Europeanness: A Path To Unity Within The European Union

Ryszard Piasecki; Jan Woroniecki

doi:10.1515/cer-2016-0003

Authors

Ryszard Piasecki University of Łódź, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, Department of Development Economics
Jan Woroniecki University of Social Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/cer-2016-0003

Keywords:

European Union, integration, human dimension, European education

Abstract

The postwar experience has shown that the implanting of European consciousness, or Europeanness, calls for coordinated efforts among the European institutions, national states, and NGOs. Such consciousness, a key pillar of the European integration, is necessary for the EU to effectively function and motivate member states’ – also the EU’s – citizens. And yet European institutions and EU governments show little interest in promoting the formation of this European consciousness. Pro-European social movements are weak, while anti-European ones gain strength. This désintéressement of the EU countries probably results from the conviction that the goal has been reached and that there is no more need for a widespread pro-European education of their societies. However analysis of the problem, and in particular of the interaction between European and national identities, shows that this is not the case. We fear that this lack of proactive measures mobilizing EU citizens to keep on struggling for a common Europe will lead to the erosion of existing achievements of integration within the EU, and undermine European values. It may threaten the future of the EU, which is not an ordinary integration grouping but a great peaceful, civilizational, social and economic project. Our hypothesis – positively verified in this article – is that the promotion of Europeanness in the EU societies is urgently needed to maintain the unity (and even membership) of the Union, and to avert trends unfavorable for all of Europe and therefore for the West as a whole.

Downloads

References

Ash T.G. (2004), Free World, America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West, Random House, New York.
Google Scholar

Beylin M. (2014), Nie będę się bić w piersi za winy liberalizmu (I don’t feel guilty for the sins of liberalism), ‘Kultura Liberalna’ (Liberal Culture), Warsaw, vol. 286, 1 VII.
Google Scholar

Bootle R. (2014), The Trouble with Europe. Why the EU Isn’t Working, How It Can Be Reformed, What Could Take Its Place, Nicholas Brealey, London/Boston.
Google Scholar

Brzezinski Z. (2012), Strategic Vision. America and the Crisis of Global Power, Basic Books, New York.
Google Scholar

Buhler P. (2011), La puissance au XXIᵉ siècle. Les nouvelles définitions du monde. CNRS Editions, Paris.
Google Scholar

Fligstein N. (2008), Euroclash. The EU, European Identity, and the Future of Europe, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Google Scholar

Gdańsk 1939. Donieck 2014, Apel polskich intelektualistów do obywateli i rządów Europy (Appeal of Polish intellectuals to citizens and governments of Europe), ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ (The Election Daily), Warszawa, 1 IX.
Google Scholar

Giddens A. (2007), Europe In the Global Age, Polity, Cambridge.
Google Scholar

Giddens A. (2014), Turbulent and Mighty Continent. What Future for Europe?, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Google Scholar

Guetta B. (2014), Jak zostałem Europejczykiem (How I became a European), Universitas, Kraków.
Google Scholar

Johnston I. (2014), Is it 1914 all over again? We are in danger of repeating the mistakes that started WWI, says a leading historian, ‘The Independent’, London, 5 I.
Google Scholar

Judt T. (2011), Ill Fares The Land. A Treatise on Our Present Discontents, Penguin Books, London.
Google Scholar

Judt T. (2005), Postwar. A history of Europe Since 1945, Penguin Press, New York.
Google Scholar

Kołodko G.W. (2013), Dokąd zmierza świat. Ekonomia polityczna przyszłości (Whither the World. The Political Economy of the Future), Prószyński i S-ka, Warszawa.
Google Scholar

Kołodko G.W. (2010), Świat na wyciągnięcie myśli (The world at your fingertips), Prószyński i S-ka, Warszawa.
Google Scholar

Koziej S. (2014), Pod presją Rosji (Under pressure from Russia), ‘Rzeczpospolita’ (The Republic daily), Warszawa, 7 VIII.
Google Scholar

Król M. (2012), Europa w obliczu końca (Europe facing its end), Wydawnictwo Czerwone i Czarne, Warszawa.
Google Scholar

Kupchan Ch. (2012), No One’s World. The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York/Auckland.
Google Scholar

Kuźniar R. (2013), My, Europa (We, Europe), Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa.
Google Scholar

Lamers K., Schauble W. (2014), More integration is still the right goal for Europe, Financial Times, London, 1 IX.
Google Scholar

Laqueur W. (2011), After The Fall. The End of the European Dream and the Decline of a Continent, Thomas Dunn Books, New York.
Google Scholar

MacMillan M. (2001), Paris 1919. Six Months That Changed The World. Random House, New York.
Google Scholar

McCormick J. (2010), Europeanism, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York.
Google Scholar

Morris I. (2011), Why The West Rules – For Now. The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future, Profile Books, London.
Google Scholar

Piasecki R., Woroniecki J. (1991), Plan Marshalla – II faza (The Marshall Plan – second phase), ‘Sprawy Międzynarodowe’ (International Affairs monthly), Warszawa, vol. 4.
Google Scholar

Piasecki R., Woroniecki J. (2014), Future of Europe: Collapse or Revival, Łódź, ʻPrzegląd Socjologicznyʼ (Sociological Review), vol. LXIII/1.
Google Scholar

Przemówienie Petra Poroszenki w parlamencie z okazji wyznaczenia Dnia Godności i Wolności (Petro Porochenko’s speech in Parliament on the occasion of designating the Day of Freedom and Dignity) http://wyborcza.pl/1,91446,16963213,Ukraina_21_listopada_Ukraincy_beda_obchodzic_Dzien.html#ixzz3L9OVqaiM.
Google Scholar

Reflections on the Great War, (2014), ‘Financial Times’, London, 2 I.
Google Scholar

Risse T. (2010), A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Sphere, Cornell University Press, Ithaca/London.
Google Scholar

Snyder T. (2014), The Battle in Ukraine Means Everything. Fascism returns to the continent it once destroyed, Washington/New York, ‘New Republic’, 11 V.
Google Scholar

Soros G. (2014a), Britain needs greater unity, not a messy break-up, London, ‘Financial Times’, 11 IX.
Google Scholar

Soros G. with Gregor Peter Schmitz (2014b), The Tragedy of the European Union. Disintegration or Revival? Public Affairs, New York.
Google Scholar

Tkatch D. (2014), Ojczyzna jest tam, gdzie jest dobrze (The Fatherland is where you’re fine), ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’, 21 VIII.
Google Scholar

Woroniecki J. (2012), The reconfiguration of the global scene of the 21st century, [in:] Artymowska P., Kukliński A., Żuber P. (eds) Reconfiguration of the Global Scene and the Megaspaces of the 21st Century. Ministry of Regional Development, Warsaw.
Google Scholar

Wright T. (2014), Europe should confront its enemies as one citizenry, London, Financial Times, 29 VII.
Google Scholar

Wywiad prezydenta Rady Europejskiej Donalda Tuska w dniu 1 grudnia 2014 r. (Interview of the European Council President, Donald Tusk, on December 1, 2014) http://m.wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,117915,17047627,Donald_Tusk_pierwszy_raz_po_angielsku__I_am_a_lucky.html
Google Scholar

Zielonka J. (2014), Is the EU Doomed ?, Polity, Cambridge.
Google Scholar

Zorgbibe Ch. (2005), Histoire de l’Union Européenne, Editions Albin Michel, Paris.
Google Scholar