The European Union as a Civil and Political Paradigm for the 21st Century

The EU represents an institutional and ontological novelty that raises conceptual challenges to political theory. Indeed, the EU is key to understanding the civil and political community of the 21st century, suitable for the globalized world. Yet, the European project, and its main civic achievement, that is, Union citizenship, faces deep challenges in light of nationalist and populist discourses expanding all across Europe, as the case of the so-called Brexit shows. This articles aims at highlighting the political singularity of the EU and underlining the challenges it poses to political theory, stressing the reach and shortcomings of Union citizenship.