The Europe Project

The self-image of the EU could not be more radiant. It represents peacemaking, economic growth, a values-oriented policy and an unstoppable unified Europe. And in retrospect, it likes to give the impression that the EU was an inevitability and the organizations which preceded it brought about the unification almost as if it happened all by itself. Filled with surprising insights, this book scrutinizes the standard narrative and makes it clear that the EU’s inflated self-image is needlessly intensifying the feeling of crisis. It falsely portrays the current crisis as something new and threatening when it actually has existed since the very beginning. Patel presents a critique that asks how the EU really came to be – when you look behind the rosy picture presented during political speeches.