АШПИ 
Данные об авторе. Степанова Мария Владимировна, студентка 4 курса факультета истории и международных отношений Кемеровского государственного университета. Научные интересы: история Европейского союза, роль стран в его формировании, проблемы современного политического процесса, европейская идентичность.
Аннотация. «Европейцы» – так уже давно называют жителей Европы во всем мире. Но что стоит за понятием «европейцы»? Только лишь географическая обобщенность или некая культурная и историческая общность? В статье затрагиваются проблема европейской идентичности, процессы, препятствующие ее созданию, а также пути формирования чувства принадлежности граждан разных стран и национальностей к Европе, объединенной под эгидой Европейского Союза.
Problems of “European identity” in the European Union
We are all aware from reading the daily newspapers, the EU is undergoing a life-threatening crisis. And it is not just an economic crisis, the matter concerns the identity crisis.
At the moment of creation, the European Union was intended to be just an economic organization. But a deep cultural foundation is essential for economic cooperation. Therefore, in the course of time, under the sway of process of globalization various spheres of life such as political, social and cultural came to the fore. Now the European Union has become not only the common economic space but it is also now the space of historical coexistence of various civilizations and cultures, which feature is national diversity.
The European political project cannot ignore this plurality of cultures in which each national culture expresses and imposes itself differently.
“Europeans”- that is how people around the world call inhabitants of Europe. As a rule, they consider Europeans as a unity. But what does the notion “Europeans” mean? Is it just people lived on the certain geographical area or it is a certain cultural and historical community [1]?
It is generally agreed today that Europe has its own centuries-old history. There is an understanding that Europe is united by Christian values. And a great number of religious holidays prove this fact. “European identity” exists complying with these characteristics. And having declared 2013 “European Year of Citizens”, Brussels sets the goal to increase the European self-consciousness thus to remember their European history.
But in the European Union the national identity is more important than “European identity” for its citizens. Italians want to be Italians, Germans — to remain Germans, not to mention Britons, who due to their insularity and adherence to the long tradition have not the feeling of belonging to the united Europe. Down through the ages each nation has been aspiring to self-determination. Often it causes the interethnic, international conflicts, wars which contradict the principles both of international law and the European Union.
The process of consolidation, integration always goes together with the process of disintegration. Nations which don’t participate in the process of integration, automatically become the supporters of disintegration, in other words they aspire to separate for preserving their identity.
Perhaps one should speak about “dual” identity, which would be an extranational one, included in many identities which are linked by common history and cultural traditions. Thus, citizens would have the sense of belonging both to their country and Europe [2].
How can we create such identity, a sense of common belonging? It is not the first time (and it will not be the last one either) that this question is asked.
Explaining is vital, because how do you want to belong to something you do not understand? Two kinds of protagonists are particularly important: the media and the education system. Indeed, both have the ideal mission of contributing to reflection and to the forming of a critical and informed mind. Regarding the media, their role is especially important due to the extremely wide public they reach. For a long time, media have been criticized for not talking enough about Europe. Today, there is a new, not less important problem: mass media talk too much about what is going wrong in Europe and not enough about its successes. As for the second protagonist, the education system doesn’t do away with the national (or regional) identity; it adds a European component to the identity of each child, of each future citizen. This would go through subjects such as literature, philosophy, history and geography: reading not only Shakespeare, Locke and Bacon, but also Voltaire, Dante and Kant, learning not only the important dates of British History, but also those of European and other countries’ History – and that would not be too difficult, as European History has been made of interstate wars for centuries. As for learning about the European integration and the functioning of European institutions, it is a fundamental knowledge that would be an ideal common ground to all young people across the EU. Also, let us underline the importance of learning foreign languages. Indeed, how do you want to exchange if you do not understand the other one and if person does not understand you? It is therefore vital that the education system promotes the progressive learning of several languages, so that each pupil speaks and understands well at least two foreign languages [3].
A certain common value regarded by the vast majority of Europeans is necessary for creation of “European identity”. Among values supported by Brussels there are human rights, democracy, rule of law, esteem for other cultures. But they have become universal, human and don’t necessarily associate with the European Union.
Another component for creation of “European identity” is active participation of the generation which is grown in the years of European organization in social sphere. A long staying in European Community exerts influence upon increasing the European self-consciousness of the citizens of EU countries [4].
Then, the EU also has symbols, whose spreading seems important in order to create a sense of common belonging, as they are easy to remember. The European symbols are notably the European flag, the European Anthem (“Ode to Joy”, coming from Beethoven’s 9th symphony), Europe Day (on 9 May, a day that should become free in the whole EU, so that citizen would be more aware of this day) and the motto (“United in diversity”).
In Europe there will always live people of different cultures and nationalities. If the European Union wants to exist in contemporary world, it has to become the union of different cultures. Now, attempts of Brussels “to treat all alike” just provoke displeasure of the citizens of EU countries.
Everybody who is going through the Euro crisis realizes that there are many flaws in the Maastricht Treaty and in the whole process of creating Europe. A lot of this discussion is dominated by people in finance and by economists.
We should not minimize these problems at all, but in a sense, there is a deeper failure at the European level — a failure in European identity. That is to say, there was never a successful attempt to create a European sense of identity, and a European sense of citizenship that would define the obligations, responsibilities, duties and rights that Europeans have to one another beyond simply the wording of the different treaties that were signed. What we can see now is that economic and post-national values are not enough to really unite this community together. So, wealthy Germans feel that they have got a sense of noblesse oblige towards poorer Germans; this social solidarity is the basis of the German welfare state. But they do not feel similar obligations towards the Greeks, whom they regard as being ill-disciplined, very non-German in their general approach to fiscal matters – and therefore, they feel no obligation to take care of them. So there is no solidarity in that broader European sense. We should remember that any form of deepening at this point is not a viable project unless someone pays more attention and is able to answer the question of what it means to be a European. In many respects, this identity problem is one that we all need to think about very deeply; it is one that will be coming back into the political debate in the near future.
References
1. Кребс Б. Непростые поиски европейской идентичности // Deutsche Welle. URL: http://www.dw.de/непростые-поиски-европейской-идентичности/a-16511067 (дата обращения 16.06.2013).
2. Большова Н. Мультикультурализм: провал или кризис? // 2008–2013 МГИМО-Университет МИД России. URL: http://www.mgimo.ru/news/experts/document215823.phtml (дата обращения 16.06.2013).
3. Pierre-Antoine Klethi. How can we create a European identity? // Webzine of the Young European Federalists. URL: http://www.thenewfederalist.eu/How-can-we-create-a-European-identity,04835 (дата обращения 17.06.2013)
4. Семенко И.С. Метаморфозы европейской идентичности // Журнал «ПОЛИС» («Политические Исследования»). URL: http://www.politstudies.ru/fulltext/2008/3/8.pdf (дата обращения 18.06.2013).