The crisis of the European Union: a response (translated by Ciaran Cronin)

Abstract

This book complements Habermas’s Europe: The Faltering Project (2009) in which he addressed a number of issues being of crucial relevance for the highly questionable future of the European Union. He focused on the decreasing involvement of intellectuals in debates regarding the future of Europe – a serious lack that can affect future policy-making, the presence of Islam (securitization, potential risks, greater inclusion and tolerance), the power of the Lisbon Treaty (which actually does not solve the European problems he identifies) and, lastly, the potential of the public sphere to get involved and contribute to official decisions. The Crisis of the European Union: A Response claims that Europe is now more than ever a constitutional project. Such a claim has to do with the challenges posed by the recent EU crisis that has clearly confirmed the existence of some alarming differences amongst the EU’s member states that will further erode solidarity. As Habermas puts it,