The Addressees of the EU Internal and External Policy: De Jure and De Facto

The International symposium dedicated to the 120th Anniversary of Sofia University and the 50th Anniversary of the Commencement of the European Economic Community was organized by the Department of Logic, Ethics, and Aesthetics at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, the Italian Institute of Culture in Sofia, and the Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office Sofia. It was held at the SU main campus on 15 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd., known as the Rectorate, on September 23-25, 2008 as the news of the bizarre and troubling financial crisis poured in from all sides.

The conference organizers observed that since the last two enlargements of the EU a number of new challenges face its citizens, institutions, legislation procedures, economic and moral principles. The same recent developments have been affecting the EU allies, neighbors, friends, competitors, and critics. The conference was convened with the intention of examining how the Union copes with this situation through its various internal and external policies; and most importantly—to whom are these policies addressed. What are the reasons for optimism or pessimism? In a lively and friendly exchange, the participants and the audience spent two days enjoying themselves in defiance of the mounting financial catastrophe. The convivial gathering (based on a radical pessimism concerning the current state of affairs) maintained the highest level of scholarly rigor throughout the symposium and ended with an official dinner at the Czech Club just a short walk from the University.

The topics included in the current proceedings range from whether the European community is a political construction to who are the beneficiaries of EU expansion, cover the issue of the dismantling of the nation-state, touch upon the controversy of international law versus supranational sovereignty, consider European and American educational traditions as well as the opposite directions of reform export: from West to East and from East to West. A number of the papers presented could not be included in these proceedings for various reasons. Among them are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Dimitrova’s (Sofia University) "Challenges to the Common European Social Space Construction,” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Valentin Petrusenko’s (University of Plovdiv) “Institutional Framework of the New EU-Latin American Approach," Mr. Nicola Zambelli’s (Italy) "Philosophy of Mirroring in the Bulgarian Context," Mr. Ted Efremoff’s (USA) “Intercultural Collaboration for Artistic Response to Global Hatred," Ms. Hege C. Finholt’s (Boston University) "The Non-Sovereign Nation-State: A Cultural Interpretation of National Self-Determination," and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexander Gungov’s (Sofia University) “Intellectual Isolation in Europe: Some Reflections on the History of Italian Philosophy."

The editors hope that this collection will go some way toward dispelling the mist surrounding the fate of Europe or at least do it no great harm.