Magazine / History / European Identity / Debate | 22/03/2007

European Identity

The EU is celebrating its birthday, but it's not quite sure of its identity. The celebrations suggest its story began 50 years ago, but does everyone see it this way? What is the nature of Europe? And where are its borders?

"We are coming ever closer together," says on the EU's official webpage on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The 25 March 1957 is regarded as the day on which the EU was founded. This was the day France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome, which was to lay the foundations for an economic and nuclear community.

The official logo of the EU for the 50th anniversary of the Rome treaties
Photo: European Commission

However, are less enthusiastic about the anniversary: "Europe remains unpopular," wrote Frenchman Jean-Pierre Denis on 16 March 2007 in La Vie, on the eve of the celebrations.

The anniversary is an attempt to create a foundation myth that is acceptable to all 27 EU member states. It represents an effort to find a common approach to European history from which a common European identity can then be derived.

A European history book?

The reactions to German Education Minister Annette Schavan's proposal for a pan-European history textbook have demonstrated how difficult it will be to find a common perspective on European history. Yet there is a consensus within Europe at least that the experiences of the Second World War, the Holocaust and Communism have succeeded in teaching the EU a lesson in transnational cooperation.

However, that still doesn't add up to a view of European history that is acceptable to all. "The biggest problem is that old and new Europe have such different perspectives on the Second World War," wrote Estonian journalist Erkki Bahovski on 7 March 2007 in Postimees, adding that the differences of opinion "are not just between individual states. Our own Russian minority has an entirely different view of history from that of the Estonians."

Can Europe be loved?

History provides us with little material to forge a common identity. So can we create one on the basis of the relationship of the EU with its citizens today?

Europe Day, which was celebrated on 9 May 2006, prompted Estonian journalist Tonis Erilaid to write in a disillusioned commentary in SL Ohtuleht that "the Europe which... started with a big bang must now finally admit that it has become little more than a luxury playground for homesick officials." Bureaucratic, incomprehensible and remote – this is the essence of the accusations levelled at the EU by its opponents and critics.

Pragmatists, however, regard this remoteness in a positive light. German legal expert Josef Isensee wrote provocatively in the January 15th edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that remoteness was "the secret to the success of organized Europe." He freely admits that the EU won't be winning any popularity contests, "but do you have to love the European organization, however useful and necessary it may be?"

It is precisely this question that Europe's intellectuals are responding to with a resounding "yes". "I love Europe" announced British historian Timothy Garton Ash "without hyperbole" in the January 30th edition of Prospect. He calls for a new "narrative of Europe" and proposes that everyone should participate in writing a European story which is woven from six strands, each of which represents a shared European goal - freedom, peace, law, prosperity, diversity and solidarity. "Woven together, the six strands will add up to an account of where we have come from and a vision of where we want to go.

Europe should not just be useful, German film director Wim Wenders also pointed out in November 2006 in Berlin: "Why have you let us get bored of Europe?!" he went on to demand. Europe, Wenders claims, must be made visible and tangible - something that can best be achieved through the images of his metier, European cinema: "There will be no European awareness, no feelings for this continent, no European identity and no ties unless we can keep our own myths, our own history, our own ideas and emotions IN SIGHT!"

Polish writer Aleksander Kaczorowski also thinks in terms of European images: "In spite of everything, the much disputed European identity comes over as alive and kicking, even in the sphere of art, where ideas and solutions are really put to the test," he writes in his review of the anthology "Last&Lost. An Atlas of disappearing Europe", published on May 9th 2006 in the Gazeta Wyborcza. "Although it's difficult to believe sometimes: we are genuinely proud of that dump called Europe."

On Europe's borders

But where does that "dump", which now consists of 27 countries, begin? And where does it end? Where are its borders? In an essay published on 2 January 2007, the French philosopher Regis Debray, for example, talks about the legacy of the Enlightenment which teaches us the "historical fact that all identities are formed 'by opposition'. And this goes for individuals as well as nations and even federations."

The question of the EU's geographical borders is raised every time a new country expresses interest in joining. Can a country like Turkey, with its predominantly Muslim population, become a member of the club of Christian Europeans? Could countries like the former members of the Soviet Union - for example Ukraine or Georgia - one day join the Union, or would their accession put a question mark on the identity of the EU?

The border issue is generally discussed in connection with European values. This was highlighted by the row following the publication in the Danish daily Jyllands Posten of the Muhammad cartoons in late 2005. All Europe reflected on how to balance European values like press freedom and freedom of expression against religious sensibilities.

"With over 20 million Muslim immigrants, Europe has brought the conflict with Islam upon itself and must now defend its values and principles, both within its own borders and without," wrote German author Peter Schneider in the Tagesspiegel of 23 February 2006, commenting on relations with Muslims in non-European countries, as well as with European Muslims. The ongoing debate on multiculturalism at Signandsight focuses on a similar issue, namely the limits of tolerance. One important thesis is that tolerance ends when fundamental European values such as the inviolability of the individual or equal rights for women are violated.

Diversity, crossing borders and fusion

However, other intellectuals shift the focus from borders and take a different approach to defining Europe. For them, diversity is the key to the formation of an identity than can be built upon.

"Public discourse on Europe demands categorical definitions of the traits of belonging, as if it were necessary to create a scheme for distinguishing European from non-European," Bulgarian-born writer Ilija Trojanov complains in the March 7th edition of the tageszeitung. "If we want to prepare ourselves for the future we must learn to regard borders as intersections that have enriched us in the past; as playgrounds for mixed cultures which are vital for the development of the continent."

So are borders basically redundant? In a speech delivered in November 2006, German philosopher Jürgen Habermas described how important border crossing is for the development of a European culture: " The sooner the thick mesh of national culture within the individual states becomes more receptive to citizens with different ethnic or religious backgrounds, the easier it will be to establish a common European identity. Integration is not a one-way street; when it is successful it revitalises strong national cultures in such a way that they become more porous, receptive and sensitive to influences from within and from without at the same time."

A different Europe?

Ukrainian author Yuri Andrukhovych, who has lived in several EU countries, shares Habermas' views but is deeply disappointed that they have failed to be implemented inside the EU - particularly as Ukraine continues to be marginalised. Andrukhovych's comments on Europe are followed closely within the EU as people consider him an important representative of the outside perspective. He is also in favour of border crossing: "In order to arrive at some sort of answer, one could assume that Europe exists wherever the local people believe that they are part of Europe. Or, to go one step further, wherever they consider themselves to be European. So Europe is a completely subjective term," Andrukhovych asserted in a speech delivered in Kiev in December 2006.

Polish author Andrzej Stasiuk adopts a similar stance. In the 4 April 2006 edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he wrote: "The true Europeans are those who uphold European values and know how to fight for them – those who are willing to sacrifice their lives and freedom for these values. If it's something else that makes a European a European, then we can forget the old continent."

Meike Dülffer

Meike Dülffer was an editor for euro|topics. She studied Slavic studies, Eastern European History and Politics. She trained as a journalist at Berliner Zeitung before ...
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