A critical analysis of the Eu’s image as a model for regionalism

Abstract

With its sui-generis institutional structure, the European Union (EU) is the most successful regional grouping in the world today. Therefore, it is usually referred to as a role model for other regional initiatives. In this respect, the mainstream literature puts its emphasis on the EU’s exportability to other regions as an example of diffusing regionalism. In this context, this research seeks to address how the Eurozone crisis has affected the concept of regionalism in Europe. Accordingly, it argues that because of the eruption of the crisis within the European political context, the EU’s image as the diffuser of regionalism might have been stalemated. This is because it triggered the nationalist and sub-nationalist waves along with the sentiments of Euroscepticism and antiglobalization all around Europe. In this vein, this article will investigate how the concept of regionalism is contested by the crisis context of the EU both at the sub-national and the supra-national levels.