Europe’s odyssey?: political myth andthe European Union

The article argues that the European Union, despite being a differentkind of polity, has political myths that are similar to those that have characterisednation-states. It examines two types of political myth – foundation and exceptionalism –and demonstrates that they have been used in an attempt to make the EuropeanUnion understandable and acceptable as a form of governing. The article also arguesthat political myths about the EU have had limited success not only because they arebased on the same content as national myths but also because they do not always con-form to recognisable narrative forms. The EU, with its ambiguous aim of creating ‘anever closer union’, does not provide the basis for sacred narratives that become norma-tive and cognitive maps that make the new polity ‘normal’ and provide the EU with on-tological security.