Ulrich Bielefeld

While discrepancies between EU member states can be overlooked during win-win periods of growth, recession triggers xenophobic and anti-European reactions in both rich and poor countries. In interview with Nikola Tietze and Ulrich Bielefeld for Mittelweg 36, Ulrich Beck explains how inequality leaves the Union susceptible to decay. Building on the sense of a common European destiny engendered by the crisis, how can Europe be communicated as an opportunity for more power rather than a threat to national sovereignty?

‘We don’t just need firefighters; we need architects too.’ Interviewed in 2010 by Mittelweg 36, Jacques Delors (1925–2023), three times President of the European Commission, spoke of ‘this Europe of values’, its triumphs and failures, and his hope that a federal Europe of nation states would eventually become a reality.