Common European Values and the Future of the European Union

<ns3:p>At its inception in 1957, the European integration project, now known as the European Union, was based on a set of pragmatic values and imbued with a common judeochristian heritage which, at that time, was as obvious (or at least directly uncontested) as today it is nonexistent. Secularization, absorption of culturally distinct massive immigration, together with the elite “culture of repudiation” of Western history, tradition and values, have resulted in cultural divisions within and among EU Member States. Consequently, today the meaning of human dignity, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights differs depending on what side of that divide one is on. The 2004 accession to the EU of Central European Member States with their distinct national, social and cultural characteristics, exacerbated those value divisions even more. Meanwhile, the EU institutions and key Member States have been bent on imposing their version of those values upon divided societies and all Member States. That does not bode well for the future of European Union as an exercise in international integration. Such conclusion is supported by Karl W. Deutsch’s seminal 1957 examination of past historical experience in that regard.</ns3:p>