Skip to content

Seminar series

Explaining good and bad crises in and for the EU

Going beyond integration theories

Print

When

23 January 2024

16:00 - 17:30 CET

Where

Sala Triaria

Villa Schifanoia

Organised by

Join Professor Waltraud Schelke presenting research looking at integration theory and polity approach in explaining EU crises since 2008.
Crises can tell us about the EU’s known and unknown vulnerabilities as well as (hidden) capacities when facing adversity. This can also inform our theories that were written for normal times. This study analyses how leading proponents of integration theory compared crises of the EU since 2008 and what theoretical conclusions they drew from them. There is an emerging consensus among these scholars that the varied crisis dynamics and outcomes call for combining them in one grand integration theory. These analyses are contrasted with an emerging body of work called the polity approach, of which our account of the EU’s crises is a part. Its particular strength is that it can make sense of the variation between crises of the EU, thanks to its interest in systemic level outcomes that go beyond more or less integration. The results of an expert survey provides first evidence that a majority of scholars sees nuance between the EU’s crises not easily grasped even with one grand integration theory. Finally, the perspective of practitioners who have been involved in the EU’s crises responses both at the national and the supranational level adds further support for our argument that we need to go beyond integration theories if we want to explain why some crises are worse than others in and for the EU.

Contact(s):

Sarah Ilyse Bernstein (EUI - Schuman Centre)

Scientific Organiser(s):

Erik Jones (Director of the Robert Schuman Centre, EUI)

Speaker(s):

Prof. Waltraud Schelkle (European University Institute)