The ‘New Narrative Project’ and the politicisation of the EU

Abstract

The notion that the European Union (EU) lacks a narrative for its contemporary challenges conveys a general explanation for this disconnection with its citizens. This ‘narrative turn’ encompasses previous reflections on the EU’s democratic deficit, identity issues and the lack of a European public sphere. The turn of politics towards narratives – in the EU and beyond – adds to the debates on unity and diversity, legitimacy and the politicisation of the EU by focusing on the sociopolitical dynamics. This article discusses whether the recent narrative turn is compatible with the increasing contention on EU issues. It shows that the increasing use of the notion of narrative to account for political debates in the EU seems to ignore a significant part of the existing literature and debates on the emergence and limits of the ‘infrastructure’ of such narrative, the European public sphere of communication. By analysing the recent interest of the European Commission in narratives, this article finds that the current focus on narratives by EU institutions is so far explained by an attempt at re-creating a broad consensus on what the EU is and ought to be, which is, however, not addressing the dynamics of politicisation of the EU.

Keywords:

• Narratives
• consensus
• politicisation
• public sphere
• political actors

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the valuable comments provided by the participants of the workshop ‘A narrative turn in European studies?’ (Bruges, 13/10/2015) and to the College of Europe and UACES Small Event grants for the funding to organise this event. I also wish to thank the 2 anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies for their very valuable comments on the earlier versions of the article.

Notes

1. See the website of the project at: <http://www.narratives.eu/> (last accessed on 29 September 2015).

2. See her contribution to the ongoing work of the European Cultural Foundation at: <http://www.culturalfoundation.eu/library/featured-people-chantal-mouffe> (accessed on 12 July 2016).

3. See her contribution to the ongoing work of the European Cultural Foundation at: <http://www.culturalfoundation.eu/library/featured-people-chantal-mouffe> (accessed on 12 July 2016).