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Present-ing the Past: Political Narratives on European History and the Justification of EU Integration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Fabrice Larat

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“Die Geschichte ist Gegenstand einer Konstruktion, deren Ort nicht die homogene und leere Zeit sondern die von Jetztzeit erfüllte bildet.” wrote Walter Benjamin. “So war für Robespierre das antike Rom eine mit Jetztzeit geladene Vergangenheit, die er aus dem Kontinuum der Geschichte heraussprengte.” (“History is the subject of a construction whose site is not homogeneous, empty time, but time filled full by now-time. Thus, to Robespierre ancient Rome was a past charged with now-time, a past which he blasted out of the continuum of history.)

Type
Articles: Special Issue: Confronting Memories – Reflecting History
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 2: Article: Special Issue - Confronting Memories: European „Bitter Experiences“ and the Constitutionalization Process , 01 February 2005 , pp. 273 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Benjamin, Walter, Über den Begriff der Geschichte, in: Illuminationen, Ausgewählte Schriften 1, 258 (1977) (English transl., On the concept of history, in: Selected Writings Vol. 4 389, 395 (Michael W. Jennings, Ed., 2003).Google Scholar

2 See, for instance, Fabrice Larat, Instrumentalisierung des kollektiven Gedächtnisses und europäische Integration 187 (2000), as well as L'Europe et ses grands hommes: entre commémoration et distinction. L'exemple du prix Charlemagne de la ville d'Aix-la-Chapelle, in: Les intellectuels et l'Europe de 1945 a nos jours 263 (Andree Bachoud / Josefina Cuesta / Michel Trebitsch, eds., 2000).Google Scholar

3 For a sound analysis of the relationship between memory and power in the countries of post-war Europe, see Studies in the Presence of the Past (Jan-Werner Müller, ed., 2002).Google Scholar

4 According to well informed sources, this phrasing is due to the special request of the Polish delegation. It refers to the experience of communist dictatorship after the tragedy of nazi occupation, both of which are seen as disastrous ordeals, just like the three partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th Century, which marked the end of the independent Polish state.Google Scholar

5 Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950.Google Scholar

6 Chancellor Adenauer used the term of “geschichtlichen Augenblick“.Google Scholar

7 All quotations are from Franz KNIPPING's book, Rom 25. März 1957. Die Einigung Europas 10-11 (2004).Google Scholar

8 See the presentation given by on the EU home page at http://www.europa.eu.int/abc/index_en.htm, and in the document, Europe in 12 lessons, by Pascal Fontaine, also available on the official internet site of the Union.Google Scholar

9 Conclusions of the European Council, Dublin, 28 April 1990.Google Scholar

10 Conclusions of the European Council, Rome, the 27– 28 October 1990.Google Scholar

11 Address by Romano Prodi to the conference on EU enlargement, www.eu2004.ie.Google Scholar

12 The concept of unitas in diversitas has been coined by the theologian and philosopher Nicolaus von Cues.(1401-1464) “United in diversity“ is now the official motto of the EU.Google Scholar

13 Jean-Marie Domenach calls it “les membres épars d'un corps mythique”, see Jean-Marie Domenach, Identité culturelle française et identité culturelle européenne, France-Forum 6 April-June 1989.Google Scholar

14 Herfried Münkler, Reich, Nation, Europa, Modelle politischer Ordnung 148-149 (1996).Google Scholar

15 www.eu2004.ie. This quotation makes it clear that divisions belong to the past and unity to the future.Google Scholar

16 So far, the Union's motto is closer to the US, E pluribus unum, as from the old principle, In unitas pluribus.Google Scholar

17 “In taking upon herself for more than 20 years the role of champion of a united Europe, France has always had as her essential aim the service of peace“. What this referred to was Briand's Memorandum sur l'organisation d'un régime d'union fédérale européenne of 1 May 1930.Google Scholar

18 On the idea of Europe, see What is Europe? The History of the Idea of Europe (Kevin Wilson / Jan van der Dussen, eds., 1995).Google Scholar

19 The necessity to acknowledge the intellectual genealogy of the European project can be also seen in the pictures of Comenius, De Saint Pierre, Kant, Mazzini and Hugo that were decorating the room of the first congress of the pan-European movement in Vienna, 1927. On the genealogy of the European idea, see the work of reference by Denis de Rougemont, 28 siècles d'Europe, la conscience européenne à travers les textes (1961).Google Scholar

20 Source: Déclaration liminaire à la conférence de presse. This part of the Schuman declaration was not contained in the written text prepared by Jean Monnet. See http://www.robert-schuman.org/robert-schuman/declaration2.htm Google Scholar

21 See Preamble to the Constitutional Treaty.Google Scholar

22 Irish Presidency of the EU, Declaration for a Day of Welcome, 1 May 2004.Google Scholar

23 Id.Google Scholar

24 “Our collective project, our European Union, is a dynamic one. Constant renewal, while learning from our rich traditions and history, is our very nature“. Declaration of Athens, 16 April 2003.Google Scholar

25 See Stefan Seidendorf's article in Section 3.Google Scholar

26 Irish Presidency of the EU, Declaration for a Day of Welcome of 1 May 2004.Google Scholar

27 Address by Pat Cox, to the Conference on EU enlargement, www.eu2004.ie.Google Scholar

28 Kant was seeing perpetual peace as both an end goal and a rational idea which worked itself out in history as the engine of progress.Google Scholar

29 Richard van Dülmen points out that “Erst die Dialektik von Struktur und Praxis konstituiert Geschichte als Prozeß im Sinne eines nicht teleologisch erklärbaren Fortschritts“. From this point of view, and considering the fact that both structure and experiences have been interacting since 1950, the history of European integration should, indeed, be considered as a process. Richard van Dülmen, 'Europäische Geschichte’ und moderne Geisteswissenschaft, in: Europa Entdecken 36 (1996).Google Scholar

30 As Benedict Anderson has stressed, with regard to the national way of depicting the Albigeois war in thirteen century France or the War of Secession in the USA, this representation of the past exactly matches the function of imagined fraternity. Benedict Anderson, Mémoire et oubli, chapter added to the French edition of Imagined communities, published under the title L'imaginaire national (2002).Google Scholar

31 Council of Europe, Declaration of Athens, 16 April 2003, www.europa.eu.int/.Google Scholar

32 According to Robert Schuman, Europe will be built through concrete achievements, which first create de facto solidarity.Google Scholar

33 To follow Armin von Bogdandy's arguments on the achievement potential of identity building through constitutional law, the “acquis historique communautaire“ has a direct identity building function, since it sets the criteria for the process of identification in the public space; see Armin von Bogdandy, Europäische und nationale Identität: Integration durch Verfassungsrecht?, 62 Veröffentlichungen der Vereinigung der deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer 170 (2003).Google Scholar

34 If we consider that institutions are not only socially embedded but also have grown and been established in a specific historical context, major changes considering their territorial relevance should have an impact on their social meaning acceptation.Google Scholar

35 Weiler, J. H. H., The Constitution of Europe 9 (1999).Google Scholar