Microsoft Word - Hernan Tesler-Mabe_The Union of Laughter and Forgetting The European Union and the Construction of its own His

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The Union of Laughter and Forgetting?
The European Union and the Construction of its
own History

Hernan Tesler-Mabe

Abstract

As recently as one year ago, the European Union was seemingly on a direct path toward
its avowed goal of "ever closer union." In numerous publications, EU authorities asserted
that they had the confidence of European peoples desirous only of further integration. In
the wake of the failed referenda for a European Constitution, however, enthusiasts of
European Union can no longer be certain that their enterprise will succeed. The European
Union, once strong and united, seems now an entity teetering on the edge of collapse. The
reasons for such a dramatic shift are, of course, wide-ranging. Yet I would suggest that a
great part of the general European disillusionment with European Union has come about
as a result of the actions of the Europeanists themselves. Over the last decades, European
officials have exhibited a frightfully high incidence of revisionism in their literature. This
practice, I argue, has caused many Europeans to question the integrity of the project of
European Union.

For my presentation, I intend to undertake a close study of a selection of documents
published by the European Communities. In this endeavour, I will compare and contrast
the messages imparted in different editions of these works and consider the semiotic
significance of the textual and non-textual language appearing therein. In this manner, I
hope to achieve two aims. First, I mean to add a corrective element to a literature that,
guided by a teleological interpretation of integration, endows integration with”logic" to
be found only in hindsight. Second, I intend to examine the many meanings that the EU
has had over its history and assess how closely policy has adhered to the ideological
goals of prominent Europeanists. In sum, I hope to shed light on the fundamental
disconnect between advocates of Europe and the "man on the street" and help establish a
dialogue which may contribute to resolving the current impasse within the European
Union.

Introduction

‘Non.’ ‘Nee.’ Two little words, one great furor. In late spring 2005, the initiative

for a European Constitution was derailed after a majority of French and Dutch voters

voted ‘no’ in referenda that had been envisioned by the European Communities as “an

important step in the construction of Europe.”1 Until this setback, the construction of a

new Europe, strong, united and rapidly evolving towards its own vision of a progressive

society had seemed to be on course. In numerous publications, the EU authorities

asserted that they had the support of a European peoples desirous of a united Europe.2

Yet how was the task of convincing Europe’s citizenry being accomplished? Institutions

of the European Union, buoyed by a profound confidence in their goal of “ever closer

union,” persistently produced a literature (propaganda to some, information to others)

that explained the campaigns and competences of the European Union and revealed the

trajectory of European integration. This literature, however, exhibited a frightfully high

incidence of revisionism, being substantively revised from edition to edition to present an

ever more “correct” vision of recent European history.

The cost of such a course was altogether too high -- the recent failed initiative for

a European Constitution has soundly shaken the self-assurance of European

integrationists and led to questioning the means by which the support of the European

populace had been obtained. In light of this recent setback, the time has come to revisit

1 “A Constitution for Europe” (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities, 2004), 5.
2 European opinion polls show that Europe’s citizenry has been largely in support of integration -- the
percentage of Europeans desiring a unified Europe remained well above the 80% mark between the years
1952 and 1985. The question posed to assess this feeling has traditionally been, “In general, are you for or
against efforts made to unify Western Europe?” More recent sources have replaced “Western Europe” with
“Europe” but the results have remained largely unchanged. Jean-Claude Deheneffe, Europe as seen by
Europeans: European polling 1973-1986 (second edition) (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of
the European Communities, 1986), 28.

the integrationist literature and explore the manner in which this body of work has sought

to advance European integration. In this article, I undertake a close study of a set of

documents published by the European Communities between 1986 and 2000.3 Written

by authors closely connected to the project of European integration in a format and style

suitable for general consumption, bearing the EU imprimatur and dealing extensively

with the history of European integration and European history as a whole, these

documents serve as a window into an integrationist literature that has aimed at helping to

create a unified Europe and to construct a shared European history. By comparing and

contrasting the messages imparted in varying editions of these documents, I intend to add

a corrective element to an EU literature that, guided by a teleological interpretation of

integration, endows many aspects of the integrationist process with a “logic” to be found

only in hindsight and reconstitutes European history to accord with present-day

objectives. I hope to thus assist in providing a solution to the current integrationist

impasse while in the process contributing to a vast academic literature that explores the

