Rules not borders

In this article, originally published in the Financial Times’ commemorative publication European Union: The Next Fifty Years, EURACTIV Slovakia‘s editor Radovan Geist argues that EU enlargement has brought resentment and insecurity to the ‘older’ member states, and calls for a stronger framework to enhance the EU’s social policies and economic governance.

“European integration can be made to overcome economic and political frictions,” Geist writes. “For all its flaws and mistakes, the European integration that brought into existence the current EU has been pretty successful in fulfiling its promises.”

Geist goes on to argue that changes made to the ‘Westphalian’ logic of European politics, ie moves away from a system based on the existence of borders clearly separating internal and external space, which were originally designed to prevent conflict but in fact brought them about, have led to the creation of common rules and merged decision-making processes. 

During the EU’s next 50 years, the author concludes, “the priority should be to fully connect national and European levels, bring transparency to the role of national politicians in decision-making and strengthen the accountability of the institutions”.

To download the full article, please click here.