This chapter is devoted to the concept of solidarity and its role in European integration discourse. I deliberately use the phrase ‘European integration discourse’ rather than ‘discourse about the European Union’, and the reasons for this will become clear once the meaning of the term has been explained. After initial conceptual analysis focused on a general meaning of the concept of solidarity and its possible divergences, I clarify my understanding of a discourse pointing out that the role of discourse goes well beyond its linguistic expressions. The discourse is presented as a constitutive factor affecting its whole subject matter. Being the basic vehicle of transmission of significance between the material and symbolic reality, the discourse determines the way in which material reality appears in social communication and, in effect, in people's perception. Within such an approach, the specificity of each discourse is determined by its organising units. The concept of solidarity, as applied to relations among European states, appeared in Schuman's declaration, in which it was one of the central organising elements of the discourse constituted by that declaration. ‘Solidarity’ has remained an important term in the description of the aims of European integration since then, but its meaning has changed over time, depending on the context. Solidarity of states may imply the responsibility of each state for the security of other states or for their well-being; well-being may refer to quality of life or to the quality of the natural environment or even to people's satisfaction with the domestic politics of their nation-state. However, the last example might be somewhat confusing.

Currently, the term ‘solidarity’ has ceased to be one of those crucial elements that serve as organising units of the discourse and has been replaced in this role by other terms, most recently by the concept of democracy. I attempt to characterise the nature of the tension between these two ideas – solidarity and democracy – and to explain the reasons that led to their clash. Making reference to the most recent changes in the European integration discourse and the reappearance of ‘solidarity’ within the new context, I attempt to reconstruct the current meanings of the concept of solidarity in order to estimate its potential which could be instrumental in a needed reorientation of the European integration process.