European identity in international society: A constructivist analysis of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Article abstract:

In public discourse, the drawing up of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was frequently linked to the hope that this project contributes to forging a European identity. This paper's argument starts form the tension inherent in this idea: On the one hand, identity-building implies the visualisation of what is specific for the European Community and its members. On the other hand, human rights are anchored in supposedly universal rules and global regimes, constituting the 'international society' belonging to which is a crucial feature of the Union's identity as an international actor. The paper develops a two-dimensional model of European identity and differentiates two types of human rights discourse to capture this tension. It then provides a detailed empirical analysis of the debate in and around the Convention which drew up the EU Charter. The discourse analysis demonstrates that while the international dimension of EU identity was not at the centre of the Charter project in the beginning, the globally-oriented human rights discourse, which stresses Europe's international commitments and responsibilities, gained prominence during the debate and significantly shaped the discursive space for defining the fundamental rights for the European polity.