POLITICS AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

IS 584 N

Course Instructor

Prof. Rajendra K. Jain

TERM PAPER

THE QUESTION OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY

Submitted by

Muhammed Kunhi
 THE QUESTION OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY

Since the end of the Second World War, Europe has changed dramatically, with the establishment of
various international, regional and sub-regional institutions and the development of an unprecedented
peaceful atmosphere in the history of modern Europe. Among the changes that occurred in post Second
World War Europe, the development of the European Union is the most significant one and which
brought about some unimagined changes in the European political system. The development of the
European Union through several integration processes has reshaped modern Europe in its social,
economic and political levels. By the development of the European Union, the Europeans (members of
the European Union) achieved some form of unity and integrity in various political and economic matters.
The so called “Eurozone” is the best example to show as a greater change occurred in Europe due to the
development of European Union. But still the question of „identity‟ of the European Union is very very
complicated in all sense.

The precise nature of the European identity is not a settled matter, however, and social scientists seem
divided over its significance in everyday lives and its likely consequence for social cohesion. Some
emphasize European identity as a stepping stone in progress from divisive nationalism to an inclusive
global citizenship. Others see „Europe‟ as remaining an empty category meaning different things to
different people and nothing much to many, and consequently of little consequence for social integration1.
According to Bauman European identity involves a utopian vision of Europe as „a hospitable user friendly
planet determined to attain and secure a sustainable life for all its residents‟2. On the other hand, some
researchers refocus attention on the possibilities of European identities that have little resonance with
inclusive civic engagement or imagining a broad community. Breakwell argues that the continued
„emptiness‟ of Europe is devoid of any widely shared social meaning; how people choose to give
meaning to Europe is very much contingent on other aspects of their identity, including their national
identity.3 For some scholars, national identity is a transitory „identity claim‟ made in only some social
contexts, deployed for particular audiences and occasions. If European identity claims are even more

1
Grundy, Sue and Jamieson, Lynn (2007) “European Identities: From Absent-Minded Citizens to Passionate
Europeans”, Sociology, Volume 41, Number 4, pp.663-680
2
Bauman, Zygmunt (2004) Europe: An unfinished adventure, Polity Press, Cambridge.
3
Breakwell, Glynis M. (2004) “Identity Change in the Context of the Growing Influence of European Union
Institutions”, in Transnational identities: becoming European in the EU,Richard K. Herrmann, Thomas Risse-
Kappen, Marilynn B. Brewer (Eds.), Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Lanham.
sporadic and less fundamental to their sense of self, they seem unlikely to be the basis of desiring or
striving for „a hospitable user-friendly planet.

Debates about European identity have intensified in the context of the EU‟s eastward enlargement and the
EU's Constitutional and Lisbon Treaties. Although the motto "unity in diversity" is generally seen as best
describing the aims of the EU, opinions differ widely as to how it should be understood. The preamble to
the Constitutional Treaty signed in October 2004 states that “while remaining proud of their own national
identities and history, the peoples of Europe are determined to transcend their former divisions, and,
united ever more closely, to forge a common destiny.”4 But, why has the European Union introduced a
„common cultural policy‟ against the backdrop of the motto “unity in diversity”? Why did Jean Monnet,
the founding father of European Union confess that "If we were to do it all again we would start with
culture”5What is the force behind Germany‟s intention to introduce an EU-wide common history book?
How can we look at the clear-cut “No” to the EU constitution by the two founding members, France and
Netherlands? All these developments in European Union direct us to more significant questions like why
even after long six decades of functional integration, the “spill over” effect does not spread to the pillars
like Security and Foreign policy in a competent manner? Does Europe fear anything which seems as a
hurdle to future integration?

A careful look at the aforesaid developments unveils the fact that European Union is facing an identity
crisis which is unparalleled in the history of its integration. Introduction of European Citizenship,
European Cultural policy and Germany‟s proposal for introducing a common EU-wide history book are
some of the institutional responses towards this crisis. These institutional responses are the imminent
outcomes of the realization that the absence of an “imagined identity” will affect their integration process
in the future. In other words, there has dawned a realization that legal and economic integration alone will
not create a united Europe6. But, do these initiatives lend a hand to unified Europe to surmount their
identity crisis? To answer this question, first, one should consider the question, what constitutes
„European identity‟? The purpose of this historical examination is to know who the major players were
and what roles, memories and myth/illusions have in European identity construction. This examination
also helps us to unveil the politics of exclusion/inclusion which has been practiced by Europe through the
ages and European Union since its formation. The essay will essentially be a critique of the common

4
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2004:310:0003:0010:EN:PDF
5
Cris Shore, Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration (London: Routledge, 2000), p.
6
Monica Sassattelli, (2002) “Imagined Europe: The Shaping of a European Cultural Identity Through EU Cultural
Policy”, European Journal of Social Theory, Volume 5, Number 4, pp. 435-451.
inclination to identify the people of Europe as one-„European citizen‟ and to make out the European
Union as the model of regional integration7. It will also look at the possibility of the formation of a single
European identity through the integration process.

