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Book abstract:
A widely held view of the European Union is that of a rule ridden rigid bureaucracy peopled by civil servants unable to relate to the real needs of the world around them. Rigidity and insensitivity are not the characteristics observed by Alexander Stubb in this work. He tells the tale of the increasing flexibility to be found in the European Union that has been able to grow from an initial membership of 6 to a prospective membership of 30 Member States by 2010.
The book is organised over seven chapters including comprehensive introductory and concluding chapters. The second chapter explores the 1996-97 and 2000 IGC negotiations on flexible integration and sets the basic arguments of the book. An overview of the existing literature on flexibility, examples of flexible integration along with definitions and categories are given in chapter three. The flexibility debate up to and during the 1996-97 IGC is closely examined in chapter four with coverage of the progress from the European Council of Corfu in June 1994. A similar approach to the 2000 IGC is given in chapter five, following the negotiations through the agenda setting phase, the decision-shaping phase to the decision-taking stage. The outcome of the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties are examined in chapter six, which seeks to clarify the complex web of rules and issues relating to the various forms of flexibility in the treaties. The concluding chapter draws together the arguments of the earlier chapters, assesses the process of the 1996-97 and 2000 IGCs and aims to draw lessons which might suggest ways in which flexibility may be used in the future.
Alexander Stubb is a professor at the College of Europe, Bruges and has been a member of the Group of Policy Advisers of the President of the European Commission since 2001.
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