process of European integration.4

3 The works examined are: Pascal Fontaine, Europe -- A Fresh Start: The Schuman Declaration 1950-90
(Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1990); Pascal Fontaine, A
new idea for Europe: The Schuman declaration -- 1950-2000 (Luxembourg: Office for Official
Publications of the European Communities, 2000); Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, European unification: The
origins and growth of the European Community (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, 1986); Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, European Integration: The origins and growth of
the European Union (Fourth edition) (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities, 1995); Pascal Fontaine, Europe in Ten Lessons (second edition) (Luxembourg: Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities, 1995); Pascal Fontaine, Europe in 10 Points (third
edition) (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1998).
4 Scholars across disciplines have engaged in an intensive study of European integration. Cultural theorists
such as Peter Van Ham, anthropologists and sociologists such as Maryon McDonald and Cris Shore, and
political scientists like Mark Pollack have all contributed interesting studies that ruminate on the meanings
of the construction of Europe, show the manner in which the European Commission and other organs of the
EU contribute to the construction of Europe and shed considerable light on the policy processes and inter-
institutional relations involved in the progression of European integration.

I. Pascal Fontaine’s Histories of the Schuman Declaration (1990 & 2000)

Pascal Fontaine (b.1948) is a man whose European credentials run strong and

deep. Serving as the last assistant to Jean Monnet between 1973 and 1977, by the late

1980s Fontaine had risen to Principal Administrator of the European Parliament. In

recent years, Fontaine has been affiliated with the EPP-ED Group (the Group of the

European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) in the

European Parliament, acting as both Deputy Secretary General to the Party as well as

head of the Party’s Documentation, Publication and Research Service. In essence,

Fontaine is a person possessing a close affiliation and sense of identification with the

European project.

Meant to commemorate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the Schuman

Declaration, Pascal Fontaine’s Europe -- A Fresh Start: The Schuman Declaration 1950-

90 (1990) and A New Idea for Europe: The Schuman declaration -- 1950-2000 (2000) are

substantially different in terms of how the events of the post-war period in European

history have been interpreted by the author. Despite the difference in the works’ titles

and the different conclusions drawn in the two texts, however, it is clear from the most

cursory of glances at the structure and contents of the publications that the latter work is a

revision of the earlier text. In sum, the similarities establish the fact that these are merely

different editions of the same text while the differences, the examination of which we

shall now turn to, in aggregate serve to reconstitute history.

Since the early years of post-war integration, Europeanists have often cast the

history of Europe as a continuous sweep in an effort to portray European integration as

the culmination of a common historical destiny.5 It is therefore surprising to find Pascal

Fontaine attempting to disassociate the post-war European project from its historical

antecedents by altering the passage which relates how “in extending a hand to recent

enemies…[Robert Schuman] wiped away the bitterness of war and the weight of the

past” (1990, p.5) to “he extended a hand to yesterday’s enemies and erased the bitterness

of war and the burden of the past” (2000, p.5). With this change, Fontaine effectively

demarcates the end of the Second World War as a phenomenon from a distinct historical

period which has concluded and calls attention to the Schuman Declaration as the

beginning of a new era in European history.

Fontaine’s depiction of the Second World War as an event from a different

historical period is consistent with a Europeanist discourse that, according to anti-

integrationist affiliations such as the Bruges Group, is a blatant offensive aimed at

eroding the traditional nation-state building project of the 19th and early 20th centuries.6

Such charges are supported by Pascal Fontaine’s description of Jean Monnet’s career.

While Fontaine initially described Jean Monnet’s political career in an apologetic

manner, admitting that “although [Monnet] never held political office,” (1990, p.10) by

the time of the second version of his text, the author attempts to recast it as a positive,

saying that Monnet had remained “unfettered by any political mandate” (2000, p.11). By

portraying the possession of a “political mandate” as a burden, Fontaine’s subtle change

5 Many examples of this type of literature exist, ranging from textbooks stressing the unity of European
history (Les Memoires de L’Europe), to works for children suggesting that today’s Europe is far superior to
past incarnations (Der Krieg ums Himbeereis) and on to more discursive works such as those written by
Denis de Rougement (The Idea Of Europe). See bibliography for full citations.
6 This discourse, the most obvious examples of which are the initiatives undertaken as a consequence of the
1985 Adonnino Report (such as the creation of an official EU flag and the naming of the choral finale to
Beethoven’s 9th symphony as the EU’s “national” anthem) has resulted in anti-integrationists condemning
these actions as attempts at having “the visible emblems of national identity [be] replaced by those of the
supranational.” Martin Ball, et al, “Federalist Thought Control: The Brussels Propaganda Machine”
http://www.brugesgroup.com/news.live?article=79&keyword=8#through [accessed 21 December 2004].