The major hypothesis put forth in this essay is, memories, myths and illusions have played a significant
role in the so called “European identity” construction. That is rooted in their bitter historical memories
rather than a celebrated past and rational humanistic culture. The rational humanistic culture of Europe
was an illusion based on „white middle class logic‟. The memories of World Wars rather than the
inheritance of the enlightenment gave velocity to the European integration process. The European
Integration and the formation of European Union has been promoting a politics of exclusion rather than
constructing a single European identity. And the construction of a single European identity is one of the
significant threats to the European Union and its future.

This essay is structured as follows. The first section undertakes a review of major theoretical debates
about the European integration, because it will be helpful to get a clear picture about the overall argument
and the views of this essay. Then, the essay will engage with concepts like memory, myths and illusion
and its link with identity construction in general and the European Identity construction in particular. This
is followed by an analysis of how national identities and symbolisms have been working in the Union,
which will shed light on the competing and conflicting identities in Europe. The next part of the essay
examines European identity construction and the politics of exclusion/inclusion both in the history of
Europe and the European Union. Historical construction of European identity, polices towards member
states, membership politics especially the question of Turkish membership, European migration policies
will be focused-upon here. The conclusion will discuss the implications of these exclusionary politics and
its promotion to the future European integration and the possibilities of a single European identity
construction.

Theoretical Understanding of the European Integration

Inter-governmentalism, Functionalism and Neo-functionalism, three major theories of European

integration are firmly committed to a rationalist ontology which is agency centered 8. In other words, their
analyses focus on the central role of nation-states in the process of European integration.

7
Lisheng Dong and Gunter Heiduk (eds.) (2007), The EU’s Experience in Integration: A Model for ASEAN+3, Peter
Lang, Bern.
8
Thomas Risse and Jana K. Grabowsky,(2008)European Identity Formation in the Public Sphere and in Foreign
Policy, RECON Online Working Paper 2008/04.
Intergovernmental theorist takes actors‟ preferences are „given‟ and argue the preferences of actors
(nation-states) that leads to the integration9. According to them, the substantive and institutional
development in the post war Europe can be explained through the analysis of national preference
formation and intergovernmental strategic interaction10. They emphasized the central importance of
power and interest. Since, its inception European Community has been based on interstate bargains
between its leading member states. Functional theorists search the possibility of bringing states
functionally together to achieve the common interest. But, through dichotomizing the political process as
„high and low‟ they inevitability miss the link of different factors and variables in the integration
process11. The neo-functionalist approach has traditionally focused on the process of integration through
spill-overs. It helps us to move a step beyond the rational-choice by saying about the transformation of
loyalties from national to supranational interest12.Social Constructivism, the other leading theoretical
approach for analyzing European integration, focuses socially constructed identity of actors to follow
their interests13. Collective social environment, rather than rational individual state is their analytical
units. They persists on the mutual comprise of structures and agents14.

There are three different streams of discourse in European milieu. Each of them focuses on different
subject matter and themes. The first theme can be identified with the notion of ‘Europe: one or many’15.
Second stream sees Europe as a „post-modern Empire‟16. The third one relate European question to the

9
Moravscik, Andrew (1993) “Preferences and Power in the European Community: A Liberal Intergovernmental
Approach”, Journal of Common Market Studies, Volume31, Number 4, pp. 473-524
10
Ibid
11
Mitrany, David (1971) “The Functional Approach in Historical perspective” International Affairs, Volume 47,
Number 3, pp. 532-543
12
Haas, Ernst B.(1970) “The Study of Regional Integration; Reflections on the Joy and Anguish of Pre-theorizing,”
International Organization, Volume 24, Number 3, pp. 607-646.
13
Wendt, Alexander (1999) Social Theory of International Politics , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
14
Adler, Emmanuel (1997) “Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics” European Journal of
International Relations, Volume 3, Number 3, pp. 319-63
15
Hudson, Ray(2000) “One Europe or Many? Reflections on Becoming European”, Transactions of the Institute of
British Geographers, Volume 25, Issue 4, pp.409-426.
16
Behr, Hartmut (2007), “The European Union in the Legacies of Imperial Rule? EU Accession The European
Union in the Legacies of Imperial Rule? EU Accession” European Journal of International Relations, Volume 13,
Number 2, pp. 239-262.
language, gender, national traditions and socio-economic divisions17. This essay seeks to analyze the
European identity crisis (crisis in the construction of identity) by incorporating afore said three recurrent
themes.

