The EU Civil Servants and European Political Identity

Korać, Srđan (2013) The EU Civil Servants and European Political Identity. In: National and European Identity in the Process of European Integration: Thematic Proceedings [from International Conference, 28‐29 june 2012, Belgrade]. Institute for International Politics and Economics, Belgrade, pp. 239-263. ISBN 978‐86‐7067‐180‐5

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Abstract

The paper analyses the possible longitudinal impact of the EU civil servants ethics on constructing the common political identity as a desired outcome of the supranational political community. Since the late 1980s, the concept of European political identity has shaped academic debates and public discourse, being conceived as a final product of successful integration process that promises to serve as a plausible solution of the current institutional problems in the EU, such as: the democratic accountability of the EU, the legitimacy deficit, the distance between decision‐makers and demos and the lack of public support. Being professional career bureaucrats, both the supranational civil servants and the delegated national public servants have an important role in providing day‐to‐day administrative routine in the EU institutions, as well as in drafting and implementing the EU policies; indirectly, they enhance European political identity via shared values and goals on which is based the process of building the European political community through gradual sectoral integration. The author examines the mutual dependence between ethical behaviour of the EU civil servants in exercising supranational powers, their loyalty to European ideas, democratic legitimacy, public trust in supranational institutions, and the construction of the common political identity. The author concludes that, regardless of the future constitutional design of the European political community, only civil servants of strong moral and professional integrity, and being true Europeans, are capable of contributing to the construction of European political identity, as well as of being a model for citizens how to be a good European “constitutional patriot”.

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