Purpose narratives play an important role in the legitimization of the European Union (EU). Three goals attributed to the EU have been especially prominent: inner peace, prosperity and self-assertion on the world stage. However, all three can only inadequately justify the supranational character of European integration. A stronger justification is offered by the cosmopolitan-democratic narrative, according to which the purpose of the EU is the individual and collective self-determination of citizens beyond national borders. The cosmopolitan-democratic narrative is historically more recent and has mostly been less salient in the public debate than the other three, but nevertheless has had an important political impact on the development of the EU. Like the other narratives, however, it is not undisputed and has been the focus of various controversial debates since the 1990s.
The author of this article, Manuel Müller, has worked on this topic during his re:constitution Fellowship 2020/21. As part of his Fellowship, he spent six months at the University of Helsinki working at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (Eurostorie). The article has been published in the journal “integration” that discusses current issues of European integration. The article can be found here.