Europe's unification began with the Treaty of Rome, formed European Economic Community for
providing cooperation in economic matters in functional level.18 Through the 'Spill over' effect19 and
federal-functionalist cooperation20, it became a multi-level polity. The Maastricht Treaty which had given
a new structure and shape to the European Union and institutionalize the integration process in a brisk
phased manner. The Treaty also heralded a 'new contention' (European identity is a contested one in the
periods) over the concept of 'European Identity' (European Union Identity) through the creation of
European Union Citizenship. Before going to examine construction of European identity, it is essential to
know the concept of identity and its construction.

Anderson speaks about the constructed, imaginary nature of collective identity21. Identity is people‟s
concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how they relate to others.22 In Locke‟s
view, a person‟s identity extends to whatever of his or her past he or she can remember. For him memory
is a constitutive of personal identity. Memory connects past and present within one uninterrupted
sequence is a condition of a unitary consciousness what makes an individual identical with himself
throughout the time and the corporal changes the passing of time inevitably brings. Erikson‟s term
“identity crisis” has implicitly defines “identity” as one‟s feelings about one‟s origins.

Equating these notions with the collective memory and collective identity look like more accurate.
Maurice Halbwachs noted that people generally acquire memories from the societies. They recollect,
recognize and reconstruct their memories in the society itself23. Thus collective identities are the outcome

17
Waever, Ole and Hansen, Lene (2008) European Integration and National Identity: the Challenge of Nordic
States, Palgrave Macmillan, London. and Anthony D. Smith,(1992) “National Identity and the Idea of European
Unity”, International Affairs, Volume 68, Number 1, pp. 55-76.
18
Alan, S. Milward, (1993) The European Rescue of the Nation State, Routledge, London.
19
Ernst B. Haas, (1958) The Uniting of Europe, Stanford University Press, Stanford.
20
Richard Münch, (2001) Nation and Citizenship in the Global Age: From National to Transnational Ties and
Identities, Palgrave, London.
21
Benedict Anderson, (1991) Imagined Communities, Verso, London.
22
M.A. Hogg and D. Abrams, (1988) Social Identifications: A Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations and Group
Processes, Routledge, London.
23
Maurice Halbwachs, (1992) On Collective Memory, translated and edited by Lewis A. Coser, Chicago University
Press, Chicago.
of collective memories. Allan Young argued that memory is the proof as well as the record of the self-
existence, and struggle over memory is the struggle over the self‟s most valued possessions24. Memory is
central to the construction and reproduction of political and social identities. In a nutshell, memory plays
a significant role in determining the dynamics of individual and collective identity formation. These
processes are central to the origin and reproduction of individual and communal identities as well as
explaining the various challenges and transformations of such identities.

Social identity is a part of an individual identity that is shared with others. It can be defined as “self-
definitions in terms of social category membership”25. They are formed in the negotiation between
ascription by others and assessment by oneself. Collective identity is an identity shared among members
of a group. It is not seen as something naturally given, but rather as something that is constructed through
interactions with others. Collective identity as a shared and interactive sense of “we-ness” anchored in
real or imagined shared attributes and experiences, in relation or contrast to one or more actual or
imagined sets of others and a corresponding sense of community26. Thus, the identity of a collective
consists on the one hand of the common consciousness of individuals to belong to a social entity that is
marked by specific characteristics27. On the other hand it consists of a feeling of belonging together.

