The European Union and the Member States: two different perceptions of border

Abstract

In this article we analyze two different perceptions of border inside Europe. On the one hand, we have the perception idealized by the European Union as an international organization, which believes that states benefit more from cooperation and dilution of borders in a common space than from keeping its borders as a symbol of its sovereignty. On the other hand, we have the European member states, taken individually, with particular interests and goals that, given the threat of illegal immigration, which is currently felt in the large-scale Europe, adopt a realistic perception of the border, and look at each territory as a space that needs protection from external threats. Following this argument, we reason that the current construction of walls in several European countries reflects the rebirth of a realistic perception of the border, and this is one more challenge for Europe regarding its unity and solidarity. Is this the end of the Schengen Agreement? What is going to happen to the European project if each state unilaterally adopts a strategy to deal with illegal immigration and refugees that are coming to Europe? Can immigration lead to a retrocession of the EU idealist significance of border?

Keywords:
European Union; European borders; Schengen Agreement; Frontex

Retracts the article: 10.1590/0034-7329201600103

The Board of Editors of the journal Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional - RBPI communicates the formal retraction of the article:

Cierco, Teresa, & Silva, Jorge Tavares da. (2016). The European Union and the Member States: two different perceptions of border. Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 59(1), e003. Epub May 24, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7329201600103

This article is being retracted due to the identification of passages without due citation and others reproduced verbatim without quotation marks nor attribution, mainly from the following works:

KOSTADINOVA, Valentina. Ambiguous Borders: The European Commission and the Reconstruction of Borders. University of Birmingham, 2010 (Ph.D. Thesis).

DALLY, Farah. States, Bordes and Human Rights: Border control between Lebanon and Syria. Lebanese American University, 2010 (Ph.D. Thesis).

MADSEN, Anna Katrine. Inside out - Inside In: Territorial, Intra-territorial and Extra-territorial Migration Management. Aalborg University, 2014 (MA Thesis).

Brasília, January 10th, 2020

Prof. Antônio Carlos Lessa

Editor-in-Chief

Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  2016

History

• Received
  13 Jan 2016
• Accepted
  07 Mar 2016