1
De lidstaten willen zichzelf niet opheffen; dat beperkt
hun belangstelling voor de vraag hoe ooit één te worden.
Wel staan zij op elk moment voor de vraag:
Waarom zijn
we samen?
Wat onderscheidt ons van de niet-leden? Het
antwoord bepaalt de uitstraling naar de rest van de wereld
en naar de Eigen bevolkingen. Ook die laatste willen graag
weten in wat voor gezelschap ze terechtgekomen zijn. De
zelfdefinitie van de ledenkring was steeds inzet van poli-
tieke strijd.
Luuk van Middelaar
De passage naar Europa. Geschiedenis van een begin
17
EUROPA
Europa was built to host future “European summits”, i.e., periodic meetings be-
tween heads of state of the 28 countries making up the European Union. Europa
will also be the seat of the Council of the European Union, a true “council of
ministers” bringing together the members of government of the various States, in
function of the topics to be handled, i.e., foreign affairs, economics and finance,
environment, defence, agriculture, etc. The European Council is the Union’s su-
preme political body. The Treaty of Lisbon (2008) provided this executive power
with a strength it had not achieved thus far. Seeking to reinforce its legitimacy
as a democratic institution, it created the obligation for the Council of the Euro-
pean Union to hold public sessions when it deliberates on draft legislation: “It is
a limited albeit actual step towards the progressive development of the Council
towards a Chamber of States after the model of the federal systems” [Y. Berton-
cini, Th. Chopin, A. Dulphy,
et al., Dictionnaire critique de l’Union européenne,
Armand Colin, 2008]. The European Council and Council of the European Un-
ion represent the third side of the “institutional triangle”, besides the Commis-
sion and the Parliament. Besides? In Brussels, the three institutions are gathered
in the same quarter, between the
Cinquantenaire
park, the Schuman rounda-
bout, the Parc Léopold, i.e., the European Commission buildings (
Berlaymont
,
Charlemagne
) on either side of Rue de la Loi face each other as well as those of
the European Council and the Council of the European Union (
Justus Lipsius
,
Résidence Palace
,
Lex
), whilst just a tad further, the
Espace Léopold
joins those
of the European Parliament. This proximity confirms Brussels’ important vocation
as a capital.
FROM RéSIDENCE PALACE
TO EUROPA
Member States do not wish to self-destruct, which limits their
interest in the issue on how to one day achieve unity. They are
nonetheless permanently faced with the question: Why are we
together? How are we different from other non-Members? The
answer to these questions determines their impact on the rest
of the world and on European populations themselves, since
the latter also wonder in what kind of company they have
landed. The self-definition by the group’s Member States has
always been at stake in political fighting.
Luuk van Middelaar,
The transition to Europe. The story of a beginning
FROM RéSIDENCE PALACE TO EUROPA
