Chaotic’ Institutionalization and European Citizenship: Examining the Post-national Cosmopolitan Order in the European Union

• • 
  • Presentation speakers
    • Bruno Surdel, Department of Political Science, Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey

  Abstract:

  This paper discusses the possibility of a post-national cosmopolitan order in the European Union’s context, using two perspectives: first, ‘chaotic’ institutionalization of the process; and second, its human or ‘psychological’ dimension. Deeper integration is an idea shared by European enthusiasts rather than by the average European. “Citizenship of the European Union” is still a non-internalized legal construct, and such initiatives as the Future of Europe Group, are confined to elites, though one might argue that they constitute a European Zeitgeist. I would claim, however, that the transformation of the EU – despite the efforts of its visionaries and champions – is a process ‘out of necessity’ much more than pre-planned, as European Union in itself is a ‘reorganization incarnated’, and – most likely – remains such for an indefinite time. Now, since the Lisbon Treaty, the process has intensified – most prominently – with the proposed banking union, as well as Single Market II, with its ambitious aims of fostering free movement of services and businesses. The current economic crisis produced also more sense of the painful inter-dependence of European nations. More debate is needed on the multiculturalism linked to the internal mobility. It is worth noting that this cosmopolitan-like transformation has been progressing not only through internal migration, but also (paradoxically) by a ‘centrifugal regionalization’ (Scotland, Catalonia), immigration from outside the EU, and by means of a ‘cosmopolitanization’ of human rights. Institutional processes, however, seem to be largely ignored by European citizens. Emotional identification of EU citizens with the Union is a critical deficiency but it was not created by a ‘deficit of democracy’. The ‘deficit of a European awareness’ demonstrated by many politicians is a failure. On the other hand, I would ‘perversely’ interpret the popular resistance to the austerity measures as a sign of emerging European awareness.

 

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