“Ecologism” as an Attempt to Overcome the Ideological Crisis of "Europeanism"

Abstract

Successful European integration requires its own ideology. This is "Europeanism". In this article "Europeanism" is examined as an internally contradictory combination of irrational and rational considerations, officially presented as part of the paradigm of the European Enlightenment. After the expulsion of rival ideologies, neoliberalism builds the basis of today's Europeanism, which claims to be scientific, together with the several integration theories. Practice refutes most of these rational constructions after the 2008 crisis, both economically and politically. Integration theories cannot explain why the free market is failing. The crisis in the Eurozone 2011 revitalized economic nationalism and contributed to the erosion of the dominant paradigm. In the political field Europeanism has failed in its attempt to transform the EU's immediate environment in a positive way. The enforcement of multiculturalism, despite acknowledgments that it “has failed”, has split the Union internally. The reaction is a collapse of the belief in neoliberalism and hence the rise of Euroscepticism. In an attempt to organize some kind of "Counter-Reformation" in search of the lost loyalty, the European elite is trying to renew and supplement the ideological basis of the integration with one of the directions of (delete ‘the’) left-wing neoliberalism, namely "ecologism". It tries to impose - both domestically and internationally, the fight against "global warming" as an irrational cause that will give a new impetus to social development and integration in particular, as well as (delete ‘to’) solve specific problems of the energy poor European Union. The ecological ingredient in Europeanism is very suitable psychologically - "alarmism" is very well received by some rich and “anxious” societies. Economically it could help the energy poor Union to restrain its competitors on the world market. But the success of this attempt does not seem certain.