Conclusion: Implications for EU Studies and the Debate over the Future of Integration

Abstract

This book addressed a crucial yet currently undertheorized research question: what makes the EU viable? Such a task was shown to matter not only because of the succession of crises, resulting at times in inanition, that the European integration project has endured in the past six decades. Understanding viability is also essential in order to judge the merits of the current plethora of schemes for reforming the EU order. The Janus-faced nature of the viability problem was reflected in the twofold analytical concern with, firstly, explaining the historical evolution of successful integration before, secondly, considering how certain transformative changes would affect this compound political system. The former was seen to follow, in the conceptual vocabulary of this study, a path of dynamic equilibrium; the second, a process theorized as voluntary centralization, was revealed as fraught with danger.