The MAXCAP Working Paper No. 21 “Eastern Enlargement and Differentiated Integration: Towards Normalization” by Frank Schimmelfennig and Thomas Winzen has been published. You can download the Working Paper here.

Enlargements of the European Union tend to increase differentiated integration. The actual development of differentiation of the 2004 and 2007 accession countries can, therefore, be seen as an indicator of the Union’s integration capacity. The authors map the differentiated integration of newcomers since accession, and also distinguish between exemptions and discrimination. Furthermore, they approximate a counterfactual scenario of how their level of differentiation might have developed in the absence of recent accession through a comparison to the Southern member states. Finally, the authors explore correlations between exemptions, discriminations, and two structural country characteristics – wealth and identity. Overall, the level, trajectory, and patterns of differentiation point towards a normalization of the new member states’ integration in the Union approximately eight years after accession.

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