Differentiated cooperation as the mode of governance in EU foreign policy

ABSTRACT

While the standard conceptualization of differentiation in the European Union (EU) focuses on differentiated integration, scholars devote less attention to differentiated cooperation. This article argues, on the contrary, that member states’ engagement in differentiated efforts in EU foreign policy manifest themselves both in the form of differentiated integration and cooperation. It elaborates an original conceptual framework for exploring differentiated cooperation as a mode of governance. Drawing on the articles in this special issue, this introduction maps empirical manifestations of differentiated cooperation in various areas and dimensions of EU foreign policy. The results of the special issue show that differentiated cooperation has mostly manifested itself in informal patterns of cooperation, with the treaty-based mechanisms being limited. As such, the special issue reflects the differentiation and informalization processes occurring not only in the EU, but also in global governance more broadly.

KEYWORDS:

• Differentiated integration
• differentiated cooperation
• EU foreign policy
• informal governance
• fragmentation

Acknowledgements

A special thanks goes to Brigid Laffan and Erik Jones, for their support and endorsement of the workshop leading to this special issue. The authors would also like to thank the participants of the workshop “Differentiation in EU Foreign and Security Policy,” held at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies/European University Institute on October 21–22, 2021. The four anonymous reviewers and the CSP editors must be praised for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Twenty-five out of twenty-seven member states participate in PESCO.

Additional information

Funding

Maria Giulia Amadio Viceré acknowledges the financial support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 892444. Monika Sus acknowledges the financial support from National Science Centre (grant number UMO-2018/31/B/HS5/03694). Monika Sus acknowledges financial support from National Science Center (grant number UMO-2018/31/B/HS5/03694). This project has also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 962533.