Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz
The article argues that the ever-closer Union among peoples of Europe finds itself at a critical junc-ture: the unstated and implicit assumption of a community made up of liberal democracies is beingchallenged and pitted against the rival rebirth of the nationalistic narrative of uniqueness and self-sufficiency. The readiness to live, or paddle together, is on the line as the once sacrosanct ‘evercloser union among the peoples of Europe’ seems to be the focal point of the principled disagree-ment that calls into question the very belonging to the community and its continued existence.Faced with these challenges, this article charts an interdisciplinary and holistic road map to grapplewith the big supranational questions of the day. It argues that the traditional European discoursemoves beyond the technical dichotomy of ‘market regulation versus deregulation’ and ‘Union com-petence versus Member State competence’ and instead zeroes in on the more fundamental ques-tions pertaining to mega-politics centred on the identity of the common legal order. While theanalysis appreciates the critical interaction between the legal dimension of European supranationalintegration—the search for optimal tools to safeguard the integrity of the supranational order—itstresses the importance of the ethical face—the narrative and justification that would explain in thename of whom the supranational governance and design acts when it defines and then defends itsnarrative and First Principles of the common legal order today in flux more than ever