Abstract
Cultural Diversity is an important topos in the European Union. It is part of the Union’s self–portrayal, can be found in diverse legal instruments, is the rationale behind numerous legal provisions. At the same time, the concern for cultural diversity gives reason for grave reservations towards the Union. This article intends to assist, on the basis of international law, in distinguishing appearance and reality. The Union will be analysed firstly as a situation of application of the international law of cultural diversity, secondly as regional executive of this international law, and thirdly as its global promoter. It shows that international law and Union law reinforce each other.
The former conveys to the Union instruments to pursue European unification which at the same time serve its own implementation. Furthermore, it does not set limits to the European unity since it only protects cultural pluralism but not state–supporting identity, distinctiveness. A prerequisite for this consonance is that the Union’s constitutional law allows for political unity without cultural unity and that international law remains mute about important questions on European unification.
From an international law perspective, the motto of the Union thus is more illusion than reality; however, the international law perspective does not fully exhaust the problem. The conformity with international law alone cannot dissipate the concern for the future of cultural diversity in the Union.