This proposal focuses on the European Union as a “State-in-being”, and questions the role of its territory and borders. The EU appears today as a postmodern political construct, founded on common values and norms, freed from the reference to a definite territory. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, an evolution may be seen in this matter, at least in two different ways. First, the debate about the “Europeanness” of Turkey showed the need to define what is “in” and “out” the European continent. Second, the immigration challenge reinforced the need for a “hard European border”, toward the South in particular. The Schengen implementation created – sometimes reluctantly – a representation of the EU as a common territory with a common frontier. The aim of this paper is to link this process of “re-creation” of the European external borders to the general revival of borders practices.
