Outcomes of Crises of European Integration

This chapter first defines major, constitutional crises of European integration. “Crises of integration” go at the heart of what the EU is about or supposed to be about, according to its primary treaty law and respective political declarations. They therefore affect key features, principles, and objectives of European integration and the EU’s polity. This conceptualization allows to establish the book’s universe of cases and to select eight major crises for closer examination. The chapter then operationalizes four crisis outcome categories (transformation, adaptation, stagnation, regression). These categories are derived from a careful review of the international relations, comparative politics, and public policy literature on crises and crisis management. While mutually exclusive, together the outcome categories are exhaustive for every crisis under examination.