The remaking of the EU’s borders and the images of European architecture

Abstract

The article argues that it is impossible to explain the series of existential crises confronting present-day Europe without reference to the changing nature of borders. Unbounding and rebounding prompted by transnational and technological pressures reconfigures the relationship between territory, authority, and rights in Europe. It produces new winners and losers. It changes the geography of power and makes European institutions look inadequate if not obsolete. The article tries to utilize recent studies in the field of geography, economics, and communication to understand the evolution of European integration. Four spatial models or architectural designs are envisaged: variable geometry, ordo-liberal empire, functional networks, and cascading pluralism.

Keywords:

• Borders
• European Union
• differentiated integration
• territory
• authority
• rights

Notes

1. As Manent (1996, 7, 8) put it:

Instituting a political order, prior to consulting the will of any individuals, requires first the staking out of a common territory. A common territory is the barest requirement of a political community, to be sure, but it is also in a sense the most necessary … While I readily admit that one can renounce the nation as a political form, I do not believe that people can live long within civilization alone without some sense of political belonging (which is necessarily exclusive), and thus without some definition of what is held in common.

2. Unbounding is a process during which the existing boundaries either wither, move or change nature. Rebounding is the opposite process; boundaries are being restored both in terms of scope and nature. When different types of borders are being removed or softened then we can talk about unbounding. Efforts to reverse unbounding represent rebounding.

3. The literature often uses the terms ‘border,’ ‘frontier’, and ‘boundary’ as synonyms, but their meanings vary. According to Anderson (1996, 9), for instance, ‘frontier’ has the widest meaning (line or region); ‘border’ can be a narrow zone or a line of demarcation; ‘boundary’ is a line of delimitation only.

4. A ‘Common Market’ had already been established in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, but the ‘single market’ formally came into being in 1993. For a detailed historical overview see: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/historical_overview/index_en.htm.

5. Some activists and experts have criticized the EU for acting as an engine of globalization and an agent of multinational firms. Others lamented that the EU has failed to protect its population from globalization. As Elliott (2016) put it in the context of the post-Brexit debate:

Europe has failed to fulfil the historic role allocated to it. An increasing number of voters believe there is not much on offer from the current system. They think globalisation has benefited a small privileged elite, but not them. They think it is unfair that they should pay the price for bankers’ failings. They hanker after a return to the security that the nation state provided, even if that means curbs on the core freedoms that underpin globalisation, including the free movement of people.