Leaders and Followers: Leadership amongst Member States in a Differentiated Europe

The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First, it will demonstrate how the emergence of a differentiated Europe raised the specter of a Europe of leaders and followers, centered around the possibility that a core group of states would race ahead, pulling the rest behind so as not to risk being marginalized. The first section of the paper will explore how the various forms of differentiation – multi-speed, variable geometry or a la carte Europe – have different consequences for the question of leadership. Second, it wants to explore to what extent it is possible to speak of leaders and followers within the European Union. A political and institutional architecture designed consciously and conspicuously to prevent the concentration of power would seem ill-suited to a discussion of differentiation between leaders and followers amongst member states. Drawing from arguments about “heroic” and “humdrum” leadership and those dealing with policy leaders and laggards, the chapter will illustrate that the EU combines different types of leaders and followers for different tasks, with the possible consequence that leadership is amorphous and fluid.