The scholars of the Jean Monnet Network BRIDGE (Brexit Research and Interchange on Differentiated Governance in Europe) have just released a major joint publication, “Differentiated Governance in a Europe in Crises.” It is a Special Section of the journal European Papers, edited by the leadership team (Stefania Baroncelli, Ian Cooper, Federico Fabbrini, Helle Krunke, and Renáta Uitz) representing the four institutions that made up the Jean Monnet Network BRIDGE (DCU Brexit Institute, University of Copenhagen, Central European University and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano). It offers an overview of the outcome of this transnational research dialogue. It comprises seven original peer-reviewed open-access articles examining differentiated governance in economic and banking affairs after the euro-crisis, in the area of freedom, security and justice after the migration crisis and rule of law crisis, and in the space of interstate cooperation after Brexit.

The Special Section explores how the governance of the European Union has been significantly altered by the multiple crises – of the euro, migration, rule of law, Brexit, and Covid-19 – that it has endured over the last decade. This has often led to increased differentiation in which the authority of structures of governance varies across different regions and territories within and around the EU. The authors use the term “differentiated governance” to emphasize the extent to which there is differentiation not only in the application of rules but in the authority of new structures of governance – institutions, procedures, mechanisms, agencies – within and outside the EU, some of which are outside the EU’s legal framework.