European narratives and the politicisation of the EU: Gone with the Wind or Game of Thrones?

Abstract

This article engages with a recent academic fashion which tends to see the lack of a suggestive narrative as one of the reasons of the EU’s distance with the public . The most recent version of this approach suggests that this is related to the generational fact that most living Europeans have never known war, the main reason that drove European states to start the integration process. The article engages how the «narrative turn» is being applied to the European Union and suggests that in its current form it is ignoring the ongoing debate on the politicisation of the EU. This is because the narrative approach seems to perpetuate the «permissive consensus» which used to characterise European integration in the 60s and 70s. The article is sceptical on such approach. It rather points out that the EU has already some clearly cleaved narratives on key issues such as enlargement and economic integration. The article examines the opposing narratives in these fields and suggests that they have the potential to politicise approaches to the EU and that although alternative narratives often fail to engage each other, the plurality of narratives is a sign of a stronger, not a weaker political salience of EU affairs.

Received: 21 May 2013
Accepted: 09 July 2013
Published online: 15 April 2016