European Variations as a Key to Cooperation

This Open Access book offers a novel view on the benefits of a lasting variation between the member states in the EU. In order to bring together thirty very different European states and their citizens, the EU will have to offer more scope for variation. Unlike the existing differentiation by means of opt-outs and deviations, variation is not a concession intended to resolve impasses in negotiations; it is, rather, a different structuring principle. It takes differences in needs and in democratically supported convictions seriously. A common core remains necessary, specifically concerning the basic principles of democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms, and the common market. By taking this approach, the authors remove the pressure to embrace uniformity from the debate about the EU’s future. The book discusses forms of variation that fall both within and outside the current framework of European Union Treaties. The scope for these variations is mapped out in three domains: the internal market; the euro; and asylum, migration and border control.

Ernst Hirsch Ballin is Distinguished University Professor at Tilburg University and, as Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Amsterdam, President of the Asser Institute for International and European Law in The Hague. In 2005, he was elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Professor Hirsch Ballin studied Law at the University of Amsterdam and was awarded his doctorate with ‘cum laude’ honours in 1979 with a thesis on public law and policy (Publiekrecht en beleid). He has worked at the Law faculty at Tilburg University since 1 July 1981, with interruptions during periods when he held political offices.

Ernst Hirsch Ballin was the Minister of Justice from 2006-2010 (with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende) and 1989-1994 (with Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers). From 1989-1994 he was also Minister for Netherlands Antilles and Aruban Affairs and from February-October 2010 Minister for the Interior.

 Hirsch Ballin was a member of the Lower House of Parliament from 1994 to 1995, and sat in the Upper House from 1995 to 2000. From 1999 to 2000 he was a member of the Convention charged with drawing up the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. He was subsequently appointed to the Dutch Council of State (2000-2006), becoming chairman of the Administrative Jurisdiction Division in 2003. 

Huub Dijstelbloem

Huub Dijstelbloem is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Politics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Senior Researcher and Project Leader at the Scientific Council for Government Policy in The Hague (WRR). He studied Philosophy (MA) and Science Dynamics (MSc) at the UvA and in Paris at the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation (CSI) of the Ecole des Mines. He completed his PhD at the UvA at the Department of Philosophy. Huub is involved in public debates about science, technology and democracy and is one of the initiators of Science in Transition and co-founder of the Center for Public Imagination . His current research is concerned with security policies and migration issues and focuses on the ‘politics of visualization’ and ‘surveillance and counter-surveillance at the Southern borders of Europe and the United States’.His recent books and co-edited volumes include Het huis van Argus. De waakzame blik in de democratie (Boom, 2016), Bestemming gewijzigd. Moderniteit en stedelijke transformaties (2013), Migration and the New Technological Borders of Europe (Palgrave, 2011), Onzekerheid troef. Het betwiste gezag van de wetenschap (Van Gennep, 2011), Het gezicht van de publieke zaak. Openbaar bestuur onder ogen (Amsterdam University Press, 2010), De Migratiemachine (Van Gennep, 2009) Rethinking the Human Condition. Exploring Human Enhancement (Rathenau, 2008) and Politiek vernieuwen. Op zoek naar publiek in de technologische samenleving (Van Gennep, 2008).

Mathieu Segers

Mathieu is a professor of Contemporary European History and European Integration at Maastricht University and Dean of University College Maastricht. From 2008 - 2016 he was a Senior Lecturer in European Integration and International Relations in the Department of History and Art History in the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University (UU). A political scientist by training, he obtained his doctorate as a historian. His academic work is multidisciplinary and situated at the interface of the social sciences and humanities. He is columnist for the FD (Financieele Dagblad) newspaper and produces a weekly Europe column for Radio 1 Vandaag. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer in European Integration and International Relations, Utrecht University.