From the European Coal and Steel Community to Kosovo: Reconciliation and Its Discontents

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the scholarly and public debates on the often-invoked but undetermined European Union reconciliatory identity. First, it articulates an interpretative analysis of the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and civil society initiatives in post-World War II western Europe, which draws its conceptual framework from Paul Ricoeur and Hannah Arendt's hermeneutics. Second, it discusses whether the reconciliatory practices thus detected are still relevant for countries in conflict on the path to EU membership. Former EU Commission President Jacques Delors and Polish Member of the European Parliament Bronislaw Geremek affirm that this is the case for the Western Balkans. This article explores what this might mean in terms of policies and grass-roots initiatives between Kosovo and Serbia today.

European communion: political theory of European union

“…The role of the EU's 'principles of action' have been hermeneutically retrieved by Guisan's (2011b) studies of the principle of reconciliation, the principle of power as action in concert, and the principle of recognition in the memories and actions of participants. Guisan (2011a) argues that reconciliation is a forgotten, yet crucial aspect of European integration, starting with Franco-German reconciliation with the 1951 Treaty of Paris, and extending to post-Cold War reconciliation in central Europe, as well as between Greece and Turkey.…”

“…Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt, Catherine Guisan (2011a) argues that the EU has forgotten its 'lost treasure' of ethical and political impulses behind the 50-year-old European integration process. The role of the EU's 'principles of action' have been hermeneutically retrieved by Guisan's (2011b) studies of the principle of reconciliation, the principle of power as action in concert, and the principle of recognition in the memories and actions of participants.…”

The Routledge Handbook of Critical European Studies

“…Guisan argues that, following Arendt, the EU has forgotten its 'lost treasure' of ethical and political impulses behind the 50-year-old European integration process.The role of the EU's 'principles of action' has been hermeneutically retrieved by Guisan's (2012, 11-12) studies of the principle of reconciliation, the principle of power as action in concert, and the principle of recognition in the memories, and actions of participants. Guisan (2011) argues that reconciliation is a crucial, yet forgotten aspect of European integration, starting with Franco-German reconciliation with the 1951 Treaty of Paris, extending to post-Cold War reconciliation in central Europe, as well as reconciliation between Greece and Turkey. In her analysis of EMU political leadership vs. Greek civil society, Guisan (2016) argues that power as action in concert ('promise') was demonstrated more by Greek civil society organisations than by the financial Troika and Taskforce.…”

Introduction

“…This has been a central argument by a number of think tanks, such as the European Stability Initiative and not least the EU itself (seeGuisan 2011).…”