The Multiple Crisis of Europe (download)

The EU – the European polity, the European Single Market and the set of supranational institutions are not sustainable in their present forms and functionings. The methods of the elite-driven integration became obsolete, the European project has lost its attractivity, the institutions are increasingly distrusted and the promise of a European Social Model and sustainable regional integration are getting further and further away from everyday realities. Europe’s financial and economic crisis turned into a deepening social and political crisis. The growing social inequalities as well as discrepancies between the European center and its peripheries need to be addressed and widely discussed: Europe needs a New Social Contract which assumes a clear articulation of visions and interests of its major stakeholders. This would require the politicization of the empty European public space as well as the self-articulation of a great variety of still subterranean networks and movements. These processes are not conceivable without conflict, compromise and co-operation. Keywords: global and European crisis, democracy, community method, European construction, Eastern enlargement, new social contract, subterranean networks.

in. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS QUARTERLY, Vol. 3. No.1. (Spring 2012/1 Tavasz)