Fading EUphoria at the Dutch‐German Border? The Case of Avantis

Abstract

AbstractThe paper deals with the failure of the Avantis cross‐border business estate. The inception of this hitherto largely undeveloped site took place in the early 1990s, a period which we suggest characterising with the notion of EUphoria, that is, a widely held belief in the future of a borderless Europe. EUphoria is seen as the key to bringing together otherwise separate discourses under one shared ambition of constructing a cross‐border business estate. With the fading of EUphoria, however, Avantis resurfaces as a shared problem and appears to have been built on expectations and promises held within a discourse of European integration rather than among private investors. In retrospect, Avantis as a product of EUphoria remains a EUtopia, albeit with very few believers.