Inventing a European Identity?

The ideal of a common identity for all Europeans may be a goal the EU is working towards, but how realistic is it? There seems to be so many factors in the modern world that present obstacles against this ultimate goal that in my opinion, a real European culture and identity would never be formed.

Fundamentally, identity is created through our association with other people who share similar characteristics with us. For example, it would seem that we all identify ourselves with our families because there are inextricable blood links; but while family ties are so fundamental that we do create an identity around it, as the contexts of identity moves further and further away from the individual’s personal experiences, they become less and less necessary. For instance, although it may be important for us to have an identity in the social and professional spheres, these are not as important as our identity within our own family because that is the unit where our personal experiences lie the deepest; that is the identity we refer to should we feel displaced in the outside world. Similarly, taking the context of our identity to a national level, it can be seen that although embracing cultural identity is not a necessity to satisfy our need of belonging, there are nevertheless shared experiences with compatriots that exist in a shared history, language and culture, drawing strangers together with the feeling of nationalism; but even national identities are often unimportant nowadays as people move around the world more and more and incorporate elements of different countries into their lives.

In a European context, though, what is common between France and Germany, even though they are neighbouring nations? Yes, they are European nations, but they have languages that derived from different roots, political and economic climates that are vastly different from each other, and more importantly, their memories of the historical context they developed in would be incomparable – they were even enemies at war. How can the EU expect competing nations like these to forget their tensions, their natural boundaries, and share a single identity? Prejudices will always exist as long as people remember the past, and national customs that are ingrained in people are resistant to change – these are the things that make them unique from others. Hence ‘being European’ inherently has no meaning; however many arbitrary symbols, celebrations, television stations without frontiers are established, Europe consists ultimately of diverse identities that are irreconcilable. This should be the very idea that we celebrate and hold dearly; it is multiculturalism that makes human interaction worthwhile.

In the meantime, even if one day a European community truly existed, people still would not identify themselves as ‘citizens of Europe’, since it threatens to dilute their individuality; instead they would hold their most personal identities even more closely to heart to uniquely identify themselves. Therefore, while the EU can use cultural tactics in order to bring peace between the nations, there will still never be complete unity; it is an impossibility considering the circumstances of Europe.