(09 December 2016) – This study by Gérard Bouchard, historian and sociologist, published by the Jacques Delors Institute, is a plea in favour of the European Union (EU), while criticizing some choices it has made in the past, choices that now hinder its development.
According to the author, EU’s pioneers and their successors made the unfortunate choice to generally distrust the nations as well as the peoples, and to sidestep them by opting for a top-down process of governance.
In order to break this vicious circle, the EU will have to find a way to mend fences with the nations in order to put an end to a long-standing detrimental tension, harness rather than stifle the nations’ still substantial symbolic resources and energy, and secure a platform to build new European myths.
The goal is to carve myths that would resonate both at the European and national levels, in other words: to fashion a true European voice with strong national echoes.