Architecture and European identity

Abstract

The authors of this contribution are participants in a project, the EUPavilion, that investigates the relationship between European institutions and architecture with the aim to rekindle the debate on Europe as a cultural entity as opposed to a mere political-economic union. Particularly lively around the year 2000, at the time of the introduction of the single currency and the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, this debate came to a halt with the failure of the European Constitution project, and was permanently put to rest by the arrival of the 2008 economic crisis. Now, with a view to restarting the process twenty years on, we thought it could be useful to revisit some of the key events of the time with Romano Prodi, the Italian politician who more than any other contributed to the European integration process.