Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Department of Social Sciences - Berlin Graduate School of Social Science

Cohort

BGSS Generation 2022

Title

Rethinking European Identity in the Context of the Rule of Law Crisis

Supervisor

Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser

Abstract

The core of my research project is the idea that the Rule of Law Crisis constitutes a political crisis demanding not only legal measures, but the re-grounding of EU’s political and ethical legitimation for intervention in its member states’ internal politics. Specifically, I intend to focus on EU values, as the core factor for the redefinition of the European Identity and thus for the re-grounding of EU’s political and ethical legitimation.

My syllogism begins on political scientists’ approach that populism is a symptom pointing out the deficiencies of democratic politics. Being based on this approach, I will try to “build” on the hypothesis that the examination of the political practices of European populist parties shall reveal EU’s deficiencies as a polity. Populists’ defiance of the Primacy of EU law and EU’s legitimation, shall thus indicate, according to the above mentioned hypothesis, what EU as a political project, has been lacking, namely political and ethical legitimation. An answer will hence be sought in the “re-reading” of the article 2 of the TEU, in order to conceptualize EU values based on legal theory bibliography and compare them, in terms of their normative power.

My hope is that the conclusions that I am going to draw out of the conceptualization of EU values, combined with the examination of EU’s policies till today, can prove the necessity for enrichment of EU’s political foundations via policies which materialize the whole spectrum of EU values and not only “Rule of Law”.