Like any other state, the EU has had to invent its people: it shores up support for its project by encouraging and disseminating a collective identity beyond what is exhausted by the national mythologies of each member state. Often this is done through a variety of cultural projects that cut across borders and represent the sheer diversity of peoples, styles and current topics, attracting large audiences outside of the restricted circuits of EU technocracy. Nonetheless, such attempts to foster a dynamic, new culture are frequently strained because of the unresolved relationship between the new EU state and the new EU people that Balibar discusses. For instance, it is unclear how we might imagine the EU as a multicultural and egalitarian state, as its official imagery suggests, when it is frequently criticised as a top-down, neo-liberal economic project, promoted by EU technocrats. These complaints about the EU's democratic deficit should be taken seriously: they suggest an ever-widening gap between the circles of EU decision-making and the populations on the ground, as seen after the popular referenda opposing the EU treaty and widespread protests in Greece, Spain and other countries in recent years, where the people refused to be represented by the state, effectively overturning the statist idol.

Perry Anderson argues that, constitutionally, the EU is a caricature of a democratic federation, since its Parliament ‘lacks powers of initiative, contains no parties with any existence at European level, and wants even a modicum of popular credibility’ (2009: 23).