Working Paper - THE EU AS A CONTINENT WIDE POLITICAL ENTITY
Dr. Franck Debie is associate professor in political geography at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, and former director of the E.N.S. Centre for Geostrategic Studies.ì He has been director for policy planning in the UMP Party (2003), general director of the political foundation Fondapol (2004-2008), acting general director of the Fondation Chirac (2009), and policy director of the think tank European Ideas Network (2010).
In sabbatical, he is currently leading the team on long term trends within the Cabinet of the Secretary General of the European Parliament.
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What does the theory say about continent wide political entities? To what extend do those theories apply to the European Union? And what do they tell us about the role of the European Union on the world scene? Two contemporary French political geographers may provide some useful starting points for the discussion.
CONTINENTAL ENTITIES AS GLOBAL PLAYERS
Rather that speaking of "control", Jacques Levy distinguishes three levels of spatial organisation in every political entity 1:
- the strategic level ;
- the civilian level (norms, administrative organisation, public services) ;
- the democratic level (legitimacy institutions: churches, parties, trade unions).