On the Way to a Post-Functionalist Theory of European Integration

No one inspired by the ‘neo-functionalist’ approach to regional integration (such as myself) should feel threatened by a ‘post-functionalist’ replacement for it. Unlike its long-term rival, ‘intergovernmentalism’, this way of conceptualizing what has been happening in Europe since the 1950s has always presumed that the process of regional integration would be transformative in the sense that, if and when it progressed, it would change the nature of the actors involved in it. Their identity, motives and mechanisms would shift and, correspondingly, so should the concepts and assumptions of those attempting to explain its trajectory and probable outcome.