teaches European Politics and Society at the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is the author of Europe as Empire (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Europe Unbound (Routledge, 2002); and editor of Media and Politics in New Democracies: Europe in a Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2015).
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of Germany, and the EU’s enlargement, the East-West divide has lost its meaning. Moreover, post-communist countries have been more vigilant in keeping their accounts in order than many of their western European partners. So why not put the ghosts of communism to rest and build a united Europe?
Even a democratically elected president of the European Commission, or the elimination of the circus that is a European Parliament based in two cities, will not make citizens fall in love with the Union. What’s required, says Jan Zielonka, is a form of European integration able to meet the needs of societies put under pressure by current geopolitical tensions and the digital revolution.
