European disintegration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20318/eunomia.2026.10387Keywords:
European Disintegration, supranationalism, differentiated integration, migratory crisis, BrexitAbstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze the recent phenomenon of European disintegration. Since the creation of the European Union, the idea of an having a supranational organization to achieve cooperation between States has been present throughout the process of European integration. However, crises such as those linked to the massive arrival of asylum seekers in 2015 and Brexit, make it necessary to assess whether we are facing a process of European disintegration. T With this purpose in mind, the paper aims to examine the main contributions of academic literature to the concept of European disintegration; to analyze the work of various authors in order to establish a conceptual distinction between European disintegration and differentiated integration, suggesting attributes that may be considered as minimum necessary criteria in the case of the former; to present examples of how the aforementioned crises may constitute evidence of a disintegration process; and, finally, to explore the explanatory factors underlying this phenomenon.
Downloads
References
Alcoceba, A. (2003). Del acervo comunitario y otras pizzas: contribución de la integración diferenciada a la transformación del acervo. Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo, 7(14), pp. 97-139. https://www.cepc.gob.es/sites/default/files/2021-12/9783rdc014097.pdf
Andrés Sáenz de Santa María, P. (2019). Un Tribunal a la altura de sus responsabilidades: el brexit ante el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea. Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo, 62, pp. 17-37. doi: https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rdce.62.01
Becerril Atienza, B. (2009). The regulation of enhanced cooperation and its reform in Lisbon: Towards a model of differentiation that is closer to the community method. En J. M. Beneyto, (Ed.), Unity and Flexibility in the future of the European Union: the challenge of enhanced cooperation (p.9-20). CEU Ediciones.
Chalmers, D., Markus Jachtenfuchs, M. y Joerges, C. (2016). The End of the Eurocrats' Dream Adjusting to European Diversity. Cambridge University Press.
Comisión Europea. (2024). Pacto sobre Migración y Asilo: Un sistema común de la UE para gestionar la migración. Disponible en: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/migration-asylum-pact_es
De Miguel, B. (2024). El éxito de la ultraderecha el 9J pone a la UE contra las cuerdas. Agenda Pública. https://agendapublica.es/noticia/19246/xito-ultraderecha-9j-pone-ue-contra-cuerdas
Degner, H. y Leuffen D. (2019). Franco-German Cooperation and the Rescuing of the Eurozone. European Union Politics, 20(1), pp. 89-108. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116518814337
Del Valle, A. (2019). Refugiados y crisis migratorias: fronteras y desterritorialidad en las puertas de Europa. En S. Ripol Carulla (Coord.), Jornadas sobre Derecho, Inmigración y Empresa (pp. 89-117). Marcial Pons.
Fabbrini, F. (2017). EU Unity Beyond Brexit. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
González Enríquez, C. (2024). El Pacto de Migración y Asilo de la Unión Europea. Contexto, desafíos y limitaciones. ARI 59/2024. https://media.realinstitutoelcano.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ari59-2024-gonzalezenriquez-pacto-migracion-asilo-union-europea-contexto-desafios-limitaciones.pdf
Holzinger, K. y Schimmelfennig, F. (2012). Differentiated integration in the European Union: Many concepts, sparse theory, few data. Journal of European Public Policy, 19(2), pp. 292-305. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2012.641748
Huysmans, M. y Van Kerckhoven, S. (2023). The Causes and Modes of European Disintegration. Politics and Governance, 11(3), pp. 1-4. doi: https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i3.6633
Janer, J. D., (2018). El restablecimiento temporal de controles en las fronteras interiores de la Unión Europea como respuesta a las amenazas al orden público ya la seguridad interior: entre la excepcionalidad y la normalidad. Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo, 61, pp. 899-932. doi: https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rdce.61.04
Krastev, I. (2012). European Disintegration? A Fraying Union. Journal of Democracy, 23(4), pp. 23-30. doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2012.0066
Kyriazi, A., Genschel, P., Jachtenfuchs, M., y Roos, C. (2023). Quiet unity: salience, politicisation and togetherness in the EU’s Brexit negotiating position. West European Politics, 47, pp. 1045-1071. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2023.2188953
Lefkofridi, Z., y Schmitter, P. C. (2015). Transcending or descending? European integration in times of crisis. European Political Science Review, 7(1), pp. 3-22. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773914000114
Leruth, B., Gänzle, S. y Trondal, J. (2019). Exploring Differentiated Disintegration in a Post-Brexit European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies, 57(5), pp. 1013-1030. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12850
Leuffen D., Rittberger, B., y Schimmelfennig, F. (2013). Differentiated Integration. Explaining Variation in the European Union. Palgrave.
