On Meaning and Promise of European Society
28 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2024 Last revised: 7 Feb 2025
Date Written: November 23, 2024
Abstract
The European constitutional navigation of the noughties succeeded to stipulate that European integration had ushered European society (Article 2 TEU). This choice remains underexplored. In light of current European uncertainty, the contribution explores meaning and promise of European society. The concept can counter the Europeans’ incomprehension of their union by integrating their heterogeneous European experiences into one familiar notion. It shows their conflicts as normal and possibly productive, occurring in one society rather than between discrete Member States. It suggests to understand their democracy as a principled struggle for compromise. Not least, European society substantiates the EU’s new principled constitutionalism that goes against excesses of the ‘will-of-the-people’ approach.
Keywords: European society, European societies, Article 2 TEU, integration, identity, republicanism, CJEU
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