‘Differentiation and the European Central Bank’: a bulwark against (differentiated) disintegration?
- Editor(s):
- Leruth, B.; Gänzle, S.; Trondal, J.
Abstract
As the guardian of the euro, the European Central Bank (ECB) manages what has long been considered the prime example of differentiated integration (Verhelst 2013; Schimmelfennig 2014). Originally known by other names, such as ‘variable geometry’ or ‘two-speed Europe’, differentiation arose when the Maastricht Treaty established Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with two member states (Denmark and the United Kingdom) receiving formal opt-outs (Thygesen 1999). Importantly, their autonomous decisions not to join the single cur-rency did not reflect a lack of capacity to meet requirements for joining. Rather this choice reflected deep-seated concerns among political elites and electorates about losing sovereignty in an area of core state powers. The 1992 and 2000 referendums in Denmark and the 2003 refer-endum in Sweden offer the clearest examples of this dynamic (Leuffen et al. 2013: 149).
The ECB has overseen both a significant widening and deepening of integration in its domain during the two decades since its birth. While it was confronted with the threat of disintegration in the context of the euro area crisis, it has played its part in successfully averting the scenario of one (or more) member states leaving the euro area (Spiegel 2014; Schoeller 2018). At the height of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, there was widespread concern that the departure of one member of the euro area could lead to a domino effect – thereby calling into question the long-term viability of the single currency itself (Chibber 2011; Kutter 2014). From a neofunctionalist per-spective, one may argue that a supranational institution, such as the ECB, would seek to advance European integration as a supranational solution to transnational problems. The euro crisis offered a window of opportunity for pursuing this goal as the neofunctionalist logic suggests (Haas 1958; Schimmelfennig 2012; Hodson 2013; Niemann and Ioannou 2015).
