European integration and eastward enlargement: the widening and deepening of neo-liberal restructuring in Europe

Abstract

Mainstream approaches of European integration incorrectly focus on the form of integration at the expense of the contents, i.e. the social purpose of integration. As a result, the deepening and widening of integration are generally considered to be two opposed processes. By contrast, this paper outlines and applies a neo-Gramscian perspective to the deepening as well as widening of European integration since the mid-1980s with a specific emphasis on the rationale underlying these processes. Rather than being contradictory developments, it is concluded that both processes are part and parcel of the intensified neo-liberal restructuring of the European social relations of production. The paper concludes with some reflections on the possibilities of resistance against neo-liberalism.