Building an EU identity: Policy development at the EU-level – An overview of the current state

Abstract

The EU has, belatedly perhaps, engaged with the issue of building an EU identity by setting up various initiatives aimed at building a sense of civic society across Europe and hence of greater citizen identification with the EU. This article analyses EU policy formulations from the 1970s through to the very different conditions of the past decade. It also discusses the process undertaken by the EU institutions in order to establish the levels to which and the ways in which its citizens understand and ‘feel’ themselves to be members of the EU on a personal and individual as well as social and cultural level, if at all. The aim of the article is to establish whether this is considered sufficient for the ongoing operation of the EU, or, if not, what is lacking.