Overlapping Integration Areas

Abstract

The debate about a so-called European hard core, as well as about the widening and deepening of the European Union, demonstrates that, as a result of the increasing numbers of EU member states, it is time to take stock of the concept of European integration and the future structure of the European Union (EU). Widening the EU by allowing new members and deepening the institutional regulatory mechanisms within the EU are two ambitions which are somewhat at odds. Europe is heterogeneous. Even within the EU there are significant differences between countries, and if the former communist countries in Eastern Europe were to be included, the economic and political differences would be extreme. Measuring the differences between the Western countries, for example, by using affluency criteria (see Tichy 1992, pp. 131 – 132), shows that Europe is divided between the wealthy North and the Core (Scandinavia, the Benelux countries, Germany, Switzerland) and the poor South and periphery (Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey), with several countries in between. Measuring the differences, on the other hand, by using the priority countries give to price stability in their economic policies shows that Europe is divided between a “stability group” (Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium) and an “inflation group” (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Iceland), with several countries in between.