Project Goals & Objectives

IntUne aims at studying the changes in the scope, nature and characteristics of citizenship that result from the process of the deepening and enlargement of the European Union. IntUne focuses on how integration and disintegration processes, at both the national and European level, affect three major dimensions of citizenship: identity, representation and scope of good governance. Problems of citizenship will be addressed under a threefold approach by looking at the relationship between mass and elites and between European and domestic dimensions of political life.
In other words, we see the process of EU building not as an either-or choice between those who claim for the Europeanization of the domestic or those who claim for the domestication of Europe, but as a recursive relationship.
Now that the EU is facing an important number of challenges, and given that its legitimacy and democratic capacities are questioned, it is important to address the issue of if and how EU citizenship is emerging. From this primary question stem three further sets of questions representing the building-blocks of this research: (1) In what way does a particular kind of political structure shape citizenship? In a complex system, how do different identities coexist? (2) What sense of obligation is the EU citizenship developing? How do coexisting identities affect the relationship between elites and mass? (3) What are citizens expecting from the EU as a level of government?
A number of benefits and impacts can be foreseen in this project. (1) A contribution to both, the empirical testing of existing theories of integration and citizenship, and the development and improvement of those theories. (2) The raising of academic and scientific standards within the European Research Area to a highly competitive level. (3) The furthering and deepening of integration between research institutions and disciplines within and between countries. (4) An equalising of level of knowledge between current EU Member States and candidate countries, through the training of younger fellows. (5) The dissemination of scientific findings to policy-makers, key-actors and the general public, which means the production of usable knowledge. (6) Increasing contacts between decision-makers and the general public through the demonstration activities. (7) A proposition of ways in which the process of further mobilization of public opinion can be achieved.

Our project will benefit of the growing body of knowledge already acquired in the study of these issues in the 5th Framework Programme and it will establish systematic linkages with similar project approved under the 6th Framework Programme. As to the knowledge previously acquired, particularly relevant are the studies conducted under the EUROPUB.COM, EURONAT, YOUTH and EUROPEAN IDENTITY, EUROPUB, CICGOV, CIDEL and IDNET projects.

Moreover, in our demonstration and dissemination activities we can also avail ourselves of the experience of the EGG and PUBACC projects in increasing civic competence and political responsiveness in Europe. Through its underpinning of strategic objectives in terms of research, education, policy-making and integration, this project will contribute to the emergence of a knowledge-based society.