Introduction

Abstract

The European project has always been a contested one and may even be considered to be a polity in a quasi-permanent crisis. Indeed, European integration has faced, almost from the start, various crises: from De Gaulle’s empty chair, to the recurring tensions over the budget and Margaret Thatcher’s opposition to a political Union, to the constitutional crisis. Today, the EU again faces multiple challenges. It is still struggling with the economic and social consequences of the 2008 financial crisis, and economic governance remains a controversial issue. The migration crisis provoked various conflicts between the Member states and the Commission. The European Union’s (EU’s) scope of intervention and its legitimacy is increasingly called into question, and Brexit has triggered new existential debates on the purposes and forms of European integration. In some countries, the values underpinning the integration process, and more generally liberal democracy, are increasingly threatened. And following the results of the 2019 European elections, acknowledging the problems related to the functioning of supranational institutions and the citizens’ distancing from the European project, the European Parliament, supporting the Commission President’s proposal, called on Member states to launch a Conference on the Future of Europe by 2020. Finally, in the first semester of 2020, the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) not only posed serious challenges to the public health sectors of Member states but also uncertainties related to the pandemic might trigger deeper socio-economic impact in the EU in the medium term. This succession of crises, each different but all shaking the European project, is a unique opportunity to think about what crises are and what they mean for the European integration.