strips the nation-state of its role as a traditional source of political authority

Pascal Fontaine’s work bears further evidence of an attempt to erode the import of

the nation-state by undermining its agency in the construction of Europe. In 1990, Pascal

Fontaine proclaimed that “France is taking the first decisive step to rebuild Europe and is

inviting Germany to play its part” (1990, p.13) while in the revised text the sentence is

altered to read “France is now taking the first decisive step towards the construction of

Europe and is associating Germany in this venture” (2000, p.13). In the new text,

therefore, two fundamental changes are found. First, the original text used the verb

“rebuild” to imply that European integration was to restore Europe to its pre-war state

and solely to fix what had gone wrong. By replacing “rebuild” with “construction,” the

author implies that the project of European integration is no longer about correcting

European problems but has become an attempt to create a new Europe. Second, “invite”,

a word suggestive of directorship of a project or activity, is replaced by “associate”, a

word used to convey the impression that both parties are part of a larger grouping or

project and that neither has control of the enterprise. Europe thus becomes an actor

independent of its constituent states.

The discussion of the directorship of the European project dovetails closely with

the subject of the democratic deficit and how the EU is often seen as an entity that has

assumed control over a wide-ranging set of competences despite having far too few

channels through which European citizens can exercise democratic control. With this

concern in mind, it comes as a surprise to find Pascal Fontaine revealing in his 1990 text

“that the Schuman Plan was the result of a conspiracy” (1990, p.12). Ten years on,

numerous institutional changes later and doubtless mindful of the difficulties encountered

in ratifying the Treaty of Maastricht, this controversial and ill-chosen statement is

removed. The historical record is thereby purged of a reference to an act of intrigue that

only undermines the EU’s credibility in an era during which criticisms of the European

Union’s democratic deficit have been bandied about far too regularly to be ignored.7

Pascal Fontaine has also used his texts as a forum for laying out how the

European Union’s raison d’etre has changed. In 1990, for instance, the European Union

was envisioned by the author as an area in which “the merging of economic interests

would help to raise the standard of living and pave the way for the establishment of an

economic community” (1990, p.13) while ten years on this phrase is changed to read “the

fusion of these economic interests will help to raise the standard of living and establish a

European Community” (2000, p.15). Via this alteration, the author clearly shows that the

economic role of the European Union has been subsumed within the larger goal of

creating a community whose form transcends the purely economic sphere.

The moral and religious foundations of modern Europe are also opaquely

addressed by the author in his description of one of the founding fathers of European

integration. In 1990, Fontaine described Robert Schuman as a “native of Lorraine”

(1990, p.10). By 2000, however, Robert Schuman has become both “a native of Lorraine

and a Christian” (2000, p.12). One may of course consider Fontaine’s new appellation as

merely the personal choice of an author who is, as evidenced by his affiliation with the

EPP-ED, fundamentally Christian in outlook.8 That possibility, however, should not

7 The democratic deficit is a problem that has over the years increasingly plagued the EU in its quest for
legitimacy. Stefan Elbe, for instance, points out that the democratic deficit is a problem that threatens to
undermine the European integrationist project. See: Stefan Elbe, Europe: A Nietzschean Perspective
(London: Routledge, 2003), 2-3.
8 The EPP-ED is a European Parliamentarian Party which brings together the Christian Democratic and
Conservative parties of Europe. For the religious/political nexus of the EPP-ED, see the tenets professed
by the party as well as the numerous ecumenical initiatives they have undertaken.

obscure the fact that for many the construction of Europe also means the construction of a

Christian edifice.9 Moreover, the possibility that his views are synchronous with those of

a majority of Europeans corresponds with the worst fears of those who hold other values

or adhere to other religions such as Islam.10 Meanwhile, Europeans of the Jewish faith

are confronted with the fear of being both excised from the historical record as well as

viewing the European Union as a hostile entity that, if not encouraging anti-Semitism, at

least allows a space for it.11

In sum, the differences between Pascal Fontaine’s 1990 and 2000 texts underline

the fact that fundamental changes had taken place in the European Union throughout the