Construction of European Union Identity

Treaty of Lisbon says “Drawing Inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of
Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the
human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law”28. What was the cultural, religious and
humanist inheritance of Europe? Even though, European past was a disputed one, scholars have a
widespread predisposition to glorify European history and to project a unified European identity. 29 Also

24
Allan Young, (1995) The Harmony of Illusions: Inventing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Princeton University
Press, Princeton.
25
J. C. Turner, (1999) “Some Current Issues in Research on Social Identity and Self-categorization Theories”, in N.
Ellemers, R. Spears, & B. Doosje, eds., Social Identity: Context, Commitment, Content, Blackwell, Massachusetts
26
D.A. Snow, (2001) “Collective identity and Expressive Forms”, in N. J. Smelser & P. B Baltes (eds.),
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences , Oxford, UK: Elsevier, Volume 4, pp. 2212-
2219.
27
J. C. Turner (1987), Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-categorization Theory, Oxford: Blackwell.
28
Treaty of Lisbon Article 1 Preamble 1 (a), For more details see http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/ Full_text/
index_en.htm.
29
Will Durant, (1935) Our Oriental Heritage, Simon and Schuster, New York. Also see Charles G. Nauert Jr.(1996),
Humanism and Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
there are a plenty of works which made scholarly criticism to this manipulated perceptions.30 The much
celebrated European past and European identity is constructed „grand illusion' and their history glorified
as the history of humanity and democracy31. In history there have been the ideas of a Europe of a common
descent and heritage, dating back to the Roman-Greek civilization. The invention of a historical
continuity between the ancient Roman Empire and the Carolingian empire represented the first
construction of a European unity and identity.

The European identity is often described in a somewhat high-flown manner as having its foundations in
antiquity; free thought, individualism, humanism and democracy had their cradle in Athens and Rome.
On the other hand, neither Greek nor Roman civilizations can be described as European. Both were
Mediterranean cultures with centers of influence in Asia Minor, Africa and the Middle East. Following
the Reformation, a large part of continental Europe was preoccupied for several centuries with religious
wars and rivalry between Protestants and Catholics. European ideals are traced back to the Renaissance
instead and the concept of the individual as the smallest and inviolable element of society. People in
Europe always like to identify them with the Renaissance and Enlightenment. But it is remarkable to note
that the outcome of Renaissance and Reformation was modernity with a dual temperament. It only
manifested a middle class European secular identity and led to the emergence of parochial ethnic
nationalism. Emergence of an alternative modernity was obvious there. Capitalism was essentially a
byproduct of the Renaissance and Reformation and it could not free from the debris of Christianity.
Zionism was a European product.

The European cultural identity in the past was not a unified, democratic, civilized one, as they are
claiming. There were various examples which explicitly shows the fragmented and undemocratic,
irrational European behaviors. The present infallible cultural identity of the West is an illusion based on
the white middle class logic. Anthony Pagdon correctly observes there are no „European identity‟ and
those who have argued that any such thing as a European identity is, at best an illusion32. Locating the
European identity in the inherited Judaeo-Christian religion, the Greek-Hellenistic ideas, Progress,
Reason, represents only a specific Eurocentric and elitist set of ideas, which are (partly) rooted in the

30
Edward Said (1979), Orientalism, Pantheon, New York. Janet Abu Lughod, (1989) Before European Hegemony:
The World System AD.1250-1350, Oxford University Press,New York.John M. Hobson, (2004) The Eastern Origins
of Western Civilization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
31
Judt, A Grand Illusion? An Essay on Europe (New York: Hill &Wang, 1996); Said, Orientalism, 1979.
32
Anthony Pagdon, (2002) The idea of Europe from Antiquity to the European Union, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
nineteenth century imperial project33. However, Europe does not only represent modernity and tolerance
but religious persecution, not only democracy but fascist dictatorship as well. In other words, European
identity cannot be defined on grounds of cultural heritage and history, and even less can it be used as the
basis for European domestic and foreign policies. It is obvious in the history of colonial age that how the
Europeans treated the people and territories. The colonial subjects were considered as inferior.
Colonialism divided the world population in various types. The dichotomies of “civilized and savage”,
“white and black” are a colonial construction. Imperialism is more authoritative than any other form of
government, hitherto. It is based on the concept of “primitive” and savage and rest upon the moral claim
of civilizing mission.

Racism and genocide were invented in Europe in the twentieth century. Muslims, Jews, Basques, and
Scots are some victims. Netanyahu provides a significant account of the annihilation and expulsion of
Jews in 15th century Spain34. Anti-Semitism is a very old and deeply rooted cultural trait that has found a
specific political expression since the 19th century initially in the context of the development of racist
ideology and later in the context of national socialist ideology. This sentiments of Europe is not a story of
past. In France, there were at least two arson attacks on synagogues in 2003, and more recently, on the
night of March 22, 2004, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Jewish community center in Toulon that
houses a synagogue. In the Jewish community in Uccle, Belgium, the GanHai day-care center was
ransacked, on July 9, 2003, with excrement thrown against windows and posters written in Hebrew.

