Idea Of European Unity Research Articles

ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ СОЮЗ: ІСТОРІЯ СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТА ЙОГО ЗНАЧЕННЯ ДЛЯ УКРАЇНИ

ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ СОЮЗ: ІСТОРІЯ СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТА ЙОГО ЗНАЧЕННЯ ДЛЯ УКРАЇНИ

Soft Power – Diplomacy and Identiy

This paper aims to describe the relationship between diplomacy andidentity. Can we still talk about soft power in the terms of Joseph Nye?Does Europe use soft power? And if so, does it use it regarding the termof ‘collective identity’? Starting from the article of Anthony D. Smith,National identity and the idea of European unity, can we talk about collectivecultural identity? Europe is a continent that knows and accepts lots ofdifferent cultures but does it aim, in terms of definition, to have a single„European culture”? There are lots of questions raised by this article.If the members of UE are searching to have a collective identity, howare the member states reacting to this idea? Eventually, every singlecountry is not going to give up the national culture and what is definingeach other. There is a common destiny that combines continuity andmemory. We can find this at every social level and also regarding thenational diplomacy. Attracting the UE members into having a Europeanculture, and doing this in terms of soft power, can this really work forthe UE? The European identity, as well as the national identity, it is nota natural one but a social one. It is a social construct seen as the resultof historical conditions and cultural relations.

Characteristics of French foreign policy in the beginning of the XIX century and the idea of European unity

Characteristics of French foreign policy in the beginning of the XIX century and the idea of European unity

The Popes and the Idea of European Unity

While Pius XII was almost existentially bound up with European thought and with the defence against anti-Christian ideologies, his two successors initiated a tentative of opening of the “Western European citadel” towards a dialogue with the outer world. John Paul II relaunched a new evangelisation instead of compromises with secularism and Marxism, but maintained a fundamental European optimism, whereas Benedict XVI did not hesitate to admit that the European culture, transformed into a laicist utopia which substitutes God by the obstinate self-will of man, could disappear, too.

Jedność europejska: wizje i sposoby urzeczywistniania integracji

The idea of European unity is a political challenge that has been addressed in various forms since the states started forming in the vicinities of the Rhine, Danube and Elbe. In the course of history European integration has evolved to face the challenges of a) merging, crossing and diffusion of cultural patterns represented by different local, regional and supra-regional communities; b) the submission or conquests of regions by empires and imposing defined patterns of cultural life on them; c) the reinforcement of the continental identity vis à vis other civilizations, in particular Asiatic ones; d) the guarantee of safety for states and nations as well as the promotion of the ideas of liberty, the rule of law, self-governance and democracy. In creating the spiritual unity of Europe, the repertoire of values developed by the cultural life of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as Judeo-Christian communities, is commonly referred to. European identity is characterized by a division into cultural and political identification. The idea of European unity is both an intellectual, and a theoretical-doctrinal concept, oriented at the broadest range of cultural and civilizational integration of the continent, as well as a concrete political and economic undertaking. At present, particular significance is attached to the attitude of public opinion when implementing it. The Union’s integration is an aspect of numerous implementation projects which depends on the support and legitimization of public opinion.

Ugland, T. 2011, Jean Monnet and Canada: early travels and the idea of European unity. Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press.

What does the European polity of twenty-eight member states owe to an eighteen-year-old Frenchman’s journey across Canada in 1907? This question preoccupies Trygve Ugland in his 2011 study Jean Monnet and Canada: early travels and the idea of European unity. Ugland presupposes there would hardly be a European Union to speak of if it weren’t for Jean Monnet; and he wonders whether there would be a Jean Monnet worth talking about if it weren’t for Monnet’s formative experiences in Canada as a salesman for his father’s cognac firm. [...]

The Citizenship Paradigm

To redeem the Union in Europe, which is hijacked by the substitution of the grand promise of peace and better life for all – the idea of European unity – with the internal market ideology, which meant to serve as a means of integration, rather than an end in itself, this paper suggests to deploy the concept of European citizenship as a means of integration alongside the internal market, proposing the citizenship paradigm of European integration to inform the Union’s future. This proposal based on a combination of the initial promise of European unity and the potential of EU citizenship is not purely utopian and is directly rooted in the primary law as well as in the very purpose of the integration project.

Programmes d'tudes europeennes dans l'enseignement universitaire en Europe (European Studies Curricula on the Universities from Europe)

The education is one of the most important sectors in every country in the world. In the framework of higher education, the courses about European Union take more and more importance. This paper put the accent on the transmission of the idea of European unity in the European universities. It also tries to establish the position of European studies in the curricula.

Jean Monnet and Canada: Early Travels and the Idea of European Unity, Trygve Ugland, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011, pp. xviii, 128.

Jean Monnet and Canada: Early Travels and the Idea of European Unity, Trygve Ugland, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011, pp. xviii, 128.

