The complexity of the changing nation-state under the duress of globalization is currently snagged on a simplistic drive to fast-forward the past, driven by the desire to stay local.
Minstrels must demonstrate musical nerve, whether in Brussels or in their national headquarters. If not, they are just sycophant turncoats!
Conservative and nationalist blocks have successfully politicized Euro-elections. The other parties must clearly profile what they want to pursue and what re-arrange within the EU, to stand any chance of providing a home for citizens who have ample reason to grumble. Euro-elections landscape, 2014
Take note of the very effective frames the populist anti-Europe parties apply. The previous frame was a technocratic European integration doctrine in which ‘there is no alternative’ prevailed. They have opened a new frame to demonize Europe on behalf of ‘the people’.
The founding fathers of the European Union had the citizen in mind, which makes European citizenship a centrepiece of Europe’s narrative. However, in these days of crisis, the civilizing mission of the EU rings hollow in view of its democratic deficit.
Visitors to the Amsterdam Museum are now met with the immodest claim that tolerance is part and parcel of the “Amsterdam DNA”. The concept of tolerance as understood now, and in bygone decades, needs critical interrogation if we are to advance a good society for all.
Europe's conceptions of citizenship, state sovereignity and nationalism have been bound up with each other historically, but the future may instead promise "a teeming European nation of nations" rooted in a "radical democratization of the European Union."
The Dutch government has presented a proposal to amend the Nationality Act 2003 to Parliament. The proposed amendment seeks to block dual nationality to Dutch citizens and to individuals who wish to become Dutch in order to 'purify Dutch nationality'.
