Asymmetric Integration, Dynamics and Change in the European Union

The main purpose of this paper is to suggest a different interpretation, presenting an alternative model for the systematic examination of change in the European Union, by stressing the importance of asymmetry, which affects all dimensions of European integration. We will discuss how the dynamics of asymmetric relationships among the actors affect the integration process. In this peculiar European space, asymmetry takes on completely different characteristics from the asymmetry observed in the international context, changing the nature of both the integration and the intergovernmental model. European integration becomes the means, and the EU becomes the arena, within which the powerful MS dominate the less powerful through the dynamics of asymmetric relationships.