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Current challenges: 'absorption capacity' and 'enhanced cooperation

3 important questions on Current challenges: 'absorption capacity' and 'enhanced cooperation

There are two current challenges in how the Council system works that what?

That create institutional uncertainty and could have future unintended consequences.

What is the first issue?

Enlargement and the ever-expanding size of the Council's negotiating table. An EU of 28 places strain on the Council's decision-making structures - originally built for 6 members - by increasing 'transaction costs', which will likely slow the pace of output of new legislation.
Enlargement also increases the workload on Coreper and the expert groups, which hold greater responsibility for discussing substantive issues and finding agreements at their levels.

What is the second current challenge?

The second current challenge is known as variable geometry: how will the Council change as the EU becomes more polycentric and differentiated? Variable geometry is an image of the European Union that foresees the breakdown of a unified form of cooperation, and the introduction of a 'pick and choose' approach to further integration.