Since, the inception of European Economic Community, the construction of European Union identity was
based of negative memories of European history rather than a celebrated past. „In the beginning of
European integration, there was no future, only the „recent past‟35. It seems like an irony that generally
nations celebrate glorious events in their history, but in the context of Europe it was a unique experience
of a catastrophe, the Second World War brought Europeans as one. In other words, the peoples of Europe
were united more in what they rejected, rather than what they aspired for. They were determined to make
it impossible for anyone to make another war in Europe. „Never again war, never again Nazism, these
were the founding myths of the project of European Unity‟36 The foundation of European Economic

33
NederveenPieterse, J. (1994) “Unpacking the West: how European is Europe?” in A. Rattansi and S. Westwood
eds., Racism, Modernity, Identity: on the Western front, Cambridge: Polity, pp.129-49
34
Benzion Netanyahu, (1995)The History of Inquisition in 15th Century Spain, Random House Publishers,New York.
1995).
35
M. Leonard,(2005)Why Europe will Run the 21st Century, Perseus Books Group, London.
36
Tony Judt, (2005) Postwar : A History of Europe since 1945,Penguin, New York, pp. 803-834.
Community was neither a sign of European strength nor an expression of its historical identity, but it was
an admission of weakness.37

The political challenges of dealing with historical legacies were obvious in the European integration
process. Europe sees integration as a remedy to centuries of imperialism, war and other kinds of inter-
state conflicts, and is shown as the only possible alternative to Europe‟s self-destruction and decay. The
preamble of the draft treaty of the constitution for European Union said “Believing that Europe, reunited
after bitter experiences, intends to continue along the path of civilization, progress and prosperity, for the
good of all its inhabitants. The coming in terms with the past has become a core principle of EU
integration. “European integration shows that we have learnt the painful lessons of a history marked by
bloody conflict. Today we live together as was never possible before. […] With European unification a
dream of earlier generations has become a reality. Our history reminds us that we must protect this for the
good of future generations.”38 These clearly highlight the memory of the Second World War rather than
the inheritance of Renaissance and Reformation, united Europe as a community.

Fall of Berlin wall and the process of globalization have a decisive impact on the reconstruction of the old
identities in Europe. One can distinguish the shaping and reshaping of these identities through the
integration and fragmentation. The geographical framework of the Europe and European identity is
challenged by the contemporary integration processes. The collapse of Soviet led communist bloc again
reshuffled the European identities. The distance between Western, Eastern and central European identities
geographically abridged but the cultural gap amplified in an unprecedented manner. The unity of Europe
can only be conceived as multiple and complex, bringing together many contradictions, such as law and
force, democracy and oppression, spirituality and materialism, reason and myth. Use of historical myths
referring to a common Christian heritage was explicit in this construct. In fact, „Europe‟ is a forest of
ideas, symbols and myths. It is also in many ways a mirror that reflects the image of a multitude of
concepts and meanings, rather than a prism that concentrates the minds and hearts of its peoples around a
single central theme.39 Hence, the European identity is not a homogenous one that one can easily
identified with the Greco-Roman empires or the phenomena of the Renaissance and Reformation. It was a
complex construction of differences, both positive and negative variables in their history.

37
Gerard Delanty, (1995) “The Limits and Possibilities of a European Identity: A Critique of Cultural Essentialism”,
Philosophy and Social Criticism, Volume 21, Number 4, pp. 15- 36.
38
Declaration of Principle,
39
Peter Van Ham, (2002) European Integration and Postmodern Condition: Governance, Democracy and Identity,
Routledge, London. p.49
National Symbolism in European Union

A whether forecast from Great Britain might be like this, “Europe is isolated due to huge fog”. People in
Great Britain regard themselves as „Europeans‟ but they speak about „Great Britain and Europe‟ to stress
their differences with continental Europe. People of Kingdom of Sweden sometimes regard their position
as one outside the European continent and then refer to Denmark as “Where the continent
begins.”40„Europe is not one, there are many Europe‟. Several authors explore the subtle ways in which
national identity is framed and politically mobilized in relation to European integration. The national
memories of individual states are there in the Europe sometimes as a hurdle to the European deeper
integration. The “Europe” now exists as an economic and increasingly political entity. But this has no
wider cultural or affective meaning. It merely describes the signatory states of the Maastricht Treaty.41.

