European Law Commons^™

Closer Or Enhanced Cooperation: Amsterdam Or Nice, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Murphy discusses the concepts of closer cooperation and flexibility, which are fairly recent additions to European law and policy. These notions essentially refer to the policies and procedures within the Union whereby some member states undertake certain obligations, or participate with some other member states in certain agreed upon activities, while other member states do not participate, or participate on a different scale or on a different timetable. Explicit reference to the concept of "closer cooperation" in the European Union's constitutive documents, or authorization of it, is recent. Provisions regarding "closer cooperation" appear for the first time in the …