CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

Dimitris Liakopoulos CYIL 12 (2021) Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (TSCG) 3 , of budgetary discipline and the coordination of economic policies. The common aim between European Union (EU) law and inter se agreements that are concluded within the scope of EU law already points to the difference between inter se agreements and national law. In contrast with national law, inter se agreements concluded between Member States normally aim to achieve closer integration and hence also pursue EU integration related objectives, inspired by a common purpose to the Union and its Member States. Thus we witnessed the overwhelming re-emergence of a phenomenon that on the one hand proposes the expansion of the competences of the Union, on the other the provision of instruments of differentiated integration within the Union’s system 4 that could be considered outdated. The tendency to abandon forms of external integration seemed moreover to have been confirmed both in the reconciliation within the legal system of both the Schengen agreements and the content of the Convention of Prüm 5 , and in the abolition of the rules of the conclusion of international agreements between Member States (Article 34 TEU 6 , art. 293 TCE 7 ). 2. The differentiated integration through agreements between Member States in recent practice One of the reasons that led to the conclusion of intergovernmental agreements in the evoked subjects was found in the absence of adequate instruments in Union law. This reconstruction appears plausible, at least in the case of the ESMT 8 , given the absence of legal bases allowing the adoption of financial assistance mechanisms on a permanent basis 9 , as held by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the T. Pringle case 10 . It might 3 DE WITTE, B., OTT, A., VOS, E. Between flexibility and disintegration: The trajectory of differentiation in European Union law , Edward Elgar Publishers, Cheltenham, 2017, pp. 246ss., ADAM, M., FABBRINI, F., LAROUCHE, P. The constitutionalization of European budgetary constraints , Hart Publishing, Oxford & Oregon, Portland, 2014, pp. 162ss., ZIMMERMANN, C.D. Contemporary concept of monetary sovereignty , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, pp. 166ss. 4 In fact, the predisposition of general mechanisms of differentiated integration within the treaties was interpreted as indicative of the “will to somehow bring back to the community order those pushes that had found in international conventions the instrument suitable to” unblock „situations paralyzed by the veto of some Member States. 5 BIGO, D., WALKER, R. B. J., Europe’s 21 st century challenge: Delivering liberty , ed. Routledge, London & New York, 2016, pp. 36ss. 6 DE SERA SARES, M. TUE Artigo 34 in: LOPES PORTO, M., ANASTÁCIO, M. G., (eds.), Tratado de Lisboa anodado e comentado , ed. Almedia, Lisbona, 2012. NEFRAMI, E. L’action extérieure de l’Union européenne: Fondements, moyens, principles , ed. LGDG, Paris, 2010. SCHWARZE, J., BECKER, V., HATJE, A., SCHOO, J. EU-Kommentar , ed.Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2019. KELLERBAUER,M., KLAMERT,M.,TOMKIN, J. Commentary on the European Union treaties and the Charter of fundamental rights , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019. BERRY, E., HOMEWOOD, M. J., BOGUSZ, B. Complete EU law: Text, cases and materials , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019. MANGAS MARTÍN, A. Tratado de la Unión Europea. Tratado de funcionamiento y otros acctos básicos de la Unión Europea , Editorial Tecnos, Madrid, 2019. 7 MANGAS MARTÍN, A. Tratado de la Unión Europea, Tratado de funcionamiento , ed. Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2018. 8 BORGER, V. The ESM and the European Court‘s predicament in Pringle, in German Law Journal , 14 (1), 2013, pp. 116ss. 9 Instead, it found its foundation in art. 122, par. 2 TFEU the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism (EFSM), the first instrument of financial assistance to euro area Member States introduced to cope with the debt crisis. The EFSM was established by Regulation (EU) no. 407/2010 of 11 May 2010 establishing a European financial stabilization mechanism, in OJ L 118 of 12 May 2010, 1. 10 CJEU, C-370/12, T. Pringle v. Government of Ireland and others of 27 November 2012, ECLI:EU:C:2013:756,

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