Eurocrisis: The European Integration as a Neoliberal Project
Eurocrisis: The European Integration as a Neoliberal Project

Summary/Abstract: The current crisis of the EU can be analysed through a variety of different theories from International Relations (IR), from sociological and policy-centred point of views. Mainstream currents, such as (neo-) constructivism, intergovernmental and supranationalist theories played a significant role in the flow of European integration, mainly with institutionalization and statecentrism in their focus. In my essay I will argue that these theories do not provide sufficient answers to the present-day crisis of the EU, but rather that embracing critical perspectives in the image of neo-Gramscian theories can provide a proper basis for analysis. Using historical materialist grounds, I will claim that European integration is a neoliberal project based on the support of a transnational capital and class, establishing a historic bloc and hegemony, integrating the EU into the world order led by the US. Understanding the EU as a project in this way enables us to examine the current crisis as a crisis of the European neoliberal project, rather than a crisis stemming from political and democratic grounds.

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