1990s and that by the end of the decade such changes were contributing to a sense of an

impending completion to the project of European integration. In 1990, Fontaine felt

confident enough to only anticipate the completion of European integration, entitling the

final section of his pamphlet “Questions and Answers for tomorrow’s Europe” (1990,

p.25). By 2000, the same section of the author’s pamphlet has been renamed “Questions

for the Europe of the 21st Century,” (2000, p.23) suggesting that Europe has been

http://www.epp-ed.org/home/en/aboutus.asp [accessed December 18, 2004].
9 At a European Study Congress exploring the creation of a European Constitution in June 2002, Pope John
Paul II presented a speech in which he stated “Europe will need to draw inspiration with creative fidelity
from the Christian roots that have defined European history.” “Message of John Paul II to the European
Study Congress on the theme: ‘Towards a European Constitution?’”
http://europa.eu.int/futurum/documents/speech/sp200602_2_en.pdf [accessed 20 December 2004]
Intriguingly, information has also come to light that, with the backing of Jacques Chirac, the Diocese of
Metz has been working for the last 14 years on a campaign to have Robert Schuman sainted. Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard, “Statesman unlikely to become Saint” http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040818-
094347-6213r.htm [accessed 22 December 2004].
10 Talal Asad, for instance, has arrived at the conclusion that “Muslims are present in Europe and yet absent
from it.” Talal Asad, “Muslims and European Identity: Can Europe Represent Islam?” in The Idea of
Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union, ed. Anthony Pagden, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002), 209-227.
11 In January 2004, Romano Prodi found himself having to respond to allegations made by Mr. Cobi
Benatoff (Chairman, European Jewish Congress) and Mr. Edgar Bronfman (World Jewish Congress) that
some of the positions taken by the European Commission over which he was presiding were anti-Semitic.
See: “EU Commission President sets Record Straight on Anti-Semitism”
http://www.eurunion.org/news/press/2004/2004001.htm [accessed 18 December 2004].

achieved as well as portending that Europe will be in existence for the course of the 21st

century. And while one may choose to view this change as being one that is merely

reflective of the arrival of a new millennium, one cannot help but wonder whether such

an alteration also reveals a profound confidence in the completion of European

integration and a prediction of its permanence.

II. Klaus-Dieter Borchardt’s Histories of European Integration (1986 & 1995)

Klaus-Dieter Borchardt’s career, like Pascal Fontaine’s, has been closely tied to

the European Union.12 Borchardt’s literature on European integration (European

unification: The origins and growth of the European Community (1986) and European

Integration: The origins and growth of the European Union (1995)) has meanwhile

undergone extensive revision despite seeming sizably unchanged. And while these

alterations were, according to the author, meant only to reflect the different times in

which the texts were written, I suggest that they reflect not only changes in the course of

recent European integration but amount to a sizeable reformulation of European history.13

Like Pascal Fontaine, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt must surely be aware that the

successful completion of the European project could only be aided by limiting the effect

of divisive events in European history. Unlike Fontaine, however, Borchardt chooses not

to distance present Europe from the cataclysms of the first half of the European century

but, rather, to emphasize these historical events as part of a common history. For

instance, the author uses the opportunity to recast the two World Wars as having begun as

12 Borchardt (born in 1955) was educated in Law at Hamburg and Berlin, worked with the European Court
of Justice between 1990 and 1994, and has served in numerous posts in the Commission from 1987 on.
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/fischer-boel/cabinet/borchardt_en.pdf [accessed June 30, 2006]
13 “[T]he differences between the first and the second edition [sic] are due to the developments of the
European Integration between 1986 and 1995.” Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, email to the author, 23 December
2004.

European civil wars. Between the two texts, however, there is a subtle yet fundamental

difference; in the 1986 text, “civil wars” (1986, p.6) is presented in quotes, thereby

demarcating this as an unofficial version of history, while the 1995 text sees the

quotations removed.14 In this manner, a heightened level of resonance is added to an

interpretation of European history that stresses pan-European connections.

