Europe is often cast as lurching from one near-death experience to the next, from the eurozone crisis and Brexit to a pandemic and war on its borders.
And yet, it endures. In this talk, drawing on a new book by Catherine De Vries and Alexandros Kentikelenis (Oxford University Press, October 2026), we will discuss how the EU is better understood not as a machine moving towards ‘ever closer union’, but as a living political organism: incomplete, internally differentiated, and capable of adaptation under pressure.
This reframing shifts attention away from debates over ‘more’ or ‘less’ Europe and towards the ways European institutions, member states, and publics reconfigure authority, resources, and narratives in response to stress. The talk will elaborate on two concepts central to the book’s argument: adaptive strength, the Union’s capacity to improvise, learn, and recombine institutional instruments; and effective sovereignty, Europeans’ collective ability to shape cross-border outcomes that no member state can control alone. This conceptual toolkit offers a way to rethink Europe’s persistence without treating survival as either proof of success or a substitute for political choice.
At the EUI and the Robert Schuman Centre, we are dedicated to removing barriers and providing equal opportunities for everyone. Please indicate in the registration form your accessibility needs, if any. Alternatively, you can contact the logistics organiser of the event.
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