“European studies, what a bore!”

Despite the many challenges and questions that European integration poses to political science, this research topic nevertheless has the unfortunate reputation of being “boring.” The difficulty certainly relates to the “bad reputation” of the European Union itself, which is commonly considered to be baroque and incomprehensible. This short article takes the opportunity of the special anniversary issue of Politique européenne to question the role that the academic field of “European studies” may play in this reputation, and to outline some ways of improving the situation through the development of “European social sciences.”