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...back an extraordinarily successful fifteen years; the historic divide of the Old Continent has been overcome and most of the former Communist countries have joined the EU, which has launched or completed daring projects such as Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of the euro, an EU Defence and Security Policy, and the European Immigration and Asylum Policy. Yet, at this time, the EU faces unprecedented uncertainty regarding its political future. This uncertainty has nothing to do with the effectiveness of any of the EU's key policies, or even the latest round of enlargement, the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. Rather, the uncertainty about the future results from public perceptions. The Union is struggling with a fundamental legitimacy problem. The more ambitious its goals become (in terms of intensifying the integration of its member states into a wider political union), the more it becomes clear how much this transnational community's legitimacy depends on a more pronounced identification of its citizens with the European cause. This was painfully evident in 2005 with the failed Dutch and French referenda on the proposed European Constitution.
As has happened before on various occasions in the EU's fifty-year history, this sense of uncertainty has triggered a debate on the raison d'etre of the entire process of European integration, its current course and its final destination. What is the driving force behind this bold plan to unite a continent historically ravaged by war and aggressive nationalism? What is the political role of the EU beyond coordinating the strategic interests of its member states? It is common knowledge among the policy community in Brussels and Strasbourg that it is only by referring to its collective identity that...
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