SOCIAL EUROPE, LEGITIMATE EUROPE - THE INNER AND OUTER BOUNDARIES OF EUROPE

The legitimation of Europe as a 'homeland' does not depend only upon f ormal democracy, but upon a social compromise, as the example of the u nification of Germany has shown. But this unification of a social Euro pe matches two problems. (1) The different nations constituting the EC are already engaged in different paths. Legitimation of the EC requir es more integration of its social governance. (2) The other countries at the boundary of the EC (Eastern Europe, Turkey, Magreb) are very di fferent. Their integration would mean disintegration; the integration of the EC without them would exclude them. The author explores this pa radox of 'integration/exclusion' from the social, political, and cultu ral point of view. The risks of a new boundary 'Europe/barbarians' (ac ross the EC itself) will be outlined. Some suggestions will be made. 9 November, 1989. The joy of a liberation, the one of Eastern Europe, t he end of the East-West tension. February, 1991, The horror of a self- estimating war, the crushing triumph of the north of the world against a southern country ruled by a dictator. Summer, 1991. Yugoslavia expl odes, then the USSR, Europe divides anew. The Italian police push the Albanian exodus back into the sea, with as much hostility as Thai sold iers sending back boat-people. In the face of the chaos brewing on its southeastern flank, the European Economic Community closes down like an oyster on the precious pearl of its prosperity. A new frontier fall s down between Western Europe and its Eastern side, a new wall of sham e, a wall of selfishness. Europe does not call its 'Eastern brothers' to join its model any more. The whole of Europe is not a 'legitimate E urope' any more.