Introduction: balancing unity and diversity in EU legislation

Abstract

EU legislation has undergone profound changes in recent years. Existing scholarship has only limitedly addressed such transformation, which can be characterized as the EU legislative power reaching maturity. This has fundamentally changed both institutionally (the EU Parliament acquired prominence), substantially (the EU from a market regulator became a political legislator), and procedurally (with the introduction of impact assessment and better regulation policies). This transformation added a new layer of complexity to a persistent feature of EU legislation: the tension between EU unity and national autonomy. The core question of this volume is: How are unity and diversity accommodated, and balanced, in this new and transformed law-making process in the EU? It explores which legislative strategies have been adopted across various fields of EU law and policy to shape unity and diversity and the practical, conceptual and normative issues these bring along. With a distinguished set of academics from every corner of EU law that brings together insights from different areas and different Member States, this volume deepens our understanding of the current state of legislation in the EU, offers critical reflections and policy recommendations that will be relevant for audiences of scholars and practitioners alike.