ABSTRACT
Defining ‘Europeanness’: the elusive search for common values Constitutions for established states have little need to define the polity’s present or intended geographical boundaries, for there are already historical borders in place when the authorities embark on the task of designing rules and procedures for governance. The EU is not a fixed geographical entity in this sense. A Community that began with six founder members has expanded its membership on five separate occasions to the present 27, and with more changes likely to follow future enlargement there is no clear idea what its final boundaries will be. Moreover, the European polity is indeterminate in a quite different sense. What the Union stands for, its raison d’être, the values and the cultural cement that give any stable polity commonality of purpose remain contested.1 A constitution provides the normative ballast that holds together otherwise diffuse communities, symbolising their commitment to shared goals by means of a Grundnorm. In essence, a constitution is a formal statement of values, and supposedly of common identity that shapes citizens’ perceptions about belonging to a political community.2
