Rethinking the European Union : From Unity in Diversity to Diversity in Unity

Placing the current European Union crises (among them being the Euro crisis, the Greek crisis and the economic crisis) into a long term perspective and taking into account the characteristics and consequences of the globalisation process, the author presents arguments to support the idea of a new approach regarding the very essence of the European integration model. This new approach is based on an evolutionary perspective of the European Union in which all that has already been achieved is used while the philosophy of the institutions and of the legal framework is reinterpreted by changing the accent of the European Union motto from “Unity in Diversity” to “Diversity in Unity”. The conclusion of the paper is that European Union needs to reconnect to its own realities and that, by accepting diversity in its existing unity rather than enforcing unity upon diversity, it can alleviate existing tensions, reconnect to citizens, restart innovation and creativity and find a better place in the global context