An enlarged Europe as a civilization of consent : can Europe be a laboratory for a new planetary politics?

Abstract

The policy briefs in this collection are amongst the outcomes of a seminar organized by Berggruen Institute Europe in Granada, Spain, on the occasion of the European Political Community Summit (EPC) in October 2023. Where the discussions amongst the 47 governments in the EPC focused on immediate issues of international relations and geopolitics, the intention of the seminar was to address more fundamental issues of the political meaning and role of Europe in a planet in metamorphosis. Obviously, such questions cannot be approached only by people situated inside of the European Union, and so the seminar also gathered thinkers living in the Western Balkans, Ukraine, the Southern Mediterranean and China to begin to address these questions. These policy briefs are focused on providing orientations for policy makers as they navigate Europe’s changing place and role, and above all to open-up the space for political imagination and invention for the long-term where there is a risk of only being reactive and shortsighted. They reframe the potential role of Europe beyond outmoded conceptions of geopolitics in terms of planetary responsibility, limits and mediation, and reread concepts such as civilization and consent in the context of the European Union’s fundamental polycentricity and complexity at a time of renewed discussion of enlargement. Fundamental notions of democracy, including citizenship, participation and the public good, are rethought beyond national frames and practices, to provide practical but transformative suggestions for how the European Political Community could be the crucible for a new planetary politics. Developing a philosophy for Europe’s re-foundational moment is an urgent task for the intellectual community in the coming years, and Berggruen Institute Europe, in partnership with the Florence School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute and others, will continue to foster the planetary exchange of ideas necessary to generate it.