Stabilità e futuro del progetto europeo. La proposta habermasiana di solidarietà civica tra sistema e mondo della vita

Since the refusal of a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (2004), the skepticism about the European Internal Market and EU Institutions has increased in each Country of the Union. The increasing bureaucratic/technocratic attitude to governance of EU, internal market and eurozone, once deemed as progressive elements toward a peaceful and more affluent Europe, are now looked upon with concern. The article tries to explain this process through the Habermasian category of systemic colonisation: the independence achieved by a technocratic administration of EU and internal market (the two “systems” of bureaucracy and market) is jeopardising the correct functioning of the lifeworld (the social environment in which we shape our personal identities, we realise social integration and we define culture acquisitions and transmission). Furthermore, these negative effects put in risk the systems themselves, producing a lack of trust in the functioning of market and a luck of loyalty to the political institutions: because of this, European Institutions are seen as unable to solve social problems. Going through and beyond Habermas proposals, in this paper it will be argued that an European-wide redistribution program is fundamental not only for normative reasons, but also for pragmatical/strategic reasons: a civic solidarity policy can produce a new wave of trust in the European integration project that will lead to the stabilisation of the European Internal Market, a renewed loyalty to European Political Institutions and guarantee, in the meantime, wider room for social choices made on a communicative (and not only instrumental) ground.

Keywords: Habermas; Lifeworld; Systemic colonisation; European crisis; Civic solidarity; Eurodividend; Quantitative easy for people.