Les coopérations renforcées : quel avenir ?

What Is the Future of Reinforced Co-operation?, by Françoise de La Serre The opening of the new Intergovernmental Conference could be an opportunity to revive the debate about reinforced co-operation among the European Union's Member States. The Union has always endeavoured to reconcile the desire for ever-deeper integration with most States' désire to préserve a form of flexibility that takes account of their differences. Seen from this perspective, although the Treaty of Amsterdam has allowed closer cooperation to make significant but still inadéquate progress, certain core issues such as CFSP remain shelved. If it were to be implemented, this reinforced co-operation could take two forms: a juxtaposition of isolated co-operation activities that would risk giving rise to an à-la-carte Europe, or a breakaway by a vanguard of States which would participate in the most important forms of co-operation and which would constitute, de facto, the Union's centre of gravity.Dans la perspective d'une Europe à trente, la coopération renforcée pourra-t-elle permettre de concilier intégration et élargissement ? Le problème est à l'ordre du jour de la CIG. Mais beaucoup d'ambiguïtés subsistent sur les finalités assignées à cette réforme du traité d'Amsterdam. Les coopérations renforcées généreront-elles un centre de gravité, une avant-garde ou, à l'inverse, une Europe à la carte ?De La Serre Françoise. Les coopérations renforcées : quel avenir ?. In: Politique étrangère, n°2 - 2000 - 65ᵉannée. pp. 455-465