How New Enlarged Borders Will Shape the EU?

This article links the discussion on the nature and the final goal of the European project with the debate on Europe’s new borders and their functions in an inspirational way. Zielonka distinguishes between two possible models of future development of the EU: the Westphalian model and neo-medieval model.

The latter points towards overlapping authorities, divided sovereignty, diversified institutional arrangements and multiple identities. The former model points towards concentration of power, hierarchy, sovereignty and clear-cut identity. The models have also different implications for border policies: Westphalian model is based on hard external borders whereas the neo-medieval model is about soft border lines that can accommodate change easily.

The article claims that the enlargement makes the building of federal state type Europe even more difficult than it has been so far. The future of the union is characterised by growing diversity which should not be seen as a negative feature. On the contrary, the author claims that pluralism should be seen as Europe’s greatest historical and cultural treasure.

The author envisages European borders that will not look like ’fortified lines on the ground but like zones where people and their identities mingle’. Furthermore Zielonka argues that hard border regime is overly excessive, impractical, unsustainable and in contradiction with the wider strategic objectives of the EU. He goes on to show that the demand for and effectiveness of hard borders has been overstated in the current political discourse.

In the final section of the article the author outlines policy options for the EU and its enlargement process.

The first option is to opt for a very limited enlargement in stages in order to keep as much of the Westphalian model as possible.

The second option is to accompany the enlargement with the creation of smaller core group of states that gets on with more advanced level of integration. The Westphalian model would be applied only to this core group while others would cooperate under a more neo-medieval umbrella.

The third option, and the solution that Zielonka himself advocates, is to adjust the neo-medieval model to the contemporary European environment.

This would mean the acceptance of the fact that European order is neither anarchy nor hierarchy but instead a multi-layered and multi-actor order based on pluralism. The aim of the border policies should be building up a more pan-European society, based on human rights and economic distribution.

Further Zielonka argues that finding a new principle of solidarity and community may be the only way to maintain a minimum degree of democracy in the de-territorialised European environment.

Zielonka, Jan. "How New Enlarged Borders Will Shape the EU?"Journal of Common Market Studies39, no. 3 (2001): 507-36.