Over the years, the European Union has assumed an ever greater number of

competences that have brought into question whether the European Union’s (and its

predecessors’) activities in the economic sphere were meant solely as a first step in a

political and cultural unification.15 Such suspicions are borne out by Borchardt’s

discussion of the role of economics in the European Union. In the 1986 text, Borchardt

described the EEC as being “concerned with general economic integration” (1986, p.20)

while in the 1995 text the author chooses to emphasize how the task of “the European

Economic Community -- renamed the ‘European Community’ under the Treaty of

Maastricht…is to mould the Member States into a single Community embracing every

sector of the economy” (1995, p.25). In this manner, the author correctly draws attention

to the fact that the European Union is no longer to be thought of as an entity in existence

primarily for its economic logic but, rather, is to be a single Community whose final

shape informs its economy. The textual change, however, collapses the goals of the pre

and post-Maastricht eras into one, failing to note how the creation of “a single

Community” is a goal that transcends the original compass of the pre-Maastricht era

14 The first text reads: “emerging from the terrible experience of two world wars -- both of which had
begun as European ‘civil wars’”. The second work reads: “after the terrible experience of two world wars,
both of which had begun as European civil wars.”
15 Bernard Connolly, once head of the EMS (Economic Monetary System), National and Community
Policies Unit in the Commission, has posited that economic integration was only “part of a programme to
subvert the independence -- political as well as economic -- of Europe’s countries.” Bernard Connolly, The
Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War for Europe’s Money (London: Faber and Faber, 1995), xii.

treaties.

Klaus-Dieter Borchardt’s belief that the European Union is more than the sum of

its economic parts is corroborated by his conflation of the accomplishments of Europe’s

past with a contemporaneous vision of Europe linked geographically, politically and

culturally:

Cultural assets such as the city of Venice, the paintings of
Rembrandt, the music of Beethoven or the plays of Shakespeare
are an integral part of a common cultural heritage and are
regarded as common property by the citizens of Europe. (1995, p.73)

In this manner, Borchardt appropriates the cultural assets heretofore considered

fundamental aspects of national cultures and contentiously claims them as an element of

a common European heritage while simultaneously stressing the political dimension of

European integration.

The social dimension, too, is an area in which Borchardt pursues a line of

argumentation that is an imprecise depiction of European history, re-ordering the timeline

of integration and thus obscuring the belated entry of social policy into the project of

integration. In discussing the social aims of European Union, the author merely declares

that “the Treaties did not map out any coherent scheme for a future common social

policy” (1995, p.26) when in fact the social dimension of integration only became a topic

of serious discussion in the late 1980s. Furthermore, the reason for the exclusion of

social policy from the original Treaties is directly attributed to indecision over whether

the establishment of the common market required the broad
alignment of social security costs or whether in practice it
would inevitably bring the Member States’ social security
arrangements into line with one another. (1995, p.26)

Borchardt thus ascribes the lack of a coherent social policy to indecision over how best to

achieve advances in the social sphere when in fact several Member States were reluctant

if not downright hostile to the idea of giving up their right to budget and control social

security within their borders, this competence having been integral to the consolidation of

the nation-state in the early to mid 20th century.16

Borchardt’s vision of the social dimension of Europe connects with the manner in

which the author envisions the European project and its aims. In this discussion,

Borchardt explicitly describes what he feels to be the aims of European Unification,

albeit differently from edition to edition. In the original text, Borchardt declared that the

aim of European unification is:

to preserve and strengthen peace, to achieve economic integration
for the benefit of all the peoples of Europe through the creation of
a large economic area, and to work towards political union. (1986, p.19)

In the second text, however, this same passage is altered to read:

to preserve and strengthen peace, to achieve economic integration
for the benefits of all citizens of the Union through the creation of
a single internal market, to work towards political union and, last
but not least, to strengthen and promote social cohesion within the
Union. (1995, p.23)

In the transition from one passage to the next, we find numerous points of substantial

interest. First, social cohesion, while being only a goal of recent vintage, is appended to

the other aims (the preservation and strengthening of peace as well as economic

integration) that long predate it with only the slightest hint that this is a new policy area.

