Happy returns to Europe? the Union's identity, constitution-making, and its impact on the Central European accession states

Abstract

This chapter addresses the problem of political identity within the ambit of the post-war European integration process as well as the recent Constitution-making efforts. It focuses on the distinction between civic and ethnic political identity within the framework of the European Union and in the context of the Central European accession states. The first section analyses the problem of ethnicity in modern European history drawing on the role of the EU as a neutralizing force of ethno-national divisions, tensions and conflicts. The following section deals with the enlargement process, paying particular attention to policies set up by the EU to contain ethno-political conflicts emerging in Central Europe after the collapse of communism. The final section is a discussion of the European Union's political symbolism premised on the possibility of a potential European demos. The crux of the argument lies in comparing two models of constitution-making: the Hobbesian vertical versus the Lockean horizontal version of the social contract. I shall argue that the vertical constitutional model does not allow for the political ambitions of a European Federation or a Europolity to be met due to the notable absence of a European People as the Constitution's constituent power. The vertical, authority-promoting model may have been beneficial to the accession countries were it applied during the Convention's deliberation. Conversely I aim to demonstrate that the horizontal constitutional model, as presented in the Convention's Draft Treaty, has great potential for creating a Constitution which embraces a European identity premised on the tension between civil democratic virtues and old national loyalties. © 2006 Springer.