Pros And Cons Of European Integration

1.1 Introduction

The idea of a unified Europe is something lawmakers have been striving towards, for numerous years. Various forms of integration have taken place, enabling free movement and the creation of the Eurozone has consolidated different sectors, allowing for the flow of Europeans through the 26 nation states composing of the European Union. Initially it was believed that top down Europeanization (how EU integration would affect member states) would lead to the convergence of Europe but it has been seen that the member states play a much larger role, leading to bottom- up (actions of the member states) Europeanization.

While there have been obvious signs of integration, it seems to be indefinitely stalled by numerous factors, including

Enlargement is seen as an act of duty, to include all of Europe under one institution. Through the multiple enlargements, the sense of unity has been pushed aside. More now than ever, we see a push towards nationalism. A European collective identity entails a cognitive and emotional dimension (Kuhn, p. 69). Essentially norms need to be created, “European Integration literature links the values and norms of political actors in diverse ways to identify, legitimacy and governance” (McMahon, p.7). More specifically, civic and ethnic norm. These are what is accepted in the society you are accustomed to. This has an everlasting impact on the perception one has to the rest of the world. Here is the issue, throughout the European nations there are severe clashes in regards to social and economic norms. The basic norms that the EU promotes is democracy and justice. But, these norms differ country to country. There is no sense of unity within Europe, including no universal language. Before there can be “one Europe”, a viable European identity requires an emotional belief in an ‘ethnic’ community of destiny with an ancient and eternal common cultural heritage (McMahon,