The European Union – Yet Another European Empire or an Institution ‘sui generis’?
European integration started as a functional cooperation between nation states in certain limited fields. Nowadays the EU disposes of powers which were originally considered to make up core elements of Member State sovereignty. Its supranational construction has always puzzled lawyers because it does not fit into the traditional categories. Up to the present day, the European Treaties remain silent about the final stage to be reached by “the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” (Art. 1 TEU). Beyond the supposedly formal problem of its legal nature lies the decisive question of the European Union’s political idea and intended future role in an increasingly conflicted global environment. Evidently, the Union’s aim “to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples” (Art. 2 [1] TEU) by means of joint, centralized decision-making contradicts the modern European tradition of sovereign national states. It must therefore be asked whether there are older examples of ‘Empires’ in European history which might serve as lenders of legitimacy in the sense of translatio et renovatio imperii. If no such model for imperial succession and renewal can be found, there is still the theoretical possibility of a historically new institution sui generis devised and installed to make sure that the continent’s “rich cultural and linguistic diversity” and “cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced” (Art. 3 [3] TEU). But this must raise further questions concerning the very practical problem of how to institutionalize the maintenance and revival of a common European cultural memory.
Prof. Dr. Gerd Morgenthaler'