EUtopia? The European Union and the Parlamentarium in Brussels

Abstract

This paper explores the European Parliament's new visitors' centre in Brussels, the Parlamentarium. It examines how the Parlamentarium and its displays might be related to various conceptions of European Union (EU) territoriality, mediating between an ‘informational’ conception of the EU and one that is grounded in a more traditional idea of place. The paper argues that the Parlamentarium seeks to make sense of the multi-centred, multi-scaled spatial organisation that characterises the EU and that, by promoting the notion of an extensive European cityspace, it attempts to create for the EU a compelling visual and spatial imaginary. In some senses, the Parlamentarium might be seen to take on the functions of the capital city that the EU lacks. The paper also explores a number of contradictions and points of tension within the Parlamentarium, noting that it seems to be a constitutional centre without a constitution, and a place in which meaning appears to be fragmentary and fleeting. Examining the ‘televisual’ aspect of many of the displays, the paper argues that the exhibition both promotes the European ideal of unity in diversity and, simultaneously, casts doubt upon it. The Parlamentarium seeks to act as an agent for the creation of European subjectivity. Whether the type of postmodern imagery that it deploys is sufficient for this task remains open to question.