Positive economics

International economics

Value (mathematics)

Feature integration theory

Machine learning

Political economy

Political science

Cognitive psychology

Leverage (statistics)

European integration

Psychology

Economics

Relation (database)

Intergovernmentalism

Brexit

European union

Computer science

Database

Journal of European Public Policy

Previous studies have applied theories of European integration to interpret crisis-led policymaking processes and integration outcomes in the EU. However, there has been little attempt to appraise the analytical leverage offered by major integration theories as a function of different crisis pressures. We theorize that diverse combinations of crisis pressures generate four decision-making scenarios in the EU, each of which can be ascribed to different combinations of analytical insights from neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, postfunctionalism, and federalism. We illustrate the value of our framework in relation to four EU crises concerning the euro area, refugees, Brexit and Covid-19. Overall, the paper makes a theoretical contribution to advance the debate on crisis-led integration in the EU.

Crisis pressures and European integration