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Autonomy without Collapse in a Better European Union

Online ISBN:
9780191923982
Print ISBN:
9780192897541
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Autonomy without Collapse in a Better European Union

Mark Dawson (ed.),
Mark Dawson
(ed.)
Professor of European Law and Governance, Hertie School
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Markus Jachtenfuchs (ed.)
Markus Jachtenfuchs
(ed.)
Professor of European and Global Governance, Hertie School
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Published online:
17 November 2022
Published in print:
26 September 2022
Online ISBN:
9780191923982
Print ISBN:
9780192897541
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

The EU’s history exhibits numerous episodes in which member states have sought to re-enforce their national autonomy in the face of deepening integration. Efforts to regain autonomy, however, are often accompanied by legitimate concerns that autonomy will lead to disintegration or will have wider destructive consequences. The EU thus faces a dilemma. Calls for autonomy cannot all be dismissed as mere populist rhetoric or national egoism but instead represent a legitimate questioning of the degree of uniformity that EU law and politics presently carry. At the same time, the fear that greater autonomy may carry disintegrative effects is also legitimate—uniformity is not an accidental by-product of the EU’s construction but intrinsically related to its policy goals. Giving too much room for autonomy might create an opportunity structure for the loss of collective goods, deficits in problem-solving, and perhaps even to self-destruction. The EU requires autonomy, but in doing so, it must also avoid collapse. Can it achieve it, and if so, how? This volume is devoted to exploring innovative answers to this question. It draws together scholars in law and political science interested in exploring how to overcome the central dilemma of preserving sustainable yet real autonomy in the future European Union.

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