May 12, 2006
7 p.m.

Kleiner Festsaal, University of Vienna, Dr. Karl Renner-Ring 1, 1010 Vienna

50 years after the Messina Conference and the Treaty of Rome the European integration process is in a paradox situation. Despite the EU's geographic enlargement and structural deepening, European politics are increasingly dominated by national(istic) discourses. In the "old" EU-member states, the economic arguments of both Christian Democratic and Social Democratic Parties are coined by “business location nationalism” (“Standortnationalismus“). Right wing populists refer to the alleged danger of Eastern European labour migration. Simultaneously, a growing Euro-scepticism can be detected in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. And finally, the EU integration itself can be interpreted as the „European Rescue of the Nation State“ (Alan Milward).

Crucial elements of these nation state-motives in European discourses are assertions of political, social, religious, and cultural "values" which are variably connotated in different societies. Where, however, are the origins of such nuances and striplines? Which implications do these (seemingly new) value dialectics hold for European politics, but also for academic analysis?

Within the first Boltzmann European History Discussion, historians and politologists will debate this topic from a both transnational and transdisciplinary perspective

Podium discussion
Piotr Buras, Willy-Brandt-Centre at the University of Wrocław
Catherine Horel, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne I, Paris
Claus Leggewie, Centre for Interactive Media (ZMI)at the University of Giessen
Lutz Niethammer, University of Jena
Sieglinde Rosenberger, University of Wien

Moderation
Oliver Rathkolb, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres / University of Vienna