2025/02/02 by Bekemans, Léonce
#European integration #Founding Fathers #Padri Fondatori #Robert Schuman #community-building #comunità #integrazione europea #personalism #personalismo
paper · doi:10.13137/1970-0164/36399
Europe should play a more forcible role on the international scene, valorising and safeguarding its model of democracy, participation, identity and community, within its internal process of integration as well as beyond its borders. The paper focuses on the relationship between ‘community’ and the European model, with specific consideration of the concept of ‘community’ with the Founding Fathers of the EU. The underlying dimension of the paper’s perspective to Europe’s future is the personalist approach to man and society that are translated in the values set in the EU Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The paper is structured in three main parts. The first part draws some lessons of identity and community building taken from past and ongoing developments of the European integration process. The second part concerns an analysis of community-building from a broad multi-disciplinary and international perspective. The final part deals with the specific relation between the European model of democracy and participation and the concept of community-building.