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The impact of crises on differentiation and integration in the EU: COVID-19 and Ukraine
Běhunčík, Radek ; Martinková, Viera (advisor) ; Jeřábek, Martin (referee)
The European Union has had to deal with an increasing number of crises over the past 15 years. The future of its integration is thus increasingly dependent on concrete crisis responses. At the same time, the increasing heterogeneity of its members makes it more difficult to find compromise solutions, and integration often takes a differentiated path. This paper has attempted to answer the question of what is the impact of crises on the integration and differentiation of the European Union. It did so through an explanatory two-case study of the most recent emergencies - the COVID-19 crisis and the high energy price crisis linked to the war in Ukraine. To find the answer, a congruence analysis of the Union's crisis responses was conducted based on the models of Riddervold et al. The supply and demand theory of differentiation then explained the absence or presence of differentiation. The central data source was the European secondary legislation, frequently neglected by integration theorists. The analysis results find the crises' effects to be pro-integration in the given cases, here primarily in a uniform pattern. However, in the case of COVID-19, the thesis reveals shortcomings of the crisis response models used, pointing to the need for their conceptual reformulation. For a more comprehensive understanding...
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