Abstract ▼

This article elaborates on the ideas surrounding the concept of European identity by looking both at the official documents of the European Union and academic literature on the topic. The analysis offered points out that the concept itself is highly questionable, not only because it does not offer a clear definition or limitations of such an identity and thus challenges further theorizing and applicability in practice, but also since it runs the risk of alienating the constituent parties and the peoples of the present European polity even further.

Abstract ▼

The European Parliament’s quest to provide a legitimising discourse for European Union enlargement led it to develop a compelling historical narrative to justify the entry of eight Central and Eastern European countries in 2004. This narrative was however built through the lens of Western European elaborations of historical myths and memory. Central and Eastern European representatives did not in fact share this historical identity, and use of the historical narrative fell by the wayside in debates of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession between 2004 and 2007.

Abstract ▼

This article seeks to take a historical and sociological view of the current European debt crisis. In particular I take a critical view of the rise of neoliberalism across Europe and seek to return to a consideration of the displaced tradition of European liberal socialism. Here I argue that liberal socialism contains many progressive ideas that can be linked back to the European Enlightenment and offers answers to the current wave of market-led globalisation. Here I argue that the idea of critical memory remains crucial to Europe’s future and its ability to be able to sustain a sense of citizenship and above all freedom for its people. Further I seek to link debates about consumerism and citizenship to the growing sense of resentment and anger that is currently spreading across Europe.

Abstract ▼

The idea of a European identity was launched as an attempt to hide the failure to link the social and the economic in the Werner Plan. It was an escape from political action and responsibility in a situation of economic and political crisis in the 1970s. In the 1990s, the identity concept was linked to the economistic internal market language. The European identity and the subsequent European demos would emerge through European citizens performing on and driven by the market. The emerging identity through the market would provide the preconditions of a European demos and a European democracy. Today the concept of a European identity has lost meaning due to the neglect of the social.

Abstract ▼

Is it possible to talk about European identity amidst the turbulence the Eurozone faces? Given the prominence of European identity during the last two decades, the absence of European identity claims in the present era raises questions about its relevance and political functionality. It may be interesting to go beyond questions such as ‘what is Europe’s identity?’ or ‘how can a European identity be more than a thin overlay of deeply rooted national identities?’, and to examine why political arguments are framed in ways that prioritise European identity in time t, while disregard it in t+1. In other words, what does ‘European identity’ do when it is invoked and validated by certain political actors or forces at a certain historical and political conjunctures?