The ESRC project on “One Europe or Several” has cast light on the how do Europeans imagine Europe
and how the feeling attached to one‟s nation prevents people from sharing a sense of belonging to
Europe? National identity, based on ethno-cultural elements, is stronger and could be represented as a
kind of inner circle, while a European identity, based more on instrumental elements, is weaker and could
be thought of as an outer circle. 42In other words, the attachment to national identities is stronger than the
attachment to a European identity. The national identities primarily, cultural based on a common
language, shared customs and culture, or a common religion. European identities, on the other hand, has a
more pronounced „instrumental‟ dimension. The Swiss and Norwegian cases shows that European
integration process is not perceived as an economic necessity, cultural and political factors may have
decisive impact. This rejection of membership by Norway is bounded with their national belonging.

The blends of identities in Europe are usual.43 In 1992 a survey that explore the multiple identities in
Europe unveils 23 percent of the people envisage their “country‟s identity disappearing over time if a
European Union came about”44. With reference to the nexus of these identities to each other, the most
prevalent proposition is that national identities are rooted or nested in, rather than antithetical to,

40
Hans Slop, (2000) European Politics in the Twenty-First Century: Integration and Division, Praeger, London.
41
Anthony Pagdon, (2002) The idea of Europe from Antiquity to the European Union, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
42
http://eiop.or.at/erpa/one.htm
43
B. Laffan, (1996) “The Politics of Identity and Political Order in Europe”, Journal of Common Market Studies,
Volume 34, Number 1.
44
Gary Marks, (1999) “Territorial Identities in the European Union,” in Regional Integration and Democracy:
Expanding on the European Experience. Jeffrey J. Anderson, (eds.), Rowman& Littlefield, Lanham. pp. 69-91.
European identity. According to a Eurobarometer survey published in May 2008, which carried out on 31
countries (27 EU member state and four candidate countries), 91% of the interviewers felt attachment to
their own nations rather than European Union and only 49% felt attachment to the European Union45.It is
easy to observe the populist right-wing political parties in France, Denmark, Italy and Austria, tap
nationalism and ethnocentrism to throw out further integration.

Alan S. Milward in his classic “The European Rescue of the Nation State” argued the objectives of nation
states was not to construct new cross frontier organization, but to retain the now threat nation state
system.”46. Attachment of citizens to their national identity is quite a strong feeling in Europe. European
countries are inevitably divided by their history. It is neither possible nor desirable to level out the
national identities of member nations, nor melt them down into a “Nation of Europe”47. Hence, the
European Union is a community of conflicting and shared memories that one nations celebrating
memories becomes another one‟ haunting. From the above discussions it is clear that European identity
construction was led by both positive and negative factors and they are also obsessed with their national
identities.

Identity Politics of European Union

What is the link between identity construction and the politics of exclusion/ inclusion? Construction of a
particular identity needs both exclusion and inclusion. Identity construction is the way individuals and
groups define themselves and defined by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, and
culture. According to Wendt identities are relatively stable, role-specific understandings and expectations
about self48. The term identity locates mutually constructed and evolving images of „self‟ and „other‟49.
Identity refers to the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in their social relations
with other individuals and collectivities. The construction of an „other‟ and the confrontation with this
intimate enemy lies at the heart of identity politics. The notion of collective identity which help to define
the community they belong to and the formation of such a community will not only lead to a definition of
the 'self', but also creates the 'other', and thus to both inclusion and exclusion of people.

45
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb68/eb_68_en.pdf
46
Milward, (1992) European Rescue of the Nation State, University of California Press, California.
47
Jurgen Habermas, (2001) The Postnational Constellation, Polity Press, London.
48
Alexander Wendt,(1994) “Collective identity formation and the international state” ,American Political Science
Review, Volume 88, Number 2, pp. 384–96.
49
Peter J.Katzenstein, (ed.) (1996), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics,
Columbia University Press, New York.
The two strategies are at hand to combine the identities of the groups to which one belongs. The inclusive
strategy is additive and preservative. The shared in-group identity is enlarged to incorporate the whole
members of the involved identity groups. For example, one feels a sense of belonging to India and to the
Hindu religion and identifies with all Indians and all Hindus worldwide. In the process or the strategy of
Exclusion the in-group is defined as the fork of multiple categories including only those that have the
overlapping group memberships in common. Examples are Hindu Indians who only feel close to fellow
Hindus sharing an Indian identity. Inclusion and Exclusion are one of the notable features of regional
identity construction. It is the way regions govern

