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donate Changing Europe: 50 years of European integration
) "Signing of the Treaty of Rome, 25 March 1957")
Focal point The European Union has been far more successful than anyone expected when the Treaty of Rome was signed half a century ago, on 25 March 1957. But as political Europe turns 50, the questions about its future are as open as ever. In a special focus, we present some of the most outstanding contributions on the European project published in Eurozine: From analyses by Jacques Rupnik and Jan-Werner Müller of the current European crisis, to enquiries by Slavenka Drakulic and Ales Debeljak into transnational identity building; from Göran Rosenberg's federalist arguments, to György Spiró's hilarious parody of Brussels' bureaucratic literary ambitions.
A "pause for thought" without the thought?
Possible ways to talk about the future of the EU today
Euro-visions The one-year "pause for thought" launched by Europe's elites after the rejection of the EU constitution in 2005 was extended in June 2006. This time could be used to discuss the pros and cons of competing Euro-visions, writes Jan-Werner Müller. [ more ]
Anatomy of a crisis
The Referendum and the dilemmas of the enlarged European Union
After "Non!" and "Nee!" The derailing of the EU constitution in 2005 raised fears that Europe would become divided and increasingly unstable. On the underlying causes and possible consequences of the crisis of the European project. [ more ]
Who are the citizens of Europe?
Citizenship Current citizenship laws in the European Union vary dramatically. The tension between freedom of movement and national legislation on citizenship has the potential to create serious conflicts, writes Rainer Bauböck.
[ more ]
Balancing the books
European histories Sixty years and more since the end of WWII, eastern European experiences of subjugation are often glossed over. This creates misunderstandings that could be avoided by an awareness of a common European history. Then, solidarity rather than national prejudice would motivate public opinion on matters of European politics. [ more ]
Who are the true Europeans?
Central eastern Europe and the EU crisis
Enlargement The current crisis of the EU represents a chance for the new member states. Central eastern Europe can start to act as a centre for reforms that will define the future form of the European Union. [ more ]
Europe tests its boundaries
A searching movement
Enlargement With the disappearance of the Iron Curtain, the entire system of coordinates in Europe has changed. The East no longer exists; but what has emerged in its place is neither the old nor the new. [ more ]
Elusive common dreams
The perils and hopes of a European identity
Enlargement Western Europe lives like a family without feelings for the post-communist states on the same continent. A more diverse concept of Europe is needed for a European identity worthy of its name. [ more ]
"Ach Europa"
Questions about a European public space and ambiguities of the European project
Public sphere National media prove remarkably resilient to attempts to create a European public sphere, while transatlantic communication flows continue to dominate. What does this mean for the future of the much talked-about European public sphere? [ more ]
Energizing the European public space
European media There is only one path open to meeting the challenge posed by a heterogeneous collective of nationally oriented viewers, listeners, and readers: a European public space spearheaded by already established national media. [ more ]
Crossing borders
Diversity The utopia underlying the idea that more mobility will homogenize the EU is proved wrong by the observation that increased crossing of borders creates more difference rather than less. [ more ]
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Expansion without enlargement
Europe's dynamism and the EU's neighbourhood policy
The borders of Europe In order to protect its core, the EU is creating a buffer zone at its periphery. But these states are perceived as a source of problems as much as a solution. [ more ]
From neighbourhood to citizenship
EU and Turkey
Deep or wide? For those in favour of "deepening" the EU, the presumed otherness of Islam is cause for alarm; for those in favour of "widening", Turkey's economic and geo-strategic potential counts in its favour. [ more ]
At the margins of Europe
Russia and Turkey
The borders of Europe November 2005 saw the opening of the monumental Blue Stream pipeline, which pumps natural gas from Russia across the Black Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean coast. Is a new Eurasian alliance forming at the margins of Europe? [ more ]
Is Russia a European country?
A correspondence
The borders of Europe While Russia has always had a special relationship with Europe, is it marked by a "civilizational instability" and "incapacity for political modernisation" that fundamentally set it apart? [ more ]
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Ich wäre gerne European
) "Pieter Brueghel d. Ä., Tower of Babel")
In varietate concordia? European identity as confusion of tongues? The Tower of Babel casts its shadow over Marco Pautasso's experiment in authentic European essay writing. [ more ]
Leave us alone!
View from Africa "If anyone holds us back, makes it impossible for us to move forward, it must be Europe, as has been the case ever since slavery." An oral polemic. [ more ]
Commission for European Standards: Literary
(Draft 1)
Satire The novel is set to become the latest target of European bureaucracy, a leaked document reveals. [ more ]
The fair of tolerance
Essay for the Erasmus Prize 2001
European principles? Tolerance constitutes a universal problem with an unparalleled urgency, writes Claudio Magris. A united Europe will find its universal principles - a core of tolerance that is more than just noble rhetoric - severely put to the test. [ more ]
Confessions of a converted dissident
Essay for the Erasmus Prize 2001
Great expectations For Europeans behind the Iron Curtain, the idea of Europe was simply a rejection of the Communist project. This vision obviously contained an idealisation of both the practice of the European Union and of its theoretical foundations. [ more ]
More in the Eurozine archives
A search for "EU" in the Eurozine archives results in over 500 articles.
The EU celebrates itself
The EU Commission's official site to the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
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More focal points
Changing media – Media in change
Media-technological developments are causing a fundamental re-structuring of the newspaper and book publishing sectors, with traditional media locked in fierce competition with online newcomers for market superiority. Yet media change is about more than the "newspaper crisis" and the iPad: property law, privacy, free speech and the functioning of the public sphere are all affected. [ more ]
The bonfire of the universities
The uni's burning! The slogan was everywhere in the German-speaking space last winter, as the protests at the University of Vienna set off a wave of similar strikes, first at Austrian universities, then beyond: in Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Marburg, Zürich... 2009/10 saw further protests at universities in Athens, Zagreb, Marseilles and London. The Bologna Process, one of the main points of contention, also marked its ten-year anniversary on 12 March this year by officially inaugurating the European Higher Education Area. Eurozine surveys a debate enflaming (not only) Europe. [ more ]
Climate of change?
