Understanding Europe requires audacious concepts and governmental procedures. In this chapter I try to demonstrate the European Union’s originality in six aspects: (1) European identity, more complex and diverse than we tend to think; (2) European space, with margins rather than limits or borders; (3) European governance testing a new political structure that goes beyond the nation state and sovereignty; (4) European economic governance, meaning pooling risks; (5) European citizenship, which has become pluralized and whose endorsement is needed to advance towards greater integration; and (6) a globalized Europe that could serve as a model for an interdependent world. The aim of this chapter is to reflect on these six topics (identity, space, government, economy, citizenship and globalization) and explain why Europe, paradoxically, has a poorly defined identity, a space that is not closed, a government that is not sovereign, an economy that shares risks, citizens with conditional loyalty and a sense of “us” without others.
CITATION STYLE
Innerarity, D. (2018). What’s New? The Political Innovation of the European Union. In Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy (pp. 163–183). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72197-2_7
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