In the wake of the conclusion of the Maastricht Treaty, officials of the newly founded EU floated the idea to merge the Olympic teams of the member states at the Barcelona Games into one overarching European delegation.
As it was dismissed out of hand by the Olympic Committees of the member states, the suggestion never materialised.
Eight Games later, the EU is displaying a more mature approach.
During the launch of the European Medal Counter, EU commissioner Margaritis Schinas depicted the Paris Games as an incredible platform for demonstrating European unity through sport.
The Commission’s change in attitude towards the Olympic Games may illustrate the evolution in political thinking, which has taken place in Brussels and the Capitals after the foundation of the Union in 1992.
The idea that the national teams of the member states should dissolve themselves in favour of one EU Olympic team was derived from the political dream of the United States of Europe.
Long before the start of the World Wars of the first half of the 20th century, visionaries and philosophers had been writing in prose and poetry about a united Europe in which all people would become brothers and sisters.
After the two world wars, the political interpretation of this vision held that the process of European integration should result in the creation of a federal European State.
From that perspective, the establishment of the European Union in 1992 was a major step forward to the realisation of a cherished dream.
So, the best way to highlight the giant leap forward was to merge the national teams of the member states into one European Olympic team at the Barcelona games!
Outside Brussels, the mood was quite different. In Denmark, the people feared rather than welcomed the prospect of a federal state called the EU.
As they were afraid that the introduction of EU citizenship was the first step on the road to the relegation of Denmark into a province of the EU, the voters rejected the Maastricht Treaty in a referendum two months ahead of the Barcelona games.
Leaving the EU’s Olympic dreams in tatters, the Danish government obtained a written guarantee from Brussels that EU citizenship would not replace the national status.
Only after that reassurance had been given, the Danish voters approved the Maastricht Treaty in a second referendum.
Today, the lasting effect of their initial resistance can be found in Article 9 of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty which stipulates that EU citizenship shall be additional to and not replace the original status of the nationals of the member states.
Three decades onward, the dust surrounding the introduction of EU citizenship has been settled.
In Paris, not any of the athletes will be participating in the Olympic Games in her or his capacity as an EU citizen.
Instead, all competitors from the 27 EU countries will do so as citizens of their country. Yet, Brussels takes pride in portraying these games as the most European in history.
The aim of the Union is no longer to overtake or supersede the member states. Brussels has come to realise that the member states have created the EU in order to bring about the best versions of themselves.
At the same time, the member states regard this mutually recognised attitude as a precondition for the realisation of the common goals for the achievement of which they founded their organisation.
Seen in this perspective, the launch of the European Medal Counter symbolises the potential of the member states and their Union.
The change in the EU’s attitude towards the Olympic Games reflects the evolution in the political debate about the ‘end goal’ of the process of European integration.
The aim of the current EU is not to become a federal state. On the contrary, the 2007 Lisbon Treaty conceives the EU as a union of democratic states which also constitutes a democracy of its own.
The construction of the EU as a democratic Union of democratic States is the unforeseen but not illogical outcome of the member states’ drive towards ever closer union.
As a transnational polity of 27 member states and 450 million citizens, the EU has established a new model of democracy.
This young and fragile transnational democracy is under threat from enemies outside and within the Union.
Russian president Vladimir Putin regards the EU as one of his archenemies, while his crony, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, is trying to dismantle European democracy from within.
Both the European Commission and the European Parliament have recently shown a determination to defend the EU’s constitutional achievements, the latter notably by excluding Orbán's self-proclaimed ‘Patriots for Europe’ group from politically sensitive positions.
Perceived as a token of the will of the member states and the Union to protect and improve their unprecedented democratic Union of democratic States, the European Medal Counter may serve as an inspiration for all democrats in the member states and the candidate countries!
So, if the Commission takes its own effort seriously, it should also take the next step and put the European Medal Counter on display at the walls of the Berlaymont Building as a demonstration of European unity through sports!
Jaap Hoeksma is a philosopher of law, author of The European Union: a democratic union of democratic states and the recently-published The Democratisation of the European Union.
Jaap Hoeksma is a philosopher of law, author of The European Union: a democratic union of democratic states and the recently-published The Democratisation of the European Union.