Legacy of the integration strategy and the state of the European Union.
Legacy of the integration strategy and the state of the European Union.

Summary/Abstract: This article outlines the main logic and dynamics behind European integration and the historical conditions that created it. This is fundamental to understand the working of the EU, crises it experiences and the future of integration. One of the main goals of the article is to emphasize the conditions that shaped the thoughts of the founding fathers of the EU, and the general approach towards solving Europe’s problems, following WWII. First, the German factor in European history is highlighted for a better understanding of European logic of integration. Then, strategies such as prioritization of economic interests over the political ones, selective forgetting and selective remembering, focusing on small details to achieve significant results, legal problem solving for political issues, and emphasizing soft power approaches, besides ideas like pluralism, are discussed. Here, a special emphasis was placed on the strategy of using crises as opportunities to diminish state sovereignty for the sake of integration. The last part of the article contrasts the integrative logic with the current state of mind in Europe and discusses the problems caused by the departure from the European logic, especially in recent decades. In that context, the status of Turkey and the problems it faces in the accession process are elaborated as an exemplary case with an emphasis on the Cyprus issue.

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