No common vision for Europe

Thomas Ferenczi complains that European intellectuals lack a shared vision of Europe. "Only a few intellectuals took an interest in the process of European unification when it started in the middle of the last century under the influence of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman. Many were unenthusiastic about unifying the Old Continent so soon after World War II. Even later they looked askance at the Community - some because they found it technocratic, others because they felt it was pro-American and anti-Soviet. This estrangement lasted for several decades, but for some time now the situation seems to have changed. Researchers point out that the number of theoretical works on the legitimacy of the EU has increased steadily since the Treaty of Maastricht. Has this intense reflection allowed thinkers to arrive at a common vision of Europe or ... to agree on a 'common manifesto'? ... The answer today is: no. Individual national works on the subject are too varied to allow a common view of history. They spring from different political cultures with broad discrepancies in their intellectual repertoires."

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Philosophy, » Weltanschauung, » France, » Europe
All available articles from » Thomas Ferenczi

» To the complete press review of Friday, June 6, 2008