Differentiation and the law of the European Community : of the community about the union to the 1996 Intergouvernemental Conference and further.

Ten European Union is becomming a legally more diversified organisation. The treaty on European Union with its pillar-structure, its derogations in favour of the UK and Denmark, and its incomplete social chapter were but the first signs. It is further proven by the highly sophisticated and complex legal scenarios which are propounded with respect to the prospect of further enlargement towards Central and Eastern Europe. Finally, the issue of differentation is increasingle dominating the discourse on the intergovernmental conference which is to start on 29 March 1996 (Turin). Notions such as a multi speed Europe, a variable geometry Europe, a Europe à la carte, "opt outs" and "opt ins" are indeed increasingly taking hold of the Euro-vernacular. Even a cursory glance at their respective content - which as yet remains to be clarified - suffices in order to understand that they defy our traditional understanding of the process of integration which has largely been based on the trinity of unity, uniformity and cohesion. They prove that the time has come to abandon the idea that the EC/EU's legal development is comprised of, at the most, small deviations from a straight line directed towards an integrationist outcome. The research project sets out to analyse the implications of the existing and envisaged types of differentation in primary and secondary law on the EC/EU's legal foundations, as laid down in the case-law of the European Court of Justice and as expressed in the development of common policies.