European Union’s integration issues after the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty. A Neo-Gramscian anaylsis (I)

• Main Author: Anca Mădălina BONCILĂ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Institutul European Iasi 2014-02-01
• Series: Polis: Revista de Stiinte Politice
• Subjects: European integration; neo-liberalism; Neo-Gramscianism; hegemony
• Online Access: http://www.revistapolis.ro/en/journal-archives/issue-1-3-2014/86-numarul-3-2013/231-european-union-s-integration-issues-after-the-rejection-of-the-constitutional-treaty-a-neo-gramscian-anaylsis-i.html

Through this paper we have tried to question the reality of EU’ s integration and to identify the factors that shaped it. The complexity of this process led to multiple perspectives of analyzing it. We believe that Neo- Gramscian theory of European integration, although not so well-known, can be considered the most appropriate methodological support in explaining the events that have redefined the European integration: the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty, the financial crisis and the emergence of the Lisbon Treaty. We started from the assumption that the EU has obvious neo-liberal connotations, which led to the emergence of functional obstacles difficult to overcome, especially when it comes to the social dimension of the EU. Therefore, we divided the work into two basic parts, the first explains the methodology used, the main concepts, what neo-liberalism is and which are the EU’ s neo-liberal expressions and in the second part we focused on the social dimension of the EU, talking about the lack of substance that we found in the rhetoric of Fundamental Rights. Using the trade unions we have exemplified the inability of the EU to cope with social challenges, especially since there are forms of skepticism focused strictly on social discontent. The conclusions confirm that the Neo-Gramscian theory is the most suitable methodological support in an attempt to capture the nuances of EU’ s neo-liberal expressions.