ACQUIS COMMUNAUTAIRE AND EUROPEAN CHAUVINISM: A GENEALOGY

Abstract

This paper argues that a full understanding of the significance of the acquis communautaire for European and international politics requires an analysis that extends beyond the spatial and chronological confines of postwar Europe. It posits that the provenance of the acquis communautaire can be traced back to the concept of “standard of civilization,” which the European colonial powers crafted during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to justify colonial rule. The genealogy of the acquis communautaire reveals that the concept is embedded within a discourse that necessitates the construction of a less-than-civilized, non-European “other.” By definition it places EU members above other nations and precludes the acceptance of difference as equal. Moreover, the acquis communautaire as currently constituted and employed invests the European Union as the exclusive author of the values and practices of “civilization,” and the sole judge determining which nations belong to the club of the “civilized.” Using the acquis communautaire as the cornerstone of European integration is therefore particularly problematic for the conduct of EU foreign policy. The construct, which is inherently hierarchical and hegemonic, risks encouraging a revival of European chauvinism