The European Union as Empire
Put to the Test: Models of Political Order
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
European integration is a fact: areas long considered the prerogative of the nation-state – internal affairs and justice, the securing of borders and immigration, as well as foreign policy – have been communitised. Successive waves of enlargement have changed the character of the European Union. Sometimes, the EU is understood in analogy to a nation-state, sometimes as federation. In fact, as a model of political order, the EU comes closest to empire.
(Osteuropa 5-6/2011, pp. 203–214)