Europe(an Union): Imagined Community in the Making?

Abstract

To argue the impossibility of reinforcement of a European identity in the current political climate, the authors of this paper first analyze several examples of use of the concept of European identity in influential political speeches and crucial EU documents. Presentation of evidence follows on the failure of this discourse as reflected in public opinion polls pertaining to identity. After briefly reviewing the status of contemporary theory on European identity, the authors apply to the European Union policies one of major social theories on cohesive, artificially forged communities with a detectable common identity as a precondition and a side-effect—Benedict Anderson's ‘imagined community’—to demonstrate that several current EU policies actually have a counter-productive impact on the identity-creation process. Finally, it is suggested what instead could be done—considering the contemporary contexts and the evolution of identity theory—for the European integration project to produce the desired and quite likely necessary sense of belonging with the EU citizens and thus continue to subsist and possibly prosper.