On European Multiculturalism

International audienceThis text deals with the type of multiculturalism that is proper to Europe and analyses the relationship between such multiculturalism and the European political integration process. In so doing, it distinguishes between multiculturalism at the level of the European nation-states and multiculturalism at the level of the European Union envisaged as a whole. The analysis considers the diverse aspects of multiculturalism, especially the role of language, religion, history and the different ways in which the process of secularization has developed in the European member states. The text notably discusses: 1) the distinction made in Canada between multiculturalism and interculturalism and Charles Taylor’s suggestion that interculturalism is best suited to European nation-states (see Charles Taylor, Philosophy and Social Criticism, May/June 2012 38: 413-423); 2) the transition, in Habermas’ reflections on Europe, from the idea of a post-national European Federation to that of a European transnational democracy (see Die Postnationale Konstellation. Politische Essays, Frankfurt-am-Main, Suhrkamp, 1998; Die Verfassung Europas, Berlin, Suhrkamp, 2011). Finally, the chapter relates the question of cultural pluralism in Europe to the much-debated issue of federalism in the European Union