11. The European Union Between Solidarist Change and Pluralist Re-Enactment

This chapter engages with the EU’s contribution to solidarist change in international society in two perspectives. The first part focuses on the internal dynamics of European integration, the second on the EU’s potential to induce external change in the global international society. The analyses provide two major findings: First, against the criticism that the EU would ultimately fail to pursue a transformative agenda, the EU indeed is a solidarising force in international society. Second, solidarising processes must take into account existing pluralist structures. Hence, any solidarist change does also require pluralist re-enactment to some extent.