Can a European consciousness be created?

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. A European Identity
2.1 The term of identity
2.2 Specific problems for a collective identity in Europe
2.3 The model of a European Identity

3. The creation of a European Identity
3.1 Politics
3.2 Institutions
3.3 Schools
3.4 Media

4. Conclusion

Bibliography

Can a European consciousness be created or engineered?

1. Introduction

Italians only eat pasta; all Swedish girls look gorgeous and the Germans only listen to folk music. These stereotypes do not specify whole nations but still paint pictures people can identify with. “The European” picture does not exist yet – neither on a culinary, nor on an aesthetic or musical basis. To get on with the European idea, a European Identity is inevitable. Without it, integration will never work to a satisfying extent and Europe cannot become the much-quoted “ever closer Union”. Only with a common identity will people be willing to stand up for each other and only with such an identity will the European Parliament and the Commission be fully legitimised. The first step into that direction is the creation of a European Consciousness, the idea to make people think of Europe as much as they think of their respective nationality. This essay will therefore analyse the concept of a European Identity and then break it down to the first steps to be taken – the idea of a European Consciousness.

Chapter 2 will first define the term of identity and then sketch the specific problems that arise in Europe where so many different identities are already established. It then draws up the image of a possible long-term identity for the citizens of the Union’s member states. Chapter 3 examines the process of setting this identity up, taking a closer look at several different agents that could help to speed up the process. Finally the conclusion summarizes the chances for a European Consciousness leading to a legitimising identity.

2. A European Identity

This chapter will try to establish a model for a European Identity. We will first have to take a closer look on the question what identity means in general and why it is important for the European Union (2.1). We can then analyse the special problems that could arise while working on a European Identity (2.2). Taking this knowledge as a basis, the general features for an identity for the whole of Europe can be put together (2.3).

2.1 The term of Identity

The term identity refers to labels we give ourselves. The culture we are brought up in, socialisation in our family and surroundings are factors that create our personality and make us identify with certain patterns of behaviour. Every individual has a self-defining picture that tells us who and what we are. Our personal identity is a mixture of the music we listen to, the view of the world we have, the political party we support and many more factors. While every individual has its own personality, there are also the so-called collective identities that define our belonging – or at least the feeling of belonging – to certain groups of people. Collective identity makes the individual feel belonging to a family, a social class, a nation or even a whole civilization. Schlesinger defines three major features of identity^[1]:

1) Inclusion and exclusion. While we see ourselves as being similar to people of the same generation, nation or social class, we also need to set clear frontiers to those who do not belong to these groups. “To be ‘us’, we need those who are ‘not us’.”
2) Creating traditions. Factors like manners, eating habits and especially common memories make us feel comfortable around people of our kind. Schlesinger sees the creation of ‘the other’ in those created traditions as well: “The dark side of memory is amnesia; to shed light is also to throw shadows.” Cultural groups that do not share these common memories tend to be seen as ‘the enemy’.
3) A spatial referent. Every group we feel belonging to has some kind of territory. Nations therefore need frontiers to form an identity.

Analysing a European Identity contains the same three factors.

Kocka mentions there is no inside without an outside and so a political European Union will have to define its borders very clearly.^[2] As ‘the other’, he suggests two major regions of reference that have been important for a long time and will, so Kocka, stay Europe’s ‘other’ for the future: One of these regions being the Islamic world. The differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are quite obvious. The other one being North America, where differences are not as evident because the basic values and view of the world seem to be quite similar. Kocka nonetheless sees the United States as a major ‘outsider’. To this day, a European Identity is mostly felt by Europeans when they are out of the Union. Germans, Italians or Portuguese will feel much more European when they are on vacation in the United States of America or working with companies from China. Exclusion therefore is much more immanent in Europe than inclusion will ever be.

European traditions are probably the hardest to establish on the way to a joint identity as will be pointed out at a later point of this essay.

The spatial referent of the European Union changes with every new wave of enlargement. The geo-political frontiers of the Union conform to the borders of its most outward countries. In the long run, there will have to be a territory that is considered as Europe – and not just as the sum total of the Union’s member states.

But identity does not only have an impact on the individual. More than creating a comfortable feeling for the citizens of a country, make them feel at home and belonging together, the citizens’ identity is also very important for the state itself as it means legitimacy. Every government, says Meyer, legitimises itself through three different factors: input-, output- and communitarian legitimacy, the latter being the political term for citizen’s identity.

Governmental Legitimacy

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

See Meyer: Europäische Öffentlichkeit als Kontrollsphäre: Die Europäische Kommission, die Medien und politische Verantwortung, 41

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^[1] Schlesinger, 2002, 194

^[2] Kocka, 2002, 11