Mémoire
| Résumé : | Solidarity as a somehow ambiguous, while highly contested, concept has been dominating a significant part of the EU's political discourse. As a European principle, it predicts sharing adversity and prosperity equally amongst member states. It appears that throughout multiple crises, solidarity has repeatedly been evoked but not properly practiced. Examples can be traced to the strict austerity measures imposed during the Eurozone crisis (2007), the unequal share of the refugee inflow between EU countries during the Schengen crisis (2015), and the delayed aid response during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). The coronavirus has accelerated pre-existing tensions outside and within the EU. In this unprecedented and fast-evolving crisis, the European Commission (EC) tries to adapt its mandate and objectives to fight the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how the concept of solidarity is constructed and employed in the official discourse (speeches, press conference statements, key notes, proposals) of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and what purpose it serves in relation to the management and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper performs a thematic analysis of twenty public discourses of von der Leyen, from March 2020-March 2021, and identifies the two main themes promoted in relation to COVID-19, namely, “European Identity” and the “EU as powerful actor”. The thematic analysis adopted a critical perspective and examined the political objectives that the president of the EC is trying to promote through principle of solidarity. Since EU solidarity has already been receiving growing attention in the last decade, this thesis offers new insights on the discursive construction of the concept and its employment as a political tool to solidify EU legitimacy. The circumstantial premise of Covid-19 offers the opportunity to conduct this research during one of the most defining global health crises of contemporary time. |
