Question

Equitable global discriminationrds of wealth

Answer 1

What is the effect of European Union (EU) enlargement on differentiated integration? And is it driven by the relative bargaining power of old and new member states or by the equal or even preferential treatment of weaker candidates? This article analyses differentiation in EU treaty and secondary law across the EU's six enlargement rounds. It shows that exemptive differentiation privileging the new member states has been more frequent than discriminatory differentiation. Whereas there is some evidence that poorer new members suffer more strongly from discrimination, most of the variation in differentiation across new member states is explained by differences between enlargement rounds. In addition, the EU grants poorer candidates more time to fully adopt the EU acquis. The analysis suggests that bargaining between old and new member states over differentiation is constrained by the equal and even preferential treatment of weaker candidates.