Second, while the first passage makes note of only the geographical connectivity between

Europeans -- Europeans being merely those people that inhabit the geographical area that

16 Carl Strikwerda argues that the cataclysm of the First World War led to the creation of a “social
citizenship” in which the national governments became the providers of social welfare for their citizens.
See: Carl Strikwerda, “Reinterpreting the History of European Integration: Business, Labor, and Social
Citizenship in Twentieth-Century Europe,” in European Integration in Social and Historical Perspective:
1850 to the Present, ed. Jytte Klausen and Louise A. Tilly (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997), 65.

is Europe -- the more recent text adds a layer of political affiliation, Europeans no longer

being described just as “the peoples of Europe” but having become “citizens of the

Union.” Third, and perhaps most importantly, Borchardt fails to note that the goals of

European integration have undergone any change over time. Thus, while the author’s

statements are in the strictest sense true, the omission of any mention of change to the

goals of European integration obscures the fact that integration is not based upon a set of

unchanging goals but an evolutionary process through which new goals have been

constantly articulated.

III. Pascal Fontaine’s Europe in Ten Points -- The Images Speak For Themselves

Up to this point, this study has focused on textual explorations of how

Europeanists are revising the historical record. Yet it is not only by way of words that

meaning is constructed; images, too, provide us with a means of understanding how

changes are being implemented and what these changes mean in aggregate.

No text is more illustrative of an evolution in imagery than Pascal Fontaine’s

Europe in Ten Lessons. This booklet, having undergone four editions thus far, has

expanded from its original edition in which not a single illustration was present to its

more recent incarnations in which pictures are utilized to introduce each chapter as well

as illustrate key points. For the purposes of this study, I will examine the versions of this

text printed in 1995 and 1998 to compare and contrast the meanings of the messages to be

found therein.

For ideas to resonate most profoundly in non-textual form, a common motif is

often employed as a point of reference. In the 1995 version of Fontaine’s pamphlet, the

common motif utilized was that of Homo Europeanus, a stick figure character whose

European identity is represented by his head being in the form of Europe’s twelve stars.17

For each of the chapters, Homo Europeanus is depicted performing an action or holding

an object that symbolically or metaphorically corresponds with each of the areas under

discussion. To take but one example, in the first chapter entitled “A Brief History of

European Integration,” our homunculan guide is shown ascending a set of stairs that he

himself is drawing (1995, p.5). Common to all the images of Homo Europeanus is a

progressivist philosophy, a belief in which historical events are cited as steps leading

towards a better future. This philosophy of progress, while tempered somewhat in the

last chapter entitled “Europe in the 21st Century: The Shape of Things to Come” (1995,

p.40) and shown by way of Homo Europeanus holding a divining mechanism and able to

only guess at the final shape of Europe, pervades the illustrative motif employed

throughout the pamphlet.18

The 1998 incarnation of the pamphlet shows a remarkable reformulation of the

unifying motif employed to underline the text’s key messages. Entitled “Europe in Ten

Points,” the new edition witnessed the extinction of Homo Europeanus and his

replacement by more fleshed-out, less abstract characters. The European Union, more

aware of the dominant position that it was attaining in the world and seemingly freed

from the need to prove itself, is portrayed metaphorically as a series of approachable

comic characters that reveled in their good-natured demeanor. For instance, whereas the

1995 version of “The Union and the World” portrayed Homo Europeanus standing

triumphantly atop a smiling planet earth, the 1998 version of this chapter has a smiling

17 The application of the term Homo Europeanus for the figure represented in the text is my own, although
the term, coined by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), has been bandied about extensively in discussions of
European identity.
18 This uncertain vision of the future is confirmed in the text: “This vision of Europe at the beginning of the
21st century is of necessity speculative and incomplete.” p.41.

man carrying a European flag in his backpack attempting to find his way to the top of the

earth (1998, p.47). So too had the display of European strength been tempered; in 1995

“Political Union and Defence” was portrayed as Homo Europeanus flexing his bicep in

an explicit show of strength while by 1998 the correspondent chapter proudly displays

the EU flag with a dove sitting atop it and holding an olive branch in its mouth (1998,

p.33). What is more, instances that continued to have progressivist overtones, such as the

man climbing to the top of the world, are deprived of much of their grandiose and self-

adulatory projections by way of the softer and more innocent tenor of the illustrative

trope employed.

