Abstract

Over recent years, the concept of ‘European identity’ has received increasing scholarly attention. Despite this progress, political initiatives to foster a shared feeling of Europeanness still appear to be designed largely ad hoc. This contribution aims at providing a link between the existing state of knowledge and policy approaches to promote European identity. With a target group perspective, we develop a classification of measures to promote European identity. This classification is based on the distinctions between a ‘civic’ and a ‘cultural’ European identity. Within this framework, we assess seven proposals: transnational party lists for the European Parliament, an EU Citizens’ Assembly, EU consular offices, a Pensioners’ Erasmus, a ‘European Waltz’ program, an EU public service broadcaster, and a European bank holiday. We conclude that current identity strategies suffer from too narrow target groups that already tend to have a European perspective.

Highlights

  • The awareness that European identity is a relevant constraint for the future of the integration process is not new

  • As early as 1973, at the Copenhagen Summit, the Heads of State adopted a brief declaration on European identity emphasizing the ‘common heritage, interests and special obligations’ as essential for Member States’ foreign policy (Commission of the European Communities, 1973)

  • While the terminology was vague in these early years, a first, more substantial milestone was the ‘Adonnino Report’ (Commission of the European Communities, 1985)

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Summary

Introduction

Based on a synthesis of the theoretical and empirical literature of the last years, we identify important target groups that new programs should address and we develop a classification of measures. We assess the rationale of a few exemplary specific proposals for new identity triggers in more detail that are: transnational party lists, citizens’ assemblies, a European public broadcaster, EU consulates, a ‘European Waltz’ program, a Pensioners’ Erasmus, and a European bank holiday. Jacobone and Moro (2015) find a small positive effect of participation in the Erasmus program on European identity – directly, and indirectly through a reduction in national and regional identity and increased cultural exchange confidence, language skills and personal development.

Results
Conclusion
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