Europe in focus

I started the previous chapter with an observation regarding the importance that questions of identity have gradually acquired. It would be bizarre if the broad field of international relations were to stay untouched by this trend. In fact, no one is surprised any more by the fact that ‘the discipline of international relations (IR) is witnessing a surge of interest in identity and identity formation’ (Neumann 1999: 1). The same applies to the sub-discipline of European Studies – affecting both marginal and mainstream approaches. As Anthony Smith has pointed out, one of the fundamental reasons for the current interest in ‘European unification’ is, undoubtedly, ‘the problem of identity itself, one that has played a major part in European debates over the past 30–40 years. At issue [among other themes] has been the possibility and legitimacy of a “European identity”, as opposed to the existing national identities’ (Smith 1999: 226).

This development is hardly surprising given that, at least since the 1970s, processes of European integration have been explicitly linked with a problematic of identity. Already from 1973, when the member-states of the then European Community agreed to define European identity in a Fundamental Declaration released at the Copenhagen summit, the construction of European identity was officially recognised as a crucial policy issue in the process of strengthening the profile and safeguarding the future prospects of the European Community (European Commission 1974).