European Elites and the Union’s Crises: An Analytic Summary

Abstract

One could claim that EU has been in continuing crisis throughout much of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Therefore, it is important to understand what our European elites really did say about this crisis between 2005 and 2007. This is not an easy task. They were far from united on their general analyses or the detail they offered in support of them. In itself, this was ample proof that if there is a ‘Brussels bureaucracy,’ it is very far the united phalanx that some portray. Why this is the case is not difficult to discern. Our respondents sat in very different institutional positions and they worked within an institutional division of labor. In addition, they came from different national and political backgrounds, despite all being ‘European.’¹ Finally, for most of them their jobs involved being part of a collective intellectual and as is well-known intellectuals, individual and collective, are an argumentative lot. Our respondents were no different. Even if bound to exhibit discretion by their institutional positions and professional duties, their disagreements were part of process of debate and dispute that contributes to defining Europe’s interests and goals. Despite such variety, however, larger themes shone through the differences.