of perspectives, in five key panels:

• What drives differentiated integration and how does DI affect the EU as a polity?
• Deepening Eurozone integration: towards an ever more differentiated Union?
• What do governments, parties and citizens think of DI?
• How to build close relations with neighbouring countries while preserving the integrity of the Single Market?
• Are flexible implementation and experimentalist governance viable alternatives to DI to manage diversity in the EU?

Click here to meet the speakers, and here to read the report.