Synthesis - Balancing Unity and Diversity in Composite Legislative Frameworks

This book brings together various areas of EU law and several national case studies to assess how unity and diversity are balanced in the design of EU legislation and, to some extent, at the national level when implementing such EU legislation. In this final chapter, the findings of the preceding chapters are gathered to draw some general conclusions. The first part of the chapter discusses the ambiguous role of the EU constitution. The principles of conferred powers, subsidiarity, and proportionality offer much flexibility to the lawmaker, but at the same time, the legislative practice demonstrates a greater impact of these principles than their flexibility may suggest. The second part of the chapter discusses the legislative strategies used to balance unity and diversity: minimum and maximum harmonization, partial and exhaustive harmonization, open norms, and proceduralization. The strategies’ characteristics and challenges are discussed, deriving some suggestions for the future. The book concludes by highlighting how legislation is a critical locus to analyse how the EU strikes the balance between unity and diversity, thus urging to go beyond the usual focus on the treaties to conduct more systematic research on EU legislative techniques.