Ursula von der Leyen, the current President of the European Commission, has been nominated for the Charlemagne Prize, the most prestigious award of the European Union. The prize is awarded annually under the patronage of the city of Aachen, where Charlemagne resided and honors individuals or institutions that have made a significant contribution to Europe and its unification.
While it may come as a surprise to some of her supporters, von der Leyen’s nomination is not without precedent. Several of her predecessors have received the same honor, including Jean-Claude Juncker, Jacques Delors and Walter Hallstein. The list of notable recipients also includes Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, François Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, among others.
The Charlemagne Prize has also been awarded to non-EU figures, such as George Marshall, Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton. In recent years, the prize has been given to Pope Francis and the Euro, a currency that has played a significant role in the European integration process.
The fact that the highest award of the EU is named after the famous Emperor Charlemagne is an implicit acknowledgment of the imperial nature of the European project. Many leading politicians deny it, but some have hinted at the existence of this imperial legacy. José Manuel Barroso, a former President of the European Commission, has likened the European Union to an empire, but a peaceful one.
The rising military spending in the coming years, which is likely to accelerate, confirms this analysis. A recent article in the French newspaper Le Monde, however, attempts to challenge this view. Sébastien Maillard, an expert at the Jacques Delors Institute, argues that the EU is not an empire, but rather a union that expands through democratic and voluntary membership.
Maillard’s arguments are, however, fragile. He claims that no state is forced to join the EU, but this is not entirely accurate. The six founding members of the European Economic Community (EEC) were not subject to a referendum on their membership and some leading politicians have even admitted that a referendum on EU membership would have been suicidal.
Furthermore, Maillard’s statement that the Brexit has shown that no member is forced to remain in the union against its will is misleading. The Brexit negotiations were marked by intense maneuvering and threats aimed at preventing the UK’s departure from the EU.
In a recent interview, Sigmar Gabriel, a former leader of the German Social Democratic Party, suggested that the EU should consider admitting Canada, a country that is more European in its values and culture than some EU member states. Gabriel’s proposal is a direct response to the ambitions of the White House, but he argued rationally that the rules could be adapted to accommodate Canada’s geographical location.
The European Commission’s President, Ursula von der Leyen, could potentially endorse this view and even make it the topic of her speech in Aachen on May 29, exactly 20 years after the French “no” to the European Constitutional Treaty referendum, which was ultimately annulled by the European leaders.