Dynamism, homogeneity and Byzantine structures : a reassessment of integration in the EEA

Abstract

This chapter provides a reflection on the author’s analysis of the EEA published in 1994, its aim to create a ‘dynamic and homogeneous’ EEA, and the ‘Byzantine structures’ that this aim, when faced with the need to comply with the principle of autonomy, entailed. It revisits the problems identified then, and subsequent legal developments, asking how the key concepts of homogeneity and dynamism have evolved over three decades. It is in the context of deeply integrated relationships such as the EEA that autonomy plays a role in determining the limits to integration and renders a highly complex institutional structure inevitable. Homogeneity, in the context of the EEA, has developed a specific orientation, centred on equality of rights operating within the EEA legal space. The chapter argues that the dynamic aspect of the EEA is best understood in the context of its integration-based character. The EU’s integration-based agreements are anchored in a wider context of cooperation and are conceived as long-term projects capable of evolution. The EEA has shown itself capable of such development, even without formal changes to the EEA Agreement itself. At the same time, the EEA also demonstrates the challenges faced by the EU and its neighbourhood partners in attempting to achieve such close (and evolving) integration while safeguarding autonomy and sovereignty.