Abstract

The European project has been, from the very outset, deeply political. The idea of eternal appeasement, rooted in the experiences of the three devastating wars of the 1870–1945 period, has paved the way to an idealist–constructivist rethinking of the dismal experiences with the Realpolitik of the entire post-Westphalian period, starting with the peace treaty concluding the Thirty Years War in 1648. The founding fathers of the European project, Adenauer, Schuman and de Gasperi, were deeply convinced of the need to rebuild Europe from scratch. This reconstruction was meant to be material, ideational, institutional and policy level, so that it would affect the everyday lives of citizens, and would result in peace and prosperity on the old continent. For subsequent generations, including that of Helmut Kohl, François Mitterand and Jacques Delors, i.e. until the 1990s, this emotional and political commitment dominated other, including economic considerations (Delors, 2004).