ABSTRACT
References to “European values” figure prominently in political debates, especially when it comes to questions about the EU’s refugee policy. However, it is far from clear what the term is supposed to mean. Is there such a thing as European values? And if so, whose and which values? What could be a proper ground for reconstructing them? Proceeding from these and other questions about European values, this chapter develops an analysis of the basic meaning of the term which draws on distinctions between different value concepts as well as on distinctions between values and other normative concepts in philosophical reasoning. The central idea is that a clearer understanding in what sense European values are values is the key to a meaningful and normatively coherent interpretation of the term. The chapter argues that “European values” should be understood as a normative self-commitment of European policy to a set of human rights and other universal moral ideas (principles or values). While the term can thus be interpreted in a meaningful fashion, the conceptual analysis also makes it possible to see more clearly why references to “European values” can be normatively problematic in certain contexts.