European rationality has always been tied to some hypothetical other such as Orient, East and
Undemocratic etc. European history has filled with politics of the externalization and creation of
„negative others‟ as the internal dynamics of group formation.50 For centuries Europe has been a major
laboratory of purificatory, purging, cleansing atrocities and mindsets. Anti-Semitism, Atlantic slave trade
and the extermination of aborigines in the name of European superior civilization are some examples. The
scientific racial conceptions of “Europeanness” show the way to the rise of Nazism and Fascism and
authorize them in the externalization. As Lyotard correctly observe the Republican and Nazi versions of
the project of modernity authorize their policy of purification by way of a division between "us" and
"them." All modern European states have in variant forms of this generic process leading to the formation
of „other‟.

It is interesting to note that how the construction of “other” has working in the contemporary Europe.
According to the treaty of European Union, members of the organization have to be states, they have to be
democratic, and they have to be European. Two questions are significant here. First, what are the criteria
to become a European? Second, who are Europeans or in Klaus Eder‟s words “Who is unmistakably and
undeniably a European”? Some argued that since some identities are given, it is not difficult to argue that'
European identity exists by virtue of Europe's geographical and historical position alone. But for Lefebvre
geography is a socially constructed one51.For example the fall of Berlin Wall and the Eastward expansion
and the integration of ex-communist states in to the European Union make worthless the assumption of
the geographical identity. There is also a tendency to equate Europe with the West of the Continent. Then
the term Eastern Europe implies that the peoples who used behind the iron curtain were somehow less
European. Look at Milen Kundera‟s writing where he sees the East- West division in Europe is
nonsensical. A simple look at the map of Europe makes it clear that the term was never just a

50
Supra note 30. Page 6
51
Lefebvre (1991)
geographical description. In the context of European Union one can argue that the people those who
possess a passport of one of the member states of European Union are European. However, there are
many who do not possess an EU-passport, but claim to be European. What about the, Swiss and Russians
and Norwegians?

The speech of former Russian President Gorbachev helps us to make public the European exclusionary
politics. Some in the west are trying to “exclude” the Soviet Union from Europe. ...they equate Europe
with “Western Europe”. Such ploys cannot change the geographic and historical realities. Timothy Garton
Ash‟s comment on a headline in the International Herald Tribune titled „End Sanctions on “European”
Austria, panel advises EU‟, would help to clear the picture. A panel of three „wise man‟ had just
concluded after long deliberation that Austria was European. [T]o say that Austria is European is rather
like saying the sea is wet. [T]hey had a catalogue of what are called „European standards‟ or „European
values‟52

Why turkey is out from EU after a long half century of negotiation history began in 1959. The “Agenda
2000”, enlargement package had included nearly the entire ex-communists Eastern European states but
not Turkey. A keen observation about the prospects of Turkish membership from Ankara Agreement in
1963 to Copenhagen criteria it is explicitly clear that there was no single genuine signal from European
Union. The Copenhagen criteria for membership have only political and economic measuring scale. But
in the case of Turkey it is apparent that there are some other criteria also to be fulfilled. The question of
Turkish membership often projected as a „Turkish problem‟, their inability to meet the criteria. But
actually the European cultural minimalism and the politics of exclusion is the real factor behind the
closing door.53

The Turkish question helps us to disclose the various imaginations of Europe and its emerging identity.
The former French President, Valery Giscard D‟estaing argued against the Turkish membership because
according to him Europe is defined by the cultural richness of ancient Greece and Rome as well as the
creative energy of the Renaissance and its impact on rational and scientific thinking. If the present
European Union follows the scientific and rational values of Renaissance why there is a mystery of
twelve stars on European Union flag.54 When East European countries are qualified to join the European

52Thimothy Garton Ash, International Herald Tribune, Also see Europe: Weaving a New Identity, At 50 Europe is
not One Strong but Many, 2000
53
Feyzi Baban, „European Identity in the Making? Turkey in a Post national Europe‟, Paper presented at the Annual
Meeting of Canadian Political Science Association, Toronto, 2006.
54
Which resonates the Roman Catholic iconography of the Virgin Mary, which itself goes back to Revelation 12,1:
there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her
project due to their Christian character and Turkey kept outside the European project because of its
Islamic culture. Islam is the clearest case of an Other, dating from the seventh century and creating a
powerful myth about where the boundaries of Europe lie. Historically, Turkey has mostly been part of the
European set of powers. Here, Europe conveniently trying to hide the fact that they were assimilated and
once ruled by Turks for a long time in their centers.

