Can ‘Differentiated Integration’ Lead to a Federationin Europe?

This article explores whether the phenomenon of ‘differentiated integration’ can accelerate the federalisation of the European Union. In particular, it analyses the crisis of the euro area (focused on the period 2010–2014). Did this crisis favour reforms which could turn the EU into a democratic federation? Could the trend towards differentiated integration (or the concept of the so-called ‘two-speed Europe’) facilitate the creation of a federation? Ordoes it feed political and systemic tendencies that run opposite to federalism?