The Contemporary EU's Notion of Territoriality and Territorial Borders

In recent years the European spatial development policy discourse has taken an evident territorial character due to the fact that the spatial predominant conception of the EU (especially the idea of territorial cohesion) contributes to an evident emergence of a modern and sharpened territorial building of the new European space. By all evidence the idea of both territorial continuity shows how relevant the notion of territoriality in the “European discourse” is and consequently how accepted the instrument of hard and closed border and the sharp inside/outside dichotomy are. Due to this pragmatic notion of territoriality, the idea of the EU as a “non-Westphalian new empire” is at least unrealistic. Its borders are getting more territorial, physical and visible, in deep contrast with an imperial historical structure. Hard border policies and practices on the borders mirror the existence of a de facto barrier and of a deep “Westphalian memory” in the way to use the territory as support of political unity. The EU’s drive to re-territorialise Europe is not a mere academic question; it has real consequences for peoples, places, States and regions beyond the border. This process of re-territorialisation can impede interaction and cooperation across the EU’s external borders and stimulate complicated problems.