The European Heritage as a Conflict of Interpretations

Abstract

As is now only too apparent, the open horizon of the future that seemed to have been signalled by 1989 considerably faded by the early 1990s when the European past re-asserted itself in the form of numerous nationalist conflicts and the revival of memory. Prior to 1989 it was possible to speak of European unity only at the cost of excluding Centra] and Eastern Europe. The unity of Europe was the unity of the West and a unity that could with some plausibility be described as a political project underpinned by certain assumptions, such as liberal democracy, capitalism and Christianity. While 1989 opened up new opportunities for the project of European integration, leading to the enlargement process and the movement towards a quasi-constitutional structure, it has paradoxically led to greater uncertainty as to the identity of Europe and its values, it is not an exaggeration to speak of a crisis of European identity since about 1991, On the one side, the movement towards enhanced unity that came with the Maastricht Treaty, which led to widespread debate on a post-national future for Europe and, on the other side, the stark reality of a divided Europe that was most vividly characterized by the ethnic-nationalist conflict that followed in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia. This final chapter examines this crisis with respect to the question of how we should understand the European heritage today in light of the issues opened up by 1989.