Dr Andre P. DeBattista
The former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, famously said that “people do not fall in love with a single market… the European project must also have a soul.” There is much to be said about this remark.
On one hand, he was correct; a single market or governing institutions are not enough to generate a sense of loyalty and belonging. They encourage an environment where economic and social exchanges can take place as smoothly as possible. Nonetheless, they run the risk of fostering exchanges which are too transactional in nature.
On the other hand, he overlooks a crucial limitation; a shared “soul” cannot be artificially engineered by administrative decree. Public policy can nudge and incentivise connection, but for a shared identity to feel genuine, it must cultivate and build upon organic historical roots rather than try to invent them from scratch.
Questions surrounding European identity are often tricky.
Does a shared identity imply uniformity? The answer to this is a straightforward no. Diversity lies at the heart of what being European is. British historian Christopher Dawson observed that European diversity may be shaped and conditioned by its physical structure; in its “peninsulas and narrow seas, where the land runs out into the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean and the Baltic penetrate into the very heart of the land” (Dawson, Understanding Europe, 39). This, in turn, affects culture, history, economics and trade – all components which shape people’s understanding of being and belonging.
Can European identity ignore the more contentious aspects of its history? Once again, this is not only impossible but also positively dangerous. For starters, Dawson rightly contends that Europe is “a man-made continent, an historical creation, an invention of the Greeks, who adapted a myth in order to express their sense of independence towards the civilisation of
Asia and their struggle for freedom against Persian imperialism” (Dawson, Understanding Europe, 40). Most importantly, ignoring history – especially the difficult aspects of it – would be a wholesale denial of the meaning of being European and living in this shared continent.
Yet, being European is not solely about self-reliant political entities which created city-states and nation-states, each asserting their own military and economic prowess. Europe also depends on the concept of interdependence, where states sought alliances, created trade routes, encouraged economic exchanges and collaborated among themselves. In time, collaboration was seen as being preferable to open antagonism. The aftermath of two world wars underscored this point in a horrific and deadly manner.
Europe is not merely about political entities. Cross-border connection is not a modern invention. Long before the European Union was conceived, an intellectual and cultural network thrived across the continent. Thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus moved fluidly between universities in Naples, Paris, Oxford, and Cologne. While these exchanges were primarily limited to academic and religious elites, they demonstrate that Europe has long possessed a shared intellectual life.
Such exchanges led to the Europe which most of us can recognise today; one which, though imperfect, brings together the principles of Greek philosophy, Roman law, the Christian faith, the ethos of the Renaissance, the legacies of the Scottish, French and Industrial Revolution, as well as the hard lessons learnt from war and strife.
This very brief detour drives home the point that, in order to speak of a European shared space, we cannot merely stop at discussing the institutional aspect but must also look beyond governing structures.
Such institutions are necessary, though limited in their ability to create a sense of belonging. Administrative efforts at creating identity may feel stilted and laboured at times. Culture, on the other hand, which should be the purview of non-governmental institutions, encourages and fosters dynamic exchanges which ensures that any institutional action has a broader backing.
Focusing solely on trade agreements and institutional mechanisms captures only half of the European story. Without acknowledging and supporting the organic cultural networks that connect people, political institutions risk remaining distant. A lasting European community needs both solid institutions and a living, breathing culture.