Social agreement about the necessity of radical ecological change may be unprecedented, yet rhetoric and reality go their separate ways. As ambitions for a legally-binding agreement at the Copenhagen recede, serious doubts arise about the efficacy of multilateral climate deals and the assumptions behind cap-and-trade.[ more ]
Dilemma 89
Twenty years after 1989, most former communist states in central and eastern Europe are members of the EU. Yet the transition from closed to open societies is far from "complete". '89 not only historic moment of liberation, but also political and social dilemma for the present day. [ more ]
Media landscapes
Those in central and eastern Europe who in '89 took the commitment to free expression seriously, who saw the media as the handmaiden of democracy and the conventional watchdog on political and commercial power, today have become targets for new and subtler forms of censorship. [ more ]
Olympic indifference
The Beijing Olympics 2008 are unusual insofar as not one country has boycotted them. This, despite the fact that the political dimension of the Games has seldom been more controversial. Are we seeing a new kind of "Olympic indifference"? With this in mind, Eurozine compiles articles on sport, politics, and protest. [ more ]
Shared space, divided society
Migration is part of modern society, meaning more and more people of different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds live together in Europe. The multitude of perspectives and experiences represents an enormous resource, but as cultural conflicts inherent in today's urban societies become visible, doubts are also raised about the value of diversity. [ more ]
1968: Beyond soixante-huite
Forty years on, the differences between the 1968 uprisings in western and eastern Europe move into ever sharper focus. "In retrospect, the great event of '68 in Europe was not Paris, but Prague. But we were unable to see this at the time." Including articles on '68 in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, France and West Germany. [ more ]
Illiberal Europe?
Parliament or the soapbox? Populist politics are enjoying renewed success in Europe, above all in the former socialist countries. Ivan Krastev, G.M.Tamás, Ralf Dahrendorf, Jacques Rupnik and others investigate the rise of "democratic illiberalism". [ more ]
Cultural citizenship
The concept of cultural citizenship responds to the multicultural context of contemporary societies, in which the concern with equality is increasingly being complemented with a concern with difference. Contributors include Gerard Delanty, Axel Honneth, Rainer Bauböck, Ivaylo Ditchev, Charles Taylor, Rada Ivekovic, António Sousa Ribeiro. [ more ]
Decentring Europe
Any reinvention of the concept of Europe that takes into account the complexities inherent in Europe's place in a globalized world must contain a critique of Eurocentrism. Learning from the South, i.e. absorbing the full critical impact of alternative approaches may be a key element in the rethinking – and unthinking – of "Europe".
[ more ]
The future of war
Are wars that are fought between nations a thing of the past, and are the future challenges more a case of ethnic strife, break-up of failed states, secession and civil wars? In a special focal point, Eurozine analyzes the changing face of warfare in the twenty-first century, in which terrorism and new security threats have profoundly transformed the way wars are conducted. [ more ]
The city as stage for social upheaval
From the western European city to the Third World megacity, one is able to observe how a single principle asserts itself in the social structure of the urban space. That principle – privatization – is geared towards the concentration of wealth and assets on an increasingly global scale, a manoeuvre its beneficiaries seek to naturalize. [ more ]
Big Brother goes global
Post 9/11, governments are increasingly tailoring "international standards" to ratify domestic policies that intrude on civil liberties. Welcome to the phenomenon of "policy laundering". [ more ]
Post-secular Europe?
Is religion a public or a private matter? Can there be such a thing as a European Islam? If so, what characterizes it? What role can religion – or religions – play when it comes to the emergence of a European solidarity? [ more ]
European histories: Towards a grand narrative?
In order for there to be solidarity within the enlarged EU, it will be necessary to develop a broader historical consciousness that includes both western and eastern experiences. [ more ]
Europe talks to Europe: Towards a European public sphere?
The European integration project has made the discussion about transnational spaces for cultural and political debate acute. Can there at all be a common Europe without a pan-European public sphere? [ more ]
Politics of border making and (cross-)border identities
Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe? No, just the opposite. On the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighbourhood. [ more ]
Documenta 12 magazines
Eurozine is participating in the Documenta 12 magazines project, which links over 90 print and on-line periodicals worldwide. Read Eurozine's contributions to the documenta leitmotifs "Modernity" and "Bare Life" here.[ more ]
Freedom of speech and the Danish cartoon controversy
Free speech is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of democracy. Or is it? Reactions to the Danish cartoon controversy show that liberals are re-evaluating what the right to free speech entails. [ more ]
Politics of translation
Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural, political, and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language. [ more ]
Conferences
Changing places (What's normal anyway?)
The 20th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
Sibiu, 21-24 October 2007
Under the heading "Changing places (What's normal anyway?)", the Eurozine network conference 2007 in Sibiu, Romania, addressed the challenges facing societies, literature, and the media as the need for change meets the urge for normality. Read the conference texts here. [ more ]
Friend and foe. Shared space, divided society
The 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
London, 27-30 October 2006
Speakers at the 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals opened up the discussion on cultural diversity in two directions: first, as it is experienced in the physical urban space, and second, as it is reflected in the mirror of the media. [ more ]
Neighbourhoods
The 18th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
Istanbul, 4-7 November 2005
Contributions on the notion of neighbourhood and the Turkey-Europe question from a range of intellectual and geographic perspectives. [ more ]
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