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Europe As a Republic
Article

Europe As a Republic

The Story of Europe in the Twenty-First Century

Eurozine, 2015

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Background

Recommendation

Many perceive the European Union as a bureaucratic behemoth that fails to serve its citizens. Across Europe, anti-EU sentiments are on the rise. In this article, political scientist Ulrike Guérot of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin, persuasively argues why the EU fails to live up to its original idea, explains how this failure harms EU citizens and details her ambitious vision of how governance changes could result in a better Europe in the decades to come. getAbstract recommends Guérot’s insights to academics, policy makers, business leaders and European citizens.

Summary

The European Council is at the heart of the European governance system, thereby placing the individual states at the center of the European Union. This setup is a structural obstacle to a truly united Europe. For example, take the energy market: National protectionism prevents companies from one country to feed excess energy into the neighboring country’s grid.

When individual countries such as Greece struggle, the blame-placing and finger-pointing demonstrate that Europe hasn’t arrived at the “post-national Europe” that its founding...

About the Author

Political scientist Ulrike Guérot is the founder and director of the European Democracy Lab, a think tank dedicated to the future of European democracy.


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