Political Rhetoric and the Legitimation of the European Union

This chapter will examine the role of discourse in the EU integration process, and in particular its function and importance as a political, not just rhetorical, resource for the provision of legitimacy. The aim is to establish that questions concerning the effectiveness and appropriateness of any European discourse or discourses are fundamental to the issue of political legitimacy in the European context, and that the legitimacy of the European Union depends upon the emergence of a European-level political discourse.