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)
Summary
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.
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