Fostering European Identity

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.

Europe around the corner? How border proximity and quality of government explains European identity

“…The party family variables indicate that green party supporters (party reference category) identify most with Europe, while far-right supporters are the least attached with Europe, in line with previous studies that highlight the socio-cultural cleavage in Europe (Bauhr and Charron, 2020a; Hooghe and Marks, 2009). Those with higher national attachment also show higher European attachment, which is consistent with many previous studies (Citrin and Sides, 2004; Hooghe and Marks, 2004). As to age, we find that the 18 to 29 cohorts has significantly higher attachment than those in 30 to 64, which is in line with the idea that younger people have been socialized as Europeans earlier in life than previous generations (Risse, 2015), although we do find that the relationship is curve-linear, with the 65+ cohort having equivalent attachment as younger people, all things being equal.…”

“…4 Citizens that live close to the border of another European country are more likely to be exposed to such repeated interactions. Elite communications, symbols and branding from the EU or governments about EU policies may influence identity formation (Bruter, 2005;Checkel, 2005;Ciaglia et al, 2020), and citizens that live close to the border may experience a heightened exposure to such communication. Furthermore, European integration sometimes transforms border communities that were previously rather peripheral or distant to the capital into more politically and economically important territories.…”

“…education levels. High education levels have been found to be strongly associated with these cross-border interactions and also to both European identity (Citrin and Sides, 2004) and European support (Gabel, 1998), raising issues of ceiling effects and endogeneity.…”

“…Given the heightened importance of identities in explaining political and institutional outcomes, studies seek to explain why some citizens identify with Europe more than others. While a range of both institutional- and individual-level determinants may affect identity formation (Bruter, 2005; Ciaglia et al, 2020; Citrin and Sides, 2004; Clark and Rohrschneider, 2021; Fligstein et al, 2012), studies also point to the potential importance of transnational experience, as well as cross-border mobility and contacts for European identity formation (Kuhn, 2012; Mazzoni et al, 2018; Prati et al, 2019; Van Mol, 2018). Trans-boundary regions have been described as ‘laboratories of European integration’ (Hooper and Kramsch, 2004: 3), and a European identity could therefore be expected to arise first and foremost among people that interact across national boundaries (Fligstein et al, 2008: 16).…”

ICCS 2022. Schulische Sozialisation und politische Bildung von 14-Jährigen im internationalen Vergleich

“…Eine ausgeprägte regionale oder nationale Identität ist somit nicht systematisch mit weniger europäischer Identität verbunden. Menschen, die sich ihrer Region und ihrem Heimatland stark zugehörig fühlen, können sich gleichzeitig als Europäer*innen fühlen (Ciaglia et al, 2020;Fligstein et al, 2012).…”