In Search of the "European State": Findings, Methodological Approach and Challenges

Article 49 of the Treaty on the European Union prescribes that a state wishing to join the EU must be “European”. In other words European identity, or Europeanness is the first condition for a State to be considered eligible for EU membership. Although written into EU law since the Treaty of Rome (Article 237 §1), the qualifier “European” has never been explicitly or institutionally defined, despite the fact that it may encompass geographical, cultural, historical or political references. Yet, the EEC/EU institutions have had to interpret the state’s Europeanness in the course of enlargements and membership applications. My doctoral research aims at investigating and analysing these interpretations in the institutional discourse by perusing recent documents as well as records held in the Historical Archives of the EU in Florence. Then, it will compare these interpretations with those provided within the Member States by political and media actors. During this meeting, I will first present the methodology used for the analysis of the institutional interpretations, and the findings of this analysis by illustrating the main interpretations with a few specific cases. I will then move to the nature of these interpretations and their impact on the idea of Europe(-anness). I will eventually tackle a few challenges that this research brings about.