Ethics of Transitions

Book IIIInstitutions and Innovations of Value

To the dearly departed and the forgotten and the yet-to-come, to those who have been and who will be stepping up, questioning, deep down, relating, resisting, crying, caring, dreaming up, acting up.

Europe of values (treaty and charter)

MY SISTER (formulating questions that open the way): How to lay the foundations for a construction (of texts, institutions, public action) that is based on values? What are the values that underpin the European Union? How to introduce a book (this book, Book III) about the issues addressed in the following pages: questions of institutionalization of ethics, of mobilization of expertise, of framings in which Transition is set alongside Ethics and Europe? That is to say, very concretely: which words should be here right at the start, which prerequisites, which preamble?

Preamble (foundation for common values)

The peoples of Europe, in creating an ever closer union among them, are resolved to share a peaceful future based on common values. Conscious of its spiritual and moral heritage, the Union is founded on the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity; it is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. It places the individual at the heart of its activities, by establishing the citizenship of the Union and by creating an area of freedom, security and justice. The Union contributes to the preservation and to the development of these common values ...