ABSTRACT
Building on the work of Jürgen Habermas and Thomas H. Marshall, we elaborate the concept of a socially integrated Europe. We speak of successful European social integration when the following three conditions are fulfilled: (1) European citizens mutually respect each other as equals – they accept that all EU citizens should have equal economic, political and social rights. (2) Citizens opposing the idea of European equality in these three dimensions should not constitute a basis for mobilising political cleavages, for example due to shared socio-economic or cultural characteristics. (3) Europeans act upon their equality beliefs in everyday practice without differentiating between nationals and EU migrants.
