Brussels, 23/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Among the many demonstrations organised during the EU Luxembourg Presidency, a seminar was held from 15 to 17 June in Luxembourg under the scientific responsibility of Professors Marie-Thérèse Bitsch (Universtiy Robert Schuman, Strasbourg) and Wilfried Loth (Univeresity of Duisberg-Essen). The seminar was highly topical at a time when the French and Dutch “no”s to the constitutional treaty plunge Europe into a serious identity crisis. Some forty specialists in the history of European construction from a dozen Union countries discussed the theme Political cultures, public opinion and European integration, focusing on interaction between political cultures and European integration in order to understand how the many different cultures contribute to fashioning Europe and how the different sensitivities, especially national, influence the political debate. To use the expression coined by Professor Robert Frank (University Paris I) in his conclusion, the work was on the “politicisation of Europe and the Europeanisation of politics”. Adopting different approaches, many communications related to public opinion which reveals at a given time political cultures, a little like the hidden part of an iceberg, no doubt more visible in stormy weather than in times of great calm. How are these public opinions formed? Lived experience, time spent as a member of the Union, and fears of losing advantages gained are no doubt as important, if not more so, than education. Participants state that one is forced to see it is very difficult to make a European public area emerge.
The seminar, whose Acts should soon be published, comes within a vast programme of international research, piloted by the Institut Pierre Renouvin (Paris I). In this context, the scientific officials of the seminar in Luxembourg, both holders of the Jean Monnet Chair and members of the liaison group for teachers of contemporary history at the European Commission, have already supervised several publications by Bruylant (Brussels): Institutions européennes et identities européennes (1998); Le fait régional et la construction européenne (2003); and Gouvernance supranationale et construction européenne (2005).