Multiple Crises and the European Borders of Solidarity

Abstract

European solidarity has served as a fundamental norm and motive for the European integration project since its inception and, as such, has never ceased to inspire engagement, debate and reflection. At the same time, perhaps no other value has been put to the test so much and so severely in Europe’s recent history and present circumstances. Disputes over the meaning, scope and demands of European solidarity have accompanied and deeply shaped the European Union’s eastward enlargement to former communist countries in the 2000s, the management of refugee protection and international migration in the European ‘refugee crisis’ and, to a lesser extent, the Brexit process. At present, the COVID-19 pandemic, with its unprecedented challenges, has rekindled public attention to the promise and limits of European solidarity in the face of a common threat. All along, the growing success of populist, Eurosceptic and xenophobic currents across the continent has raised concerns that European solidarity might be at risk in a more fundamental manner than ever before, with heavy consequences on the perspective for future enlargement of the European Union. In order to critically examine the place and prospects of European solidarity in a wider European space - involving its Eastern and South Eastern accession and neighbouring countries -, we invite contributions looking at how notions of European solidarity have been invoked, framed and contextualised, but also challenged and subverted, by different social and political actors in the region, historically as well as in the current crisis. Key questions are: How is European solidarity defined, and what are the sources that enable it? What goals does it serve? What are the boundaries governing who is or is not included in the solidarity frame? How are different forms of solidarity – at the transnational, national and local levels – balanced against each other? And what does all this tell us about the capacity of the idea of European solidarity to inspire social mobilisation, influence politics, and foster dialogue and change in the wider European society?

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