Differentiated integration in the European Union : its role for cooperating with nonmembers and for the EU’s future as perceived by academic experts

There is now an abundant conceptual and empirical literature on differentiated integration in the EU. However, what are academic experts’ more political and normative views on the matter? This paper enlarges our knowledge about how academic experts perceive of DI in general, as well as about questions relating to external DI, enlargement, and the EU’s future. From the analysis emerge four main findings. First, there continues to be very strong support for the idea of a flexible Europe, though there remain strong differences in support between different types of DI. Second, a large majority of our experts considered that DI should not be allowed in all EU policies areas, not least the Rule of Law. Third, the majority of respondents support external DI, however not unconditionally. Fourth, and finally, despite the overall support for DI in many areas of policy, experts in their majority thought that uniform integration would better allow the EU to realise its goals, and so DI appears as a second-best which is supported when uniform integration does not seem politically feasible