The Demagicification of the European Union

Thoughts on the Margins of the Conference on the Future of the European Union

Abstract

A precondition of a genuine debate on the future of the European Union is the demagicification of the European Union, i.e. a conscious and critical approach to its political myths. To this end, one must identify the myths of European integration and describe how they distort the self-image of the European Union. It must analysed how these myths determine the debate on the future of integration and how they disqualify certain ideas and proposals. Against this background the article examines some of the myths of European integration. It addresses the European peace project as the myth of origin, the European democracy as the myth of legitimacy, the idea of ever closer Union as the myth of finality as well as the myth of financial and political gestures as the basis of a caste system of net contributors and beneficiaries.