(...)
Europe is neither immune to the dangers of political and/or economic protectionism (i.e. nationalism, the closing of borders), nor to misguided attempts at regulation. It is not a given that Europe is able to mediate between extreme market liberalism and populism; we cannot simply rely on Europe’s supposed moral or political intelligence or common sense in this regard. The fact remains that the European borders are neither those of a state (if they were the issue of sovereignty would be more easily solved) nor are they the borders of just an economic market. The challenge of Europe lies in finding a form of institution that will successfully bypass the duality between these two concepts of borders; it will need to do this if it wants to open up new ways for political action on a European level, and thus for creating a new, collective Europe. We must let Europe subsist in order for it to invent new forms of action. This invention of new forms of action is what defines politics in relation to history.
