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Integration and disintegration | 45 creates a ‘new feudalism, where social status is based on ethnicity, birth, or the goodwill of a powerful leader. For this tradition, the humanistic ideal of the Enlightenment is a naive myth, and in practice, it uses irrationality and heated emotions to undermine rational decision-making. Why this is interesting is that such forces, as Richard Ned Lebow puts it, almost invariably assert the distinctiveness and superiority of a people or nation. Claims of superiority and justifications for privileges based on them are really appeals to the principle of fairness and to hierarchy at the expense of equality. Elites who propagate these identifications and claims invoke all kinds of sleights of hand in an attempt to square the two principles, but rarely credibly in the eyes of other actors. (Lebow 2016, 6) It is easy to admit that in most cases, the European far-right shares many anti-Enlightenment clichés. However, other parties also follow such views, both in the centre, or on the far-left. The effect of the anti-Enlightenment tradition in European relations are twofold. First of all, it has the potential to block legislation that is based on humanistic, inclusive, and democratic ideals. As such, it generates disputes and conflicts among nations in these fields. Second, it also has the potential to alter decision-making (Ziegler 2020). To counter these tendencies, we should strengthen Enlightenment values at all levels of society, including in education. CONCLUSIONS Integration and disintegration among European countries is a multilayered, complex, and often contradictory phenomenon. At present, there is no scientific consensus to whether the disintegration of the EU is on its way, or not. As mentioned above, in my interpretation, the views and speculations about the EU falling apart are exaggerated. However, there are strong disintegrative tendencies, which can seriously hinder or reverse cooperation in certain fields. In this regard, the future of European cooperation is strongly tied to national preferences and the citizens’ value preferences. This means that how European nations see each other and what identity choices the citizens make will have a major effect on future cooperation both within and outside the EU.
