The Eurostructure Manifesto

Europe has never been a matter of culture. It has never been a matter of values, principles or desires. From its very beginning, Europe has been a matter of world. For the architects of Europe, it was about guaranteeing, in the aftermath of World War II, the material conditions necessary for lives no longer subject to violence or war. The union they envisioned was a union of resources and networks, of materials and machines – a union that presented itself as a true cosmic infrastructure. Today, as Europe seems more in crisis than ever, we must remember this in order to find our way back to a construction that would no longer be imprisoned in a fantasized past. China has understood it and is currently working on a new terraforming of the Eurasian plate. Will Europe do the same? Will it rediscover what it takes to build a world?

Laurent de Sutter is an award-winning author, publisher and professor whose books have been published in fifteen languages. He teaches at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and Sciences-Po Paris. His latest book in English is Superweak: Thinking in the 21st Century (Polity, 2025).