A Proposal for a Flexible Europe

At present, new EU-members have to fully accept the "acquis communautaire" even if their economic and institutional development differs drastically from the EU-average. In contrast, we propose that there should be the possibility of partial entry into the EU. East European Countries should have the option of specifically entering with respect to functions where they expect positive net benefits. In order to enable such partial entry, a new type of jurisdiction called FOCJ (Functional, Overlapping and Competing Jurisdiction) is proposed between the EU, the CEECs, and beyond. Such FOCJ allows for partial integration based on economic efficiency and democratic rules.