Europe Between Integration and Disintegration: A Return of the Federal Model?

Although the failure to ratify the Constitutional Treaty seemed to have marked the end of the federal idea, this has reappeared in the debates about how to tackle the debt crisis that is shaking the European Union. Numerous observers have pointed out that Europe has always been constructed in the midst of crises and that, when faced with malfunctions, European leaders have always chosen to move closer towards integration. On the other hand, however, scenarios picturing the collapse of the Union have never been so widespread. Reactions to this European existential crisis and the measures taken to try to arrest it can be analysed in the light of the federal model which has undergone a spectacular resurgence. In the past, the academic literature on European federalism has often had a markedly prescriptive and normative dimension implying a linear process towards an ‘ever closer Union’. The federal model can however be understood in terms of a multiplicity of meanings. As a model for the territorial distribution of power, as a socio-economic doctrine defining the scope of State intervention, as a political vision, as an ethical project underpinned by a set of values, etc. The purpose of this section is to invite the political science community to consider, from an analytical perspective, whether we can discern, in scenarios offering a way out of the crisis, a type of European federalism in the making, or whether, on the contrary, the prospect of federalism seems more distant than ever. This will require to examine various aspects related to federalism as well as to articulate them with other theories of European integration.