The illusion of the linear progression of Europe from ancient Greece to present and the assumption of
homogeneous European culture are the two major impediments to the Turkish EU membership. Hence,
the attributed „otherness‟ will keep Turkey as a permanent other. The latest among the exclusionary
politics was the comment by French President, Nikolas Sarkozy in 2007, that “Turkey is not a European
Country and consequently has no place in the European Union”. This statement was against the backdrop
of the majority of EU countries, including Germany and Britain in favor of Turkish membership.55The
creation of a pan-European identity risks being accompanied by a cultural exclusion mechanism. The
search for a European identity in the form of demarcation against "the others" would lead to a racial cul-
de-sac while at the same time the mixing of races continues to rise in Europe.56A fear caught the
European epicenter is today that the fear of incursion of Islam into its heartlands.

The argument about the exclusion/inclusion in European Union will be distorted without the facts on the
migration and asylum policies. Through the Justice and Home Affairs, migration policy and Shengen
Visa, Union implements its policies of exclusion and inclusion. These policies people from the „outside‟
which actually or potentially endanger the „safe inside‟ must be kept outside or brought under appropriate
control and enforcement action. The asylum policy, developed in the „London resolutions‟ for restricting
immigration aimed at excluding asylum seekers and have a clear tendency towards exclusion. It is
interesting to note, the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties, in conjunction with Schengen Convention,
have granted the European Union with powers and responsibilities in the field of migration, asylum and
domestic security. Larner and Walters notes “European asylum and migration policies are largely
motivated by the desire to seal the EU‟s borders to many refugees, asylum seekers and poor people
seeking to escape poverty, repression and violence –both in Europe‟s war-torn regions and in the wider
world.

head a crown of twelve stars” for more details see ww.diplomaticobserver.com. Critique would argue that the
twelve stars represent the numbers of the founding members of the Union. But, it is pretty clear that the initial
membership was six and during the time of the discussion about the flag there are 15 member states. If the stars
represent the member states, why still now (the membership is 27) the Union embrace it.
55
www. actura.wordpress.com
56
Karlsson, „The enlargement of the European Union and the European identity 2004
Contemporary Europe has been identifying all non-nationals as „other‟ and foreigners. In countries like
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands the foreigner is most frequently
regarded to be Turkish, Arab or Asian etc. Most of these non-nationals are often of European nationality.
It seems that the identification with the European project remains marginal but that at the same time the
boundaries between 'us' and 'them' are drawn between natives and immigrants from other EU-countries is
very prominent. The division between 'Eurocitizens' and 'Euroforeigners' has been created with evident
exclusionary consequences. In the same way, this discourse is exclusionary since citizenship is denied to
particular groups of inhabitants because of their stated lack of historical and cultural ties to the European
community. Over time, European citizens who used to be considered foreigners, have become a kind of
new compatriots, while third country residents have become the incarnation of the 'other'. Though the
European Union‟s declared aim is „an open and secure European Union‟ the policies adopted by the
Union exposes its exclusion strategies.

Conclusion

This essay has assessed the dynamics of the European identity construction and its politics of exclusion
and inclusion. It mapped the history of European identity construction and the role of myth and memories
in it. It helps us to identify the diverse forces which played a significant role in the identity construction
process against the European claims that European identity emanate from the enlightenment tradition. It
questions the European high-flown manner identity, having its foundations in antiquity; free thought,
individualism, humanism and democracy, which had their cradle in Athens and Rome. Examination of the
prominence of diverse national identities in European Union facilitates the way to identify the existing
identity crisis in Europe. It implicitly and explicitly proved one of the initial hypotheses of the essay that
through its policies and programs European Union is promoting exclusion/inclusion rather than
constructing a homogenous European identity. These policies of exclusion/inclusion will work as a hurdle
in their future integration. Through such policies and programs Europe can‟t overcome the debris of
national symbolism and its existing crisis in identity. By incorporating the three discourses on European
integration, the essay explores the European crisis in construction of a homogenous identity. European
Union‟s membership politics, Union Law and Migration policies will lead to a Europe with more secure
borders which also creates others. The European historical rationality of constructing a hypothetical other-
Orient, East, and Undemocratic etc. are present in European Union also. „Again a “Fortress Europe” is
looming at the horizon‟.