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Is Europe in a Crisis of Faith?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Hans Michael Heinig*
Affiliation:
Georg August University Göttingen, Law Faculty [Is.heinig@jura.uni-goettingen.de]

Extract

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The British want to leave the EU and the rest of Europe is shocked. The Europeans may have lost their faith in their common destiny. The large number of strong arguments for a membership in the Union did not convince the majority of the British voters, although those arguments have been clearly demonstrated again and again. Many political fields cannot be ploughed unilaterally. Environmental protection is a global challenge. The tough competition prevalent in the global economy will not be suspended by referendums of ageing, wealth-saturated European societies. The single European market is more resilient against global competitive pressure than an array of small domestic economies on their own. All these reasons do not seem to pervade. EU- opponents see the membership of their country as an act of self-enslavement and the Brexit as a new biblical Exodus incident. Boris Johnson – a modern Moses? The construction of Europe in this perspective is no longer a rational calculation but turns into a question of faith and it congeals into political theology.

Type
Brexit Special Supplement
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by German Law Journal, Inc.