Editing Multi-speed Europe (section)

==Reasons and actuality of the concept ==

The concept entered political discourse when, after the end of the Cold War, an eastward enlargement of the European Union began to materialise and the question arose how "widening" could be made compatible with "deepening",<ref>Marcin Zaborowski: Germany and EU Enlargement: From Rapprochement to "Reaproachment"? In: Helene Sjursen (Ed.), [https://web.archive.org/web/20060514063013/http://www.uned.es/dcpa/invest/cidel/documents/ARENA_Report22005_text.pdf ''Enlargement in perspective''], ARENA Report February 2005, p. 46.</ref> i.e., how the imminent enlargement process could be prevented from diluting the idea of an "ever closer union among the peoples of Europe", as the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community of 1957 had put it. In 1994 – still at a time of the [[EU12]] – the German [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany|Christian Democrats]] [[Wolfgang Schäuble]] and [[:de:Karl Lamers|Karl Lamers]] published a document<ref>Karl Lamers / Wolfgang Schäuble: [https://web.archive.org/web/20160318173446/https://www.cducsu.de/upload/schaeublelamers94.pdf Überlegungen zur europäischen Politik] (Reflections on European Policy). See also Gilles Andréani: [https://web.archive.org/web/20060925212346/http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/e335_federalism.pdf What future for federalism?], Centre for European Reform Essays, September 2002, {{ISBN|1-901229-33-5}}, p. 7-8.</ref> in which they called for a ''[[Continental Europe|Kerneuropa]]'' (= core Europe). This idea envisaged that "core Europe" would have a "centripetal effect", a magnetic attraction for the rest of Europe. A precursor to that concept had been a proposal by two advisors to German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]], [[Michael Mertes]] and Norbert J. Prill, published as early as July 1989. Mertes and Prill called for a '''concentric circles Europe''', built around a federal core consisting of the [[Inner Six]] (EU6) and like-minded EU member states.<ref>Michael Mertes / Norbert J. Prill: Der verhängnisvolle Irrtum eines Entweder-Oder. Eine Vision für Europa, [[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]] 19 July 1989.</ref> In 1994 they partly revoked their original idea, arguing that the post-Cold War EU would rather look like a "Europe of Olympic rings" than a "Europe of concentric circles".<ref>Michael Mertes / Norbert J. Prill: Es wächst zusammen, was zusammengehören will. "Maastricht Zwei" muss die Europäische Union flexibel machen, [[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]] 9 December 1994, p. 11.</ref>

The '''multi-speed Europe''' concept has been debated for years in European political circles, as a way to solve some institutional issues. The concept is that the more members there are in the Union, the more difficult it becomes to reach consensus on various topics, and the less likely it is that all would advance at the same pace in various fields.
[[Image:Inner Six and Outer Seven.svg|thumb|300px|The [[Inner Six]] alongside the Outer Seven from 1960 to 1972{{legend|#039|Inner Six ([[EEC]])}}{{legend|#393|Outer Seven ([[EFTA]])}}]]
Intermediate forms could be limited to some areas of close cooperation, as some historical examples are given below. It is also possible now for a minimum of nine EU member states to use [[enhanced co-operation]], but this new framework has been used only once. A second proposal, a unified European patent, is nearing completion [as of December 2010] with only two countries (Italy and Spain) not participating.<ref>[http://www.out-law.com/page-11672 "Countries press ahead with limited single EU patent plan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230090500/http://www.out-law.com/page-11672 |date=30 December 2010 }}, ''out-law.com'', 17 December 2010.</ref>

The idea of a multi-speed Europe has been revived because of the following initiatives:
* the [[eurozone]], with 20 member states and two more in [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism|ERM II]] ([[Bulgaria]] and [[Denmark]]). Every [[Member state of the European Union|EU member]] except Denmark has agreed by treaty to join, but [[Enlargement of the eurozone#Future enlargements|many currently have no plans to do so]].
* the [[Schengen Area]], with 29 member states, 25 EU members and four non-EU members ([[Iceland]], [[Liechtenstein]], [[Norway]], and [[Switzerland]]). It excludes two EU members: [[Cyprus]], which is legally obligated to join in the future, and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], which has an [[Opt-outs in the European Union|opt-out]] from participating.
* other initiatives limited to some states, such as the [[European Defence Initiative|European Defence initiative]] and [[Prüm Convention]].

Furthermore, important events were:
* the enlargement of the [[European Union]] to 28 member-states and in the forthcoming years other candidates ([[Albania]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], [[Kosovo]], [[Moldova]], [[Montenegro]], [[North Macedonia]], [[Serbia]], [[Turkey]], [[Ukraine]]) where new members initially don't join the Schengen area and the Eurozone for some time.
* the [[Convention on the Future of Europe|European Convention]] that led to the [[European Constitution]] that was signed in 2004 by the 25 Heads of State, but was not ratified by all national parliaments or assemblies and so failed. Later most of its provisions were adopted through the [[Treaty of Lisbon]] that included additional [[Opt-outs in the European Union|opt-outs]] for some states.
* differences of view between EU members on some foreign diplomatic and military issues. In a 2004 article ''[[The Economist]]'' compared the variances of Europe to a lake that has many deep parts (areas in which countries are similar) and many shallow parts (areas in which countries have major differences).<ref>[http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8629365 'Coalitions for the willing'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206162947/http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8629365 |date=6 February 2007 }}, ''The Economist'', 1 February 2007.</ref>
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Currently in the EU there are the following cases of non-uniform application of the [[European Union law]]:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
| permanent deviations{{efn|In addition to the permanent deviations there are temporary transition periods for the application of certain EU law provisions in some member states, but these have an already set dates for lapsing.}}
| request by states to cooperate more than EU<br><small>(post-[[Enlargement of the European Union|accession]]: request to participate at EU level instead of less)</small>
| request by states to cooperate less than general EU level
|-
| allowed by the EU
| '''[[Enhanced co-operation]]'''
| '''[[Opt-outs in the European Union]]'''<br>Minor [[European Union law|EU law]] derogations or exemptions<br>[[Special Member State territories and the European Union#Summary|special territories status]]
|-
| not allowed by the EU
| '''[[Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification]]'''<br>'''[[Eurozone]]/[[Schengen area|Schengen]] suspensions'''<br><small>(post accession: benchmarks for adoption of EU level)</small>
| 
|-
|}
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