Jan Zielonka argued in his book "Europe as Empire"
that Europe is becoming a neo-medieval empire with ‘overlapping authorities,
divided sovereignty, diversified institutional arrangements, and multiple
identities' with ‘fuzzy cultural, economic and political borders between the
enlarged Union and its new neighbours further east and south east'. Indeed, the
medieval parallel is useful in thinking about
Exporting border controls
A fortress has multiple lines of defence - a dungeon as the hard nucleus and defensive walls, but also external fortifications such as ditches or earthworks (see a formidable fortress, left). The EU has been developing a similarly multilayered system of border management and protection with elements of outside fortifications. With the Schengen area as the dungeon, and the new EU member states, not yet in Schengen but already separated from the outside world by a strong visa wall, the EU has started to build outside fortifications.
The EU is as keen to engage in border management cooperation with its
neighbours, as it is sceptical of facilitation of trade or visas. The EU has
currently deployed four EU operations in its Eastern and Southern
neighbourhood, and three of them are border assistance missions - the EU Border
Assistance Mission to
To make sure EU border missions are important for making its neighbourhood a
better place. But the EU's export of border controls has to be complemented
with similar activism on trade and visa facilitation, which are its neighbour's
true priorities. There are many things a post-modern Europe can learn from medieval
Borderlines vs borderlands
The notion of "borders" has many meanings, hence the proliferation
of related terms such as frontier, boundary, borderland, limes, rim etc. A
border can be a fixed line of demarcation. A borderland or frontier are more
difficult to define. They imply the existence of grey transitory area between
one jurisdiction to another. As in medieval times borderlands can be ‘a
relatively undeveloped, thinly populated, outlying zone or rimland, a marginal
region into which an advanced civilization introduces colonists as permanent
settlers' (The
Frontier in Medieval History). Or they can be some kind of cross-roads
where multiple languages, currencies, religions and ethnic groups interact,
mingle and prosper (think of
Conceptually borders and frontiers are antonyms. In the last century and a half modern borderlines have destroyed many borderlands. Passports, currencies and visas have relegated frontier regions to symbols of divisions, not cross-roads. The fixed borders of nation-states were set to delineate cultures, languages, currencies, and mobile telephony operators, not mingle them. In frontier regions people interacted, multiple currencies circulated, overlapping sovereignties were clashing, while locals spoke easily two-three languages. In many ways the “fixed, durable and inflexible requirements of borders clash with the unstable, transient and flexible requirements of people” (Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices)
The EU's relationship to borders is double-edged. While the EU has been
eliminating borders inside
Reconceptualising
the debate on EU's borders might help. Today the intra-European debate on
borders is either focused on enlargement (‘Should
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Comments for this entry are closed.
Playing a role in the world is listening to individuals per country allready in & coming in the EU and combine this strength to a strong
and sensible power.
Creating openings and benefits per country,individual and for the EU in general.
Check what the strength is per country and develop this further and make combination with 2 or 3 other countries in a specifique branch.
So that other countries can focus on other specialities.
Please, do something for the people of the TRNC locked-up by their Greek-Cypriot neighbours.
“EU’s soft power is in fact draining in the queues in front of the EU consulates in Kiev, Moscow or Tbilisi” - this is the best explanation of the current EU policy towards its neighbours. I beleive it’s gonna be even worse form Ukraine and Moldova when new members will join the Schengen zone.