Value conflicts and the EU in crisis – an introduction

Abstract

Calls on safeguarding “European values” have multiplied over the past decade in EU politics. Values have been mobilised as a discursive repertoire to justify European public action across policy sectors, to face external threats and competition, to secure the loyalty of citizens, but also to wage conflicts. We propose to investigate this tendency as that of “value politics”, a transversal repertoire (or style) used to frame policy goals and preferences, to (de)legitimise and (de)politicise issues, to mobilise public support, to conquer or conserve power. The introduction to the volume sets “value politics” in the context of the ways in which value conflicts have shaped EU’s policy since the 1950s. It then provides an overview of how the question of values has been reflected upon in recent scholarship on EU politics, stressing how the fresh salience of values has participated in a reappraisal of politics and of the conflictual aspect of policymaking at the EU level, while at the same time accompanying the legitimisation of a market-oriented integration.