Friday, January 24th 2020

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Europe,

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Europe

M .I a
What

Prof. Mario Aller San Millán

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What do we mean by Europe?

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le ica Ar
Al lít io
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 Pr cu rsi
Europe in the twenty-first century

of el da
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ni

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io Po rg
 Europe is changing.

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Al lít io
▪ So is the way in which it is governed.

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 We now see a new Europe emerging that is in many ways

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different from that which previously existed.
Less divided than it has been for most of its history.

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▪

▪ Less than it was for the war-torn first half of the twentieth
century.

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 Incomparably richer than at any other time of its History.
 Enjoys unparalleled prospects for growth and development.

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What do we know

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of this Europe?

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io Po rg
 The nature of this new Europe

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Al lít io
remains ambiguous.

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▪ Its mode of governance

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uncertain.
▪ Its future development highly

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contested.

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Paths of transformation for New Europe

of el da
Es ve

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1. Refreshed, dynamic and increasingly confident

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Al lít io
European Community of the 1980s.

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▪ Modern, autonomous and more intensively

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governed (Western) Europe.
Lifting of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the abrupt

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2.
ending of communist rule.

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▪ These countries looked towards the

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autonomous and strikingly dynamic social and

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economic community that had been

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constructed in the West.

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Their independence was confirmed with

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the dissolution of the Soviet Union a couple

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of weeks after the Maastricht meeting.

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• Opened perspectives on a broader Europe of a less

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(New) Eastern well-defined character, but at least one that was

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unconstrained by structures of superpower control.
Europe

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Eastern countries constituted a major
community in their own right and

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contained 213 million people.

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• A population virtually identical to that of the western

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EU countries.

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 Two decisions:

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1. Commitment made to incorporate some of the

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Al lít io
post-communist countries into “Europe”

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Enlargement? beginning the process that led to eight of them
joining the EU in 2004.

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2. Maastricht’s objective of closer integration

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through eventual monetary union and a
European Single Currency.

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 Pr cu rsi
Achieved stability?

of el da
Es ve

.M a d
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ar e Se
io Po rg
 Europe as an idea, a sphere of

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Al lít io
governance, and a model for

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development, continues to be driven

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by contradictions and contrasting
expectations.

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A. New forms of European organisation
and governance that are being

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proposed to improve functioning at

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the twenty-first century.

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B. Is current Europe really “United in

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diversity”.

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