Flexible Europe: differentiated integration, fairness, and democracy

The principle of ‘differentiated integration’ allows some EU member states to pursue closer integration in specified areas without the participation of all member states. However, while differentiated integration has allowed the integration process to make advances that would not otherwise be possible, it also raises important questions about fairness. Drawing on a new book, Richard Bellamy, Sandra Kröger and Marta Lorimer set out the normative criteria that differentiated integration should respect to be considered fair and democratic.