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Paper short abstract

The growing concern about religion at the European level asks the question of the normative legitimation of the EU, the definition of memory as a political resource able to root the European polity in culture and to circumscribe a political space as a sphere of belonging.

Paper long abstract

The debate about the reference to the Christian heritage of Europe in the preamble of the constitutional treaty highlights the long-term search for normative legitimation of the European political project. What is at stake is the definition of memory as a political resource able to root the European polity in culture, to circumscribe a political space as a sphere of belonging and, maybe, to identify a significant Other. The use of the religious issue in the constitutional process revealed itself divisive and finally unsuccessful. The quest for Europeaness remains a cultural battlefield, and the crisis of Mohammad cartoons confirms the still deep gaps between those who believe and those who don't or believe in a renewed way.

This paper is a part of a more general research on European identity and the legitimation of the European Union. Among some of my publications on this issue are:

- (with Philip Schlesinger), « Legitimating the EU? Religion and the European Public Sphere », in Schlesinger P., Fossum J.E. (eds.), One EU - Many Publics ?, London, Routledge (forthcoming)

- (with Philip Schlesinger) « Political roof and sacred canopy ? Religion and the EU constitution », European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 9, n° 1, 2006