Perhaps the change between the pamphlets, that feeling of confidence so

succinctly conveyed in the images, is best encapsulated in the final section of both texts

entitled “Key Dates in the History of European Integration.” To accompany this section

of text, the 1995 version of the pamphlet portrayed Homo Europeanus pointing to a clock

he held in his hands (1995, p.43). By 1998, however, that unimaginative image of the

passage of time was replaced by the far more evocative image of a bearded old man

pointing to a blue wall with a sole yellow star upon it (1998, p.57). Next to him stands a

young girl upon whose head the old man’s other hand rests. Here, seemingly, we have

the older generation of European, now aware of his European heritage and proud of the

European edifice that has been built, explaining to the young girl what it means to be

European and recounting the achievements of the European integrationist project. Like

the nation-states that had come before it, the European Union had matured to a point at

which it possessed its own distinct history that would be passed on from generation to

generation.

Conclusion

In the course of this paper, we have surveyed a sampling of the textual and non-

textual historical revisions in the works of two leading Europeanists, Pascal Fontaine and

Klaus-Dieter Borchardt. We have seen how these two authors have attempted to both

come to terms with the constantly evolving compass of European Union as well as assist

in creating a historical record and logic for its existence. In this bifurcated yet single-

minded pursuit, whether discussing the founders of European integration, their aims and

ambitions, the steps that have led to the present condition of European integration, or

reflecting upon the achievements of European Union, these authors have shown a marked

inconsistency and a cavalier approach to European history.

Yet this does not mean, as members of the explicitly anti-European Bruges Group

have argued, that this attempt to craft a “new” European history is an exercise in

malevolence.19 Rather, I would suggest that the authors’ revisions are a result of two

reasons devoid of any express malevolence but that come as a consequence of a particular

world-view. First, I believe that the work of both authors is informed by a progressivist

philosophy that underpins their weltanschauung and clearly translates into a sliding

perception of reality in which the re-interpretation of history to conform to present-day

objectives is not an aberration but an entirely natural phenomenon. Second, I think that

Pascal Fontaine, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt and other like-minded Europeanists see their

goal of disseminating the message of European Union as sufficiently important and

benevolent an enterprise as to demand that they make changes that might facilitate

19 Ball, et al, “Federalist Thought Control.”

European integration. I believe that these people genuinely hold the European Union and

the values it is to represent in such high regard that they cannot but help write in a

manner that is inherently revisionist. Such Europeanists, so involved in their enthusiasm

for their project, therefore fail to see the sacrifices they are making to accomplish their

goals.

I take exception to the authors’ revisionist practices for two reasons. One is the

historian’s fundamental suspicion of the revision of history when no new findings have

been unearthed to corroborate new verdicts. And while it would be foolhardy to posit

that history is a “truth” that can ever be lain bare, the authors discussed in this paper have

displayed a blatant disregard for established narratives (and even their own earlier

conclusions) when little if any evidence exists to substantiate what seem to be little more

than present-day agendas and goals. Although I have much sympathy for a united

Europe, I feel that any attempts to recast European history in a manner consistent with

expressions of continent-wide unity must be grounded in thorough research and

circulated with great care. To do otherwise means to mire the debate in a plethora of

half-truths and opinions which the European populace would surely not accept.

This connects with my second point. It is my earnest belief that displaying an

aggressive form of supra-nationalism that attempts to gloss over or cast aside

“traditional” nation-state nationalisms is a tactic that reflects badly upon European

integration and is bound to fail. Disregarding the national narratives that have become

inexorably intertwined with many a European’s sense of identity only serves to drive a

wedge between those most devoted to European integration and a sizeable segment of a

European populace that, though not opposed to integration per se, finds the attempt to

weaken national narratives an affront to their identities.

So what is the answer? Luisa Passerini (2003) has recently written that people are

in possession of what she calls a “dirty identity,” a sense of being and self-

comprehension in which the lines between different forms of affiliation blur and a

person’s identity becomes a composite of the many forms of identification that they

simultaneously bear. I think such an ingenious construction serves as a guide to how we

may solve the problem of blending an enthusiasm for Europe with an allegiance to the

nation-states of Europe. The height of European nation-building occurred in the latter

parts of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th century. And while that historical

period has long since passed, its repercussions continue to manifest themselves in a

deeply felt and often elusive patriotism and a strong allegiance to national narratives.

Thus, we must seek to integrate the national narratives upon which these patriotisms are

built and include them as part of a European narrative that does not suppress nationalism

but expresses how the project of nation building, and even nationalism itself, is a key

component of European history. By way of this approach, I believe it possible to

accommodate national narratives into a pan-European narrative, a synthesis that would

result in the strengthening of Europe by building upon the feelings of community that

bind the citizens of Europe’s nation-states.

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