Lindberg, L. N., y Scheingold, S. A. (1970). Europe’s would-be polity: Patterns of change in the European Community. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Maillo González-Orús, J. (2009). Differentiation in the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. En J. M. Beneyto, (coord), Unity and Flexibility in the future of the European Union: the challenge of enhanced cooperation (pp. 89-105). CEU Ediciones.
Mangas, A. (2017). Retirada de un Estado de una organización internacional: Los procesos del Brexit. Anales de la Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas, 94, pp. 291-314.
Markakis, M. (2020). Differentiated Integration and Disintegration in the EU: Brexit, the Eurozone Crisis, and Other Troubles. Journal of International Economic Law, 23, pp. 489-507. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgaa020
Mudde, C. (2009). Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge University Press.
Patberg, M. (2021). The Democratic Ambivalence of EU Disintegration: A Mapping of Costs and Benefits. Swiss Political Science Review, 27(3), pp. 601-618. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12456
Princen, S., et al. (Eds.). (2024). Política de la Unión Europea. Cambridge University Press.
Rosamond, B. (2016). Brexit and the Problem of European Disintegration. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 12(4), pp. 864-871. doi: https://doi.org/10.30950/jcer.v12i4.772
Sánchez Gómez, M. (2023). An Ever-Closer Union? Towards a comprehensive approach of the European disintegration process. Colex.
Santos Vara, J. (2022). Flexible Solidarity in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum: A New Form of Differentiated Integration? European Papers, 7, pp. 1243-1263. doi: https://doi.org/10.15166/2499-8249/621
Santos Vara, J.; García Andrade, P. y Molnár, T. (2023). The Externalisation of EU Migration Policies in Light of EU Constitutional Principles and Values: Reconciling the Irreconcilable? An Introduction to the Special Section. European Papers, 8, pp. 901-904. doi: https://doi.org/10.15166/2499-8249/653
Schimmelfennig, F. (2018). Brexit: differentiated disintegration in the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy, 25 (8), pp. 1154-1173. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2018.1467954
Schimmelfennig, F., Leuffen, D., y De Vries, C. E. (2023). Differentiated integration in the European Union: Institutional effects, public opinion, and alternative flexibility arrangements. European Union Politics, 24(1), 3-20. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165221119083
Schmitter, P. C. (1970). A revised theory of regional integration. International Organization, 24(4), pp. 836-868. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818300007552
Simonian, H. (1985). The Privileged Partnership: Franco–German Relations in the European Community 1969–1984. Clarendon Press.
Thym, D. (2017). Competing Models of Understanding Differentiated Integration. En De Witte, B. et al. (coords), Between Flexibility and Disintegration: The Trajectory of Differentiation in EU Law (9-27). Elgar Publishing.
Urrea Corres, M. (2008). Mecanismos de integración y (des)integración diferenciada en la Unión Europea a la luz del Tratado de Lisboa. Cuadernos Europeos de Deusto, 39, pp. 169-190. https://revistas.deusto.es/index.php/dt
Vollaard, H. (2014). Explaining European Disintegration. Journal of Common Market Studies, 52(5), pp. 1142-1159. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12110
Vollaard, H. (2018). European Disintegration. A Search for Explanations. Palgrave Mcmillan.
Wellings, B. (2022). Nationalism and European disintegration. Nations and Nationalism, 29(4), pp. 1164-1178. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12884
Zubok, V. M. (2021). Collapse: The fall of the Soviet Union. Yale University Press.
Downloads
Published
-
Abstract4
-
PDF 5
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 EUNOMÍA. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
Eunomía. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad is a duly registered journal, with EISSN 2253-6655.
The articles published in Eunomía are –unless indicated otherwise– under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Spain license. You can copy, distribute and communicate them publicly as long as you cite their author and the journal and institution that publishes them and do not make derivative works with them. The full license can be consulted at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/es/deed.es