Vessela Hristova

The motto of the European Union, “Unity in Diversity”, reveals a fundamental tension at the heart of the European integration process. My project studies how and to what extent the EU has managed to resolve this tension between the opposing forces of uniformity and heterogeneity. In specific, it seeks to explain the variation in the availability and use of accommodating mechanisms – provisions that allow member states various degrees of flexibility and regulatory autonomy in fields otherwise subject to common European rules – over time and across several policy areas.