Disenchanted Europe?
The European Union in Search of Narratives. Disenchanted Europe? (Routledge, 2025) examines the legitimisation of the European Union through the development and rapid rotation of narratives designed to convey its identity and purpose.
It argues that three narratives have been dominant over the last 20 years: a 'Europe of rights', a 'Europe of values' and a 'European way of life'. This succession of narratives has expressed a diminishing transformative ambition and charismatic claim to community-building. Meanwhile, the expansion of the EU's competences and its politicisation in times of crisis and geopolitical threat have increased tensions and risks of backlash.
This configuration can be seen as a structure of opportunities for democratic emancipation and/or the emergence of new narratives around European commons in the making.
About the speaker
François Foret is Professor of political science, researcher at Cevipol and President of the Institute for European Studies-IEE, Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is also Fellow at the European Governance and Politics Programme, European University Institute, Florence. His research interests are in European politics and policies; the interactions between politics, culture, memory, values and religion; and comparative politics, especially between Europe, Japan and the US.
