7. What’s New? The Political Innovation of the European Union

Understanding Europe requires audacious concepts and governmental procedures. In this chapter I try to demonstrate the European Union’s originality in six aspects: (1) European identity, more complex and diverse than we tend to think; (2) European space, with margins rather than limits or borders; (3) European governance testing a new political structure that goes beyond the nation state and sovereignty; (4) European economic governance, meaning pooling risks; (5) European citizenship, which has become pluralized and whose endorsement is needed to advance towards greater integration; and (6) a globalized Europe that could serve as a model for an interdependent world. The aim of this chapter is to reflect on these six topics (identity, space, government, economy, citizenship and globalization) and explain why Europe, paradoxically, has a poorly defined identity, a space that is not closed, a government that is not sovereign, an economy that shares risks, citizens with conditional loyalty and a sense of “us” without others.