European Citizenship in the Making: From Passive to Active Citizens

European Citizenship in the Making:From Passive to Active Citizens Marisol García (bio) and Michiel Tegelaars (bio) Introduction Many years after the start of the process of European integration the question of citizenship in the European Union, as different from national citizenship, has become an issue. After having been bracketed out for almost forty years, the political has returned in force. The idea of European unity as the guarantor of peace and justice has been for centuries the counterpoint to European division, balance of power politics and frequent warfare. After the last and biggest war of them all the founding fathers of the latest attempt at European integration steered clear of earlier utopian objectives and adopted a top-down, incremental approach (Monnet's "little steps"), a limitation to functional and sectoral issues, and a strong voice for the individual Member States involved in the process. By giving Member States veto power over community decisions, a strong countervailing power was set against the initiative of the supranational institutions. This tension has remained a basic given to this day. From its earliest days the European Union has had its share of visionaries who sought to strengthen the reach and authority of the supranational institutions. Their strivings were tenaciously kept in check by Member States intent on giving up as little power as possible. Nevertheless, a slow but steady transfer of competencies has taken place from the Member States to the European institutions as more and more policies needed to be accorded at the higher level, and this has increased the urgency to make the institutions accountable to citizens. Within the framework of the wider international situation the initial approach has worked wonderfully well: fifty years of internal peace and growing economic wellbeing all around. Of course, economic decisions on a continent-wide scale have political consequences not least because of their redistributive effects. No amount of technocratic justification can hide the fact that some groups have come out far ahead of others. Certainly one cause of the European "democratic deficit" is the sharply skewed interest representation at the European level (Schmitter, 2000, p. 44) through the lobbying that goes on in Brussels. Despite early awareness of the need for more citizen involvement, (cf. the 1975 Tindemans Report), decision making on European issues remained fairly opaque. The political will to bring the citizen into the legal framework manifested itself in the preparation debates for the Maastricht Treaty, which introduced for the first time the idea of a political union. The legitimacy question became really urgent when the Danish citizens voted NO in the referendum to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. We argue here that although a formalization of the citizen of the Union has been introduced there is a historical tension between the Member States and the European institutions concerning decision-making powers. That this tension has limited the practice of European citizenship, but also that by introducing the principle an arena has opened up for creative action from the citizens themselves. European Citizenship: the Formalization of the Principle European citizenship as a principle was formally introduced in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. The Treaty was engineered behind closed doors, but needed legitimacy from citizens. The establishment of an internal market based on the elimination of economic barriers between European Member States required not only free movement of goods, but also free movement of people. All citizens moving from one Member State to another were losing political rights and thus the need arose to introduce corrective measures to protect these rights in the country of residence. An added reason was first advanced in 1975, when the concept of "Europe of citizens" made its appearance. It was argued then that the birth of a European "consciousness" needed concrete measures and reassuring signals.1 However, the original method of bringing together policy-makers, leading politicians and sectoral interests within shared institutions, and a common framework of law did not include the voice of the majority of citizens. On the contrary the approach was patrician and technocratic (Wallace, 1993, 95). Only in 1979 could the citizens of the nation states that constituted the European Community elect representatives for a European assembly. However, this assembly...

The Encounter with Languages in the Elementary School and Intercultural Education

"European listeners! I address my words to you as one of your own; as a German, who has always considered himself a European, who knows your countries and their cultures, and who has always believed most profoundly that the economic and political conditions in Europe are obsolete and part of the past. This division, through arbitrary borders of states and sovereignties, caused the ruin of our continent. For myself and everyone who shares my views the idea of European unity is a dear and a costly one; it represents something quite natural for our thinking and our will. It was the opposite to provincial narrowness, petty egoism, nationalist brutality, and nationalist arrogance; it means freedom, a breadth of views, spirit, and the good."1

National identity and the idea of European unity

Since the project of European integration began, at issue has always been whether a European political identity could develop to underpin political unification. Is a genuine European identity possible? Anthony Smith takes up the question from the standpoint of his work on nationalism. Why is it that we are witnessing a revival of nationalism even as the globalizing trends of post-industrial society become clearer? Established cultures are essentially antithetical to the development of a cosmopolitan culture, he writes, which poses problems for a European identity. If this is to do more than coexist weakly alongside national and subnational identities, it may come at a dangerous price only if Europe defines itself exclusively against other world actors.

The Cities of Avignon and Worms as Expressions of the European Community

At the end of 1978, the German art critic Walter Frentz, introducing a film and public lecture in the city of Worms, postulated that Europeans could breathe new life into the idea of European unity by devoting greater care and attention to the shape and form of European cities. The theme of his remarks that night specifically encouraged the preservation of historic urban cores, but more striking was his general concept linking the development of the European Community with the treatment of the European city. As a growing literature on architectural symbolism and urban imagery suggests, cities take the shapes that are expressions of a total society, reflecting the spectrum of their political, economic and cultural life. As Europeans rebuilt and developed their cities in the period after World War II, they also charted the course of their unification.