Immunity or Community? Security in the European Union

This chapter sets out the argument that the securitization of the EU, in particular through the development of the area of freedom, security and justice, has transformed the EU project, and moved it away from a logic of community to a logical of immunity. These concepts of ‘community’ (communitas) and ‘immunity’ (immunitas) are derived from the writing of the Italian philosopher, Roberto Esposito. The point of the chapter is not give a detailed exposition of Esposito’s philosophy, but merely to appropriate the concepts advanced by him and apply them as heuristic devices in order to think critically about the securitization of the EU’s area of freedom, security and justice. I argue that, as a immunitarian project, the EU has left its ‘special path’, and can no longer be justified to the member states or to the citizens under a logic of community. I conclude by observing that there is an inherent contradiction in a project which seeks to further European integration by adopting a logic of immunity.