The Normativity of the European Union PDF
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The Normativity of the European Union DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0001 Also by Erik O. Eriksen RETHINKING DEMOCRACY AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (co-editor J. E. Fossum) THE UNFINISHED DEMOCRATIZATION OF EUROPE LAW, DEMOCRACY AND SOLIDARITY IN A POSTNATIONAL UNION (co-editors C. Joerges and F. Rödl) MAKING THE EUROPEAN POLITY DEVELOPING A CONSTITUTION FOR EUROPE (co-editors J. E. Fossum and A. J. Menéndez) DEMOCRACY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: Integration through Deliberation? (co-editor J. E. Fossum) DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0001 The Normativity of the European Union Erik O. Eriksen Professor of Political Science and Director, ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0001 © Erik O. Eriksen 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-39144-5 The author of this book has received financial support from the Norwegian Non-fiction Literature Fund. All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978-1-137-39145-2 PDF ISBN: 978-349-48299-3 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. www.palgrave.com/pivot doi: 10.1057/9781137391452 Contents Prologue vi Acknowledgements viii The Musts of European Integration Voluntary Supranationalism European Democracy Democratic Alternatives or Dead Ends? A Cosmopolitan European Future Fraternité – The Missing Must of Integration References Index DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0001 v Prologue The European integration process is unfinished and the European Union is an unsettled project. The lingering question is whether there is a third way between intergov- ernmentalism and supranational state-building. That there is such an alternative has become steadily more manifest and apparent since the early 1990s. This third way, a non- state polity, it should be noted, has deep historical roots in Europe. Since the French Revolution, states have not existed in isolation as bounded geographical totalities, but have interacted and, time and again, affected each other adversely, and grown in interdependence and reciprocity. This development is very much speeded up by the EU, whose institutions provide mechanisms for encouraging member states to consider the external effects of their decisions on others, and which has subjected states to supranational checks. From a cosmopolitan point of view there is a need for a multilevel system of rule in which supra-state authorities monitor the conduct of lower levels to ensure their compli- ance with rule of law, human rights and democracy. This poses the question whether the integration process will transform cosmopolitan citizenship into reality. The EU pursues a modern idea of government as divorced from nationhood: the polity is not destined by pre-political bounds or power relations. The European citizens are no longer solely members of a national state but of the EU and the international community. In this book I set out the idea that the normative founda- tion of the EU is connected to the changed parameters of vi doi: 10.1057/9781137391452.0002 Prologue vii power politics through which sovereignty has become conditional upon respecting democracy and human rights. The Community has ended up as a polity in its own right, and one with democracy as one of its con- stitutional principles. It has been brought about by the will and power of European actors, and will be there in the foreseeable future. How was such an integrationist move made possible, and what is the essence of its mission? In order to come to grips with the normativity of this project, I reconstruct the integration process from a distinct theoreti- cal perspective. The force of reasons in problem-solving and in conflict resolution in legally organised orders constitutes the core component of this approach. The book identifies the main reasons as imperatives – as normative musts – for European integration. By this I set out to clarify the EU’s underlying structure, which sheds light on its endurance – on what keeps it ticking in the midst of the crises, conflicts and disappoint- ments we witness every day. DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0002 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Matthias Lutz-Bachman at Goethe University Frankfurt, who in collaboration with Drs Andreas Niederberger and Philippe Schink initiated this book project. I am also grate- ful for the events they organised in Frankfurt on the draft version of the book on 22 and 23 April 2013. I would like to thank all the participants for the discussion. In particular I am indebted to Dr. Rosa Sierra of the Goethe University Frankfurt, Dr. Oliver Eberl of the University of Darmstadt, and Professor Claudia Landwehr of Gutenberg-University Mainz for their extensive comments. In putting together this book I have benefited from cooperation with very many scholars over the years. At ARENA I am thankful to John Erik Fossum, in particu- lar, with whom I directed the RECON project 2007–11.1 Further, I am deeply grateful for comments provided by Christopher Lord, Andreas Grimmel, Espen D. H. Olsen and Helene Sjursen. For administrative help I would like to thank Marit Eldholm, Kadri Miard and Helena Seibicke. This book project has been supported by the Research Council of Norway’s Norwegian Constitution Bicentennial 2014 Research Initiative (GRUNNLOV). Note See the RECON (Reconstituting Democracy in Europe) website, available at: http://www.reconproject.eu/. viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0003 1 Musts The of European Integration Abstract: The European Union has ended up as a polity in its own right and one with democratic credentials. What made such an integrationist move possible? Moreover, why do the member states find themselves entangled in a situation of pooled sovereignty and collectivised risks? This chapter reconstructs the integration process from a distinct theoretical perspective premised on the assumed force of reasons. Some reasons take the form of musts and are inescapable in order to give a full account of the integration process. Values like peace, democracy, impartiality and dignity are among the musts of the European integration process. Despite their indeterminate character, they have obtained a quasi-empirical status as requirements on actors and institutions. The normativity of the EU underscores non-domination and a post-humiliating Europe, which is threatened by todays’ Eurozone crisis. Eriksen, Erik O. The Normativity of the European Union. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. doi: 10.1057/9781137391452.0004. DOI: 10.1057/9781137391452.0004
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