Is the European Union a "non-imperial empire" ? his is what the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, once stated in 2011. his oxymoron is doubly paradoxical because the term empire has long had a negative connotation for both supporters and opponents of European integration. It is therefore appropriate to return to historic precedents for the argument against a continental empire in Europe, and to examine past alternatives. his paper will look at the experiment of the Congress System (1815–1825) born out of the Congress of Vienna, when diplomatic delegations from all over Europe congregated after the cataclysm of the Napoleonic Wars. In particular, the treaty of the Holy Alliance, a collective covenant for peace, was signed in September 1815 by three great powers (Russia, Austria, and Prussia) that had in common their aversion to the empire of Napoleon. Yet the imperial element could not be removed from the picture, since Russia and Austria were themselves empires. Hence the discourse of the Holy Alliance inevitably led to fatal contradictions. Out of the paradoxes of that case study, we will highlight the fact that the European Union is less liable to become an empire than a directorate of great powers, with its attendant risks.
