The volume summarises the contributions to the fourth conference of the Working Group „Law and Politics in the European Union“, which was jointly organised with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin in April 2017. We started by investigating how narratives develop and what functions they have in the integration process. Does the „Europe of the Fatherlands“ lead us into a European Union that is more strongly shaped by the national identity of the member states than before? What remains of the legal community? Is „peace“ an outdated narrative? Why is it so difficult to reform the „Europe of welfare states“ into a truly European social space? A number of arguments militate in favour of a more differentiated, flexible and pluralistic European legal area. It is far from clear, however, how such a structure could live up to democratic standards and on which normatively convincing narrative it could be established.
With contributions by Armin v. Bogdandy, Sigrid Boysen, Claudio Franzius, Sylvie Goulard, Peter M. Huber, Albrecht Koschorke, Thorsten Kingreen, Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff, Franz C. Mayer, Martin Nettesheim, Angelika Nußberger, Jörn Reinhardt, Lars Viellechner, Mattias Wendel