Present-ing the Past: Political Narratives on European History and the Justification of EU Integration

Abstract

“Die Geschichte ist Gegenstand einer Konstruktion, deren Ort nicht die homogene und leere Zeit sondern die von Jetztzeit erfüllte bildet.” wrote Walter Benjamin. “So war für Robespierre das antike Rom eine mit Jetztzeit geladene Vergangenheit, die er aus dem Kontinuum der Geschichte heraussprengte.” (“History is the subject of a construction whose site is not homogeneous, empty time, but time filled full by now-time. Thus, to Robespierre ancient Rome was a past charged with now-time, a past which he blasted out of the continuum of history.)

The Meaning and Use of “Europe” in Swedish History Textbooks, 1910–2008

“…Several scholars have identified a mythology of Europe in the wake of European political and economic integration (Stråth, 2000;Stråth, 2005;Larat, 2005, Axelsson, 2009, Challand, 2009. This is, of course, the same kind of "creation" that the "imagined community" of the nations could be argued to be built upon (Anderson, 1983).…”

‘New Europe’: Between Cosmopolitan Dreams and Nationalist Nightmares

“…Fabrice Larat went so far as to call for an ‘ acquis historique communautaire ’ (Larat, 2005, p. 287), modelled on the idea of the ‘ acquis communautaire ’, the common body of European legislation. Just as the latter provides the necessary regulatory framework for the proper functioning of the single market, the former, argues Larat, is necessary to advance the European project as such.…”

“…Just as the latter provides the necessary regulatory framework for the proper functioning of the single market, the former, argues Larat, is necessary to advance the European project as such. Larat observed that a number of European treaties articulate such ‘ acquis ’ in their preambles, when they list the defining moments in Europe's history (Larat, 2005, pp. 281–4).…”

How to Find European Law – a Basic Introduction

“…2 See also Larat (2005 An excellent overview of the roles and procedures in the legislative process is available on the Eurlex portal. 25 Particularly so, if little detail is known about a proposal 26 In the C Series of the Official Journal.…”