On the European Identity Conundrum

Prof. dr Miodrag Jovanović

Political symbolism of currency

Money and collective identity The relationship between money and

collective identity is reciprocal - money and identity can be both cause and effect

On the one hand, money is a purposeful political tool in the construction of identities. On the other hand, in order to function properly, money requires some degree of collective identity among its users.

Euro and European identity

Political Symbolism of Euro‘It was inspired by the Greek letter epsilon, harking back to Classical

times and the cradle of European civilisation. The symbol also refers to the first letter of the word “Europe”.’

‘On the front of the banknotes, windows and gateways symbolise the European spirit of openness and co-operation. The 12 stars of the European Union represent the dynamism and harmony between European nations. To complement these designs, the reverse of each banknote features a bridge. The bridges symbolise the close co-operation and communication between Europe and the rest of the world.’

European Central Bank

Trust in Euro One particular aspect that gives money a very special identity

dimension is the issue of trust - issuers of money always have been challenged to offer a product that market participants would actually trust

CNN poll: Asked if their country's economy would be in a better position today had it not joined the euro, 42% of Germans and an identical number of French agreed; just 33% agreed in Greece, 27% in Ireland and 36% in Portugal

German ambivalence towards the single currency is highlighted by another question that reveals 47% in favor of their country's decision to join the euro. Similar support is seen in Spain, with 49%, Ireland with 54%, Italy with 52% and Portugal with 47%

Crisis and Identity The EU budgetary problem and the

European identity issue Do the bailout measures demonstrate the

growing solidarity among the Member States? Are they evidence of “an ever more closer Union”?

Reality

“The Greek aid package is not a gift - it is a loan on which they will pay interest. The loans to Greece are to protect the financial stability of Europe as a whole. This is crucial if we are to prevent the recovery that has now at last got under way from slowing right down and if we want to see employment rise again.”

Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs

How can European identity be forged?

Three conceptions of identity-building:

1. ethnocultural 2. civic 3. pluralistic

Ethnocultural conception The European identity-building analogous to the national

identity-building process (A. Smith) It should proceed from “a logical starting-point”, and that is

“the concept of collective cultural identity” Three distinct features of the identity-formation process: 1. to a sense of shared continuity on the part of successive

generations of a given unit of population;2. to shared memories of earlier periods, events and

personages in the history of the unit; and3. to the collective belief in a common destiny of that unit and

its culture

European ‘family of cultures’ The European identity-formation project can be

located between simultaneous trends of ethnonational revival and global cultural aspirations

What is the plausible source for strengthening this European component of the emerging “multiple identity” of inhabitants of European nation-states?

The European “family of cultures”, made up of a pattern of certain historical traditions and cultural heritages, such as Roman law, political democracy and parliamentary institutions, Judeo-Christian ethics, as well as cultural heritages like Renaissance humanism, rationalism and empiricism, romanticism and classicism.

Transforming ‘family of cultures’ into European identity What are the plausible channels: European mass tourism Pan-Europan artistic manifestations European mass media European educational system European identity formation - between the

“golden age” of European Christendom, and “electronic patchwork” culture

Who is the significant ‘other’?

Civic conception Proceeds from the critic of the ethnocultural

conception Community of fate vs. community of citizens Civic conception “reflects both the actual

historical trajectory of the European nation-states and the fact that democratic citizenship establishes an abstract, legally mediated solidarity between strangers.” (Habermas)

Demos v. ethnos “What unites a nation of citizens as opposed

to a Volksnation is not some primordial substrate but rather an intersubjectively shared context of possible understanding.”

Demos could be attached to its institutions only if legal rules that legitimize those institutions can be viewed as the end-result of the deliberative politics of thorough public debate and discussion.

Prerequisites of European demos At the European level, these circumstances concern:

the emergence of a European civil society; the construction of a European-wide public sphere; and the shaping of a political culture that can be shared by all European citizens.

Forging European “constitutional patriotism” (Verfassungspatriotismus) – a common loyalty to a common constitutional order, irrespective of the differences in language, ethnicity, or religion.

Multiple demoi and European identity Weiler differentiates between the two concepts of citizenship -

national and supranational, a European one; while the former encompasses the realm of ethnocultural identification and belonging, the latter encompasses the realm of law and Enlightment, that is, civic ideals

multiple demoi – individuals simultaneously express both organic-cultural identification with their nations and membership to European supranational values that transcend ethnocultural differences

In order to make European component ‘real’, Weiler proposes, among other things, Direct European Taxation, which would instill accountability, provoke citizen interest, become an electoral issue par excellence, and would establish a duty towards the polity

Pluralistic conception “An identity only grounded in constitutionally embedded

individual rights of Union citizenship would remain too thin to support a process of further political integration and expansion of these rights.” (Bauböck)

Hence, the task would be to “extend pluralism” in the EU beyond the mere recognition of national identities on the Member States level and to acknowledge the collective identities of sub-national and transnational minorities, through ‘group-differentiated’ right.

Constructing the EU this way would open it up “for territorial enlargement and for the integration of immigrants coming from outside.”

Transforming the nature of community The EU should be understood as the “community of

concern and engagement”, in which all its individual and corporate members “associated by virtue of differences from one another - share a concern over the nature and the future of the polity and are engaged in collectively shaping that future.” (Kostakopoulou)

The defining criterion for membership in such a community is one’s active concern and willingness to improve things that are of common European interest.

The focus is on negotiation, debate and persuasion – hence, it is “disensus”, rather than consensus (Habermas), that shapes this form of community

Towards more inclusive EU citizenship EU citizenship is not only a worthwhile project, but

also “the only project that could address the problem of unjust exclusion” and therefore argues in favor of “democratic citizenship” that goes beyond the nation-state and is “inclusive and respectful of ‘difference’.”

Transforming the model of EU citizenship (to be based on domicile); citizenship practices (more group sensitive); taking democracy more seriously (more citizens’ participation); promoting social justice at the EU level (EU social rights)

Emergency, Identity and Democratization

Schmitter argues that democratization of the EU should be treated as an open-ended, “gradual and fitful process”, rather than “as a momentous and concentrated event”

The latter strategy “may have worked relatively well when some type of national emergency or founding moment provided the context for deliberation and choice”, but it will hardly be of any use in the EU case “where there is no foreseeable emergency and the founding moment occurred more than forty years ago.”

Is the budgetary crisis an ‘emergency’, which might trigger forging of European identity and further democratization of the EU?