EU research policy as a transnational memory policy instrument? The framework programmes and the production of competing visions of Europe

Abstract

This article considers the history-based research networks funded by the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FPs). It sheds light on the interactions between the European Commission and scholars – Commission-appointed experts, funded researchers, but also scholars who disagree with the EU memory policy. Even if the scholars’ influence is significant, the FPs remain an instrument in the hands of the European Commission. The visions of the history of Europe brought forward are in conformance with official narratives highlighted by works on other EU memory policy instruments. This leads to a confrontation between ‘authorised’ and alternative narratives at European level. While the institutionalisation of European research networks as a form of knowledge production which is intended to be specifically European contributes to shaping ‘Europe’, the idea of the emergence of an autonomous ‘European memory space’ nevertheless deserves nuancing because of the FPs’ fragmented nature and of the role that national academic levels continue to play.