Key Concepts for the Future of the EU

Competitiveness, security, leadership, resilience, values … Concepts like these often figure in speeches by top representatives of the EU and in policy documents issued by the union’s institutions. They are used to raise awareness of problems the EU needs to deal with, justify spending or motivate policy choices. But is it always clear what such concepts mean and what they are intended to signal? 

At the beginning of this new political cycle in the EU – with a new European Parliament and a new Commission – the union is facing major challenges in areas such as security, the economy and internal cohesion. While the EU is often expected to act quickly to tackle such challenges, the onset of a new political term also serves as an opportunity to reflect about the deeper implications of concepts that are underpinning political choices and the longer-term direction of the EU. With this volume, SIEPS aims to inspire such essential reflection.  

Renowned scholars and experts from different parts of Europe have been invited to shed light on ten key concepts:  

• Alberto Alemanno (HEC Paris and College of Europe) writes on leadership as a blindspot in EU democracy. 

• Roderick Parkes (NATO Defence College in Rome) argues that the EU should refrain from classical geopolitics.  

• Judith Arnal (Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid and the Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPS, in Brussels) asks whether the EU’s obsession with competitiveness makes sense. 

• Monika Sus (Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Robert Schuman Centre for Advances Studies, and Hertie School Berlin) points at what should be the main concern for the EU when it comes to security. 

• Elena Korosteleva (University of Warwick and Institute for Global Sustainable Development) defines resilience and questions the EU’s top-down approach to this concept. 

• Bernd Parusel (the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, SIEPS) writes on demography and identifies missing bits in the EU’s current ways of tackling population decline and ageing. 

• Amandine Crespy (Université libre de Bruxelles, Centre d’études de la vie politique (Cevipol) and College of Europe) and Viola Shahini (Institut d’Etudes Européennes of Université libre de Bruxelles) analyse the shortcomings and dilemmas in the EU’s inclusion policy. 

• John Morijn (Hertie School Berlin and Faculty of Law, University of Groningen) argues that the EU has a double problem with democracy – and trouble defining it. 

• Hans Kundnani (Open Society Ideas Workshop fellow, Boston University and London School of Economics) claims that the EU neither has ownership of nor lives up to what is described as European values. 

• Thu Nguyen (Jacques Delors Centre at Hertie School Berlin) dissects the limits and ambiguities of unity in the EU.  

With a critical eye, the authors reflect on the meanings and implications of these concepts, how EU policymakers approach them and whether the EU is making the right choices. The essays show that the EU has tough decisions to make and that policymakers will need creativity and courage to put their understanding and practice of key concepts to good use. 

The collection is edited by Patricia Wadensjö and Bernd Parusel.