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PALACKY UNIVERSITY OLOMOUCPHILOSOPHICAL FACULTYEUROCULTURE PROGRAMME
 
 
 
Intensive Programme
(San Sebastian, Spain 2006)
Topic:
BUILDING THE EU IDENTITY
Professor : Ondrej KuceraStudent: Bui Hai DangOlomouc, January – 2006
 
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BUILDING THE EU IDENTITY
Introduction
The European Union (the EU) has been developing and achieving considerableachievements since 1992 in economic and political unifications. There are many reasonsleading to the success of the EU. In spite of successes in institutionalizing economic andpolitical integrations, the EU has met quite a lot of difficulties in solving cultural issues.The emergence of a sense of shared identity has become an increasingly outstandingissue over the past decade for both analysts and policy-makers. A growing number of analysts argues that the ultimate success of the dynamic process of European integrationwill depend on the development or existence of a European cultural identity
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. At the sametime, policy-makers have puzzled and haven’t known how to build up and develop suchthis kind of common identity, while being increasingly frustrated by national publics thatappear to feel much less of a sense of community than many had expected.Therefore, building the EU identity has attracted many scholars, analysts andpolicy-makers alike. While optimists point out there is the existence of the so call the EUidentity, pessimists state that an EU identity is only an aspiration. In this paper, we dobelieve that there is an incipient EU identity as Europeans have been sitting together isnot just because of the economic interdependences. They have been united also becausethey share a common culture or cultural similarities, which rooted in the ancient Greek and Rome traditions, Christianity, a flower of Renaissance and the philosophy of humanrights developed in the French Revolution.
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After Europeans have sat together toestablish the EU, the EU identity has been obviously formed based on European culturalvalues. That’s why many people state what the EU has to worry is about protectingyesterday’s accomplishment rather than facing tomorrow challenges (Josef Joffee,1992/93: 43).
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http://www.ucd.ie/dei/about/staff_papers/ben_tonra_european_cultural_identity_1997.doc
 
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 http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/global/04isomura.html 
 
 2In fact, there are two opposing forces have been directly affecting Europeanintegration process: the logic of global socio-economic interdependence that spellsintegration and the logic of ethnicity and nationality that demands separation. Thecentrifugal force of the claims of tribe, race, section, region and nation are pullingEuropeans apart (Michael Ignatieff, 1993). To build the EU identity, the EU, on one hand,has to base on protecting and developing ancient set of values and traditions; on the otherhand institutionalizing the centrifugal force. Besides the introduction and the conclusion,the paper is divided into 3 parts: the first part is pointing out European cultural identity(similarities) which partly full Europeans together and is the foundation for forming theEU identity; the second part is explaining how important the EU identity is; and the thirdpart is about what the EU has done and how should the EU do to build up the EU identity.
1. The EU & European cultural identity
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The logic of unity
After the World War II, Western Europe was completely destroyed, so Europeanshave had a strong desire to live in peace and to solve thoroughly the traditional conflictbetween Germany and France. And leading European intellectuals and politicians met anumber of times to find a way of avoiding future conflicts and wars, the ideas of unitingEuropeans was rekindled. This highly motivates Europeans to unite starting with theestablishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. In fact,Europeans had had their idea of uniting Europe for such a long time, at least from theXVI-XVII century and earlier efforts of different historical individuals such as Frank in7
th
and 8
th
centuries, Pierre Dubois in 1306, Napoleon in 19
th
century, etc. However, thesepast efforts were failed because of the heyday of nationalism on the continent (DavidMichael Green, 1999: 46-49).European integration is also considered as globalization on a regional scale or aregionalism of Europe, as well as defensive response to the world-wide trend of growingeconomic interdependence (Ham, Peter Van. 2001: 43). The centripetal forces of need,labor and science which have been created by the globalization are pulling Europeanstogether to protect their regional and national benefits. Member-states of a region couldfind their benefits through regional organization.
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