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Author : K. Gadjiev
Professor, chief research associate, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Science (History)
THE EUROPEAN UNION, one of the main load-bear-
ing structures of the world order, is still in the process of
integration; it has not yet reached its final form. From the
very beginning, it was expected to become one of the most
prominent initiatives of mankind and an attempt to create
the most perfect system of relationships and cooperation
between peoples. In many respects, the project was stimu-
lated by the ideas and theories of the best minds of Eu-
rope from Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Mazzini, their ideas
being developed by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Aristide Briand, the Mann brothers, and
the contemporary authors of the European idea.
In significance and impact on the processes unfolding in the world, the project can be compared
to the great and highly successful American experiment and the equally great, yet artificially dis-
continued for the gamut of reasons, Soviet experiment. The founders were probably inspired
by the humanitarian aims of bringing peoples together to achieve peaceful coexistence. The
practical realization is another matter.
In May 2004, the public learned about a confidential report Toward a Political Europe prepared
by an ad hoc group of experts headed by the former French Finance Minister Dominique
Strauss-Kahn on the personal instructions by Romano Prodi, the then president of the European
Commission. The authors justified the idea of a united European federative super-state The
United States of Europe. The Constitution of the European Union elaborated in the process
of realization was adopted in 2005 and signed by all EU members.
The aims were even more ambitious, a united European identity in place of de-nationalized na-
tional identity. This meant single citizenship and a single people of the European Union.
We should return to the natural state of coexistence of nation-states that have their own history,
spiritual and socio-cultural identity, traditions, and sovereignty that they will not share with any-
one.
Today, it might sound an exaggeration to say that "a specter is haunting Europe" - the specter
of nationalism followed by separatism that is no longer a specter but reality. It should be said,
however, that these anti-systemic trends are unfolding with increased rapidity and undermining
Euro-integration, or at least its political component.
THE EUROPEAN UNION'S COHESION was diluted by the rising and widening waves of
immigrants, the policy of multiculturalism and political correctness. The leaders of the main
European powers admitted that the culture of multiculturalism had failed. The conclusion is
correct yet the phenomenon is still alive. It will never disappear but will remain an inevitable
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Priorities and Flaws of a Great Project