Since the end of the second world war, Europe has been searching for its unity. Integration has taken place in virtually all areas of life even though very unevenly, and sometimes with ambiguous results. The aims of European unification, the form this should take and the philosophical basis of future European society are the subject of much disagreement. This article outlines an approach to these questionsthat of personalism-many of whose concepts find their practical expression in the

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... of what in Europe are known as the "integral" federalists. WHY EUROPE? European unification cannot be an end in itself. It is desirable if it contributes to the creation of a united, but not uniform world, and offers mankind a model for a new civilization which will be more attractive than that proposed by today's declining ideologies or the wrongly called consumer society. This study is concerned with the pre-political existence of Europe. 1 Apart from the fact that Europeans are less concerned about their national constitutions than Americans, the renewal of European civilization will not result simply from the constitutionalism of those Euopeanists who avoid all debate on the future of society with the argument that only the neutrality of the institutional framework of Europe will be able to attract the general support of conservatives, Christian-democrats, liberals and socialists. 2 These groupings to whom