@article{2018:gehler:the_europe,
title = {The European Union: A Post-Democratic, Post-Modern, and Post-National Empire?},
year = {2018},
note = {Does the European Union consist of a new world power with imperial
ambitions? That is what is asked before the decade of crises
2008-2018, but also later on. Was it and is still it an empire at all?
This will be analysed and discussed starting with “Real History”
(Coming into Existence, structure, expansion, perceptions and
reactions, decline and disintegration) accompanied by “Reception
History” (successes and failures, imagined receptions, references,
forerunners and historical consciousness, the Holy Roman Empire as
predecessor?, historiographies, the Roman Empire, state of the art and
historical comparisons) and followed by “First Assessments and
possible Developments” (Lisbon Strategy and Lisbon Treaty, the open
question of the finalité politique, nation-states acting as
EU-members in a globalized context, the NATO-, EU-Eastern enlargement
and the relationship to Russia) and the question of what holds
EU-Europe together (the inevitable categorical integration imperative
Germany, German-French partnership as precondition, the integrated
legal community, the Single Market, the Euro as anchor, the majority
of Community institutions, noncontractual regulations, external crises
as stimulators, the “migration crisis” as a forced solution and
the social dimension). Pressing tasks for the future and preconditions
for further EU-functioning will be mentioned at the end (credibility
through adherence to the treaty and strengthening of legitimation,
self-responsibility and solidarity and a new Elysée Treaty as a
stimulator).},
journal = {JEIH Journal of European Integration History},
pages = {235--268},
author = {GEHLER, Michael},
volume = {24},
number = {2}
}