The European Union's Crisis: Some Lessons Related to a Recovery

Abstract

Abstract One year after French and Dutch voters voted no in referendums held in France and the Netherlands, rendering the political and institutional future of the European Union (EU) difficult to discern, the time has come for EU leaders to formulate a strategy that reflects the lessons learned from the rejection of the “European Constitutional Treaty.” The context reveals a triple crisis. Each calls for a specific means of action cast in a specific style: (1) The legitimacy crisis calls for a democratization of the procedures and the decision-making process of the EU; (2) the socioeconomic crisis calls for the dissemination of a pedagogical work that identifies the benefits of the internal market and offers a justification for its deepening; (3) the geopolitical crisis calls for a public debate to be held on the limits of the Union as well as a statement to be issued clarifying the objectives that the European Union wishes to achieve on the world stage.