ABSTRACT

The list of different ideas on Europe is certainly much longer, and arguably not all of the authors mentioned have had a clear 'European intent' in the first place. A look at the history of European integration, however, shows that crisis has often turned out to be a catalyst for the integration process. Crisis can therefore very well prove to be a catalyst for European integration, but this is in no way a necessity. The perception of the situation as a crisis situation hence varied substantially in political and public discussions throughout Europe. Apart from understanding that there is a problem and defining what goes wrong, there is a second, analytical demand that crises entail, and that calls for self-reflexive politics. The most important and probably the most difficult part in crisis management is to finally arrive at defining effective and feasible solutions and to implement the solutions.