Krastev, I: Scheitert Europa? Nachahmung und ihre Schattens

With the "Thyssen Lectures" the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is continuing a tradition that it initiated in Germany in 1979 and followed by venues at a series of universities in the Czech Republic, Israel, the Russian Republic and, most recently, in Turkey.The series in Greece is being organised for a period of four years under the leadership of Prof. Vassilios Skouris, former President of the European Court of Justice and current Director of the Centre of International and European Economic Law (CIEEL), and is dedicated to the framework topic of "the EU as a community of European law and values.IS EUROPE FAILING?On Imitation and Its DiscontentsThree different versions of Europe constitute the one that we know today: the postwar Europe after 1945, the post-1968 Europe of human rights, and then the united Europe that emerged after the end of the Cold War. All three Europes are now cast into doubt. The first Europe, the postwar Europe, is failing because memory of the war is fading and becuase it has contributed to a Europe incapable of defending itself. The second Europe, post 1968 Europe, is failing because it was the Europe of minorities; it's still trying to find a way to address majorities' demand that their cultural rights should be protected, too, without turning democracy into instruments of exclusion. Post-1968 Europe if failing because Eastern Europeans no longer want to imitate the West and be judged by the West but rather want to build a counter-model.Do Europe's failures mean that Europe is irrevocably falling apart?