THE ROAD TO EUROPE,EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, ROAD NETWORKS AND THE EUROPEAN CITIZEN

摘要

Inspired by the endeavour a Dutch journalist, this essay embarks upon a quest forEurope’s elusive E-road network. The green plates used to indicate the routes of thenetwork are omnipresent, yet the network’s past has remained elusive. This is undesirable,because the network and its accompanying flows can provide an enriching perspective onthe process of European integration. Thus this remarkable phenomenon of the second halfof the 20th century can be freed from its tight link with the EU and its predecessors.After introducing these underlying themes, the essay depicts the history of the E-roadnetwork, especially in its early years. The essay focuses on three distinct but interrelatedaspects of the network, namely the technical specificities of the network, theaccompanying flows that it has supported and the ideological component of Europeanunification that was the rationale for promoting the E-road network.