Economic Rationality and Support for European Identity Providers

Discussions on the emergence of a European identity meant to provide legitimacy to the European Union (EU) often include references to factors influencing EU support. These determinants of support are essential in anticipating EU’s future, in solving its legitimacy deficit and for the development of a common European identity. European citizens’ support for the EU could be considered a predictor of sense of belonging to the European community that actually provides generating elements of European identity. In this context, the present article elaborates from a theoretical perspective on the relationship between EU support and European identity. First, the goal is to illustrate the theories on factors that strengthen European citizens’ support for the EU, whether economic or non-economic. Second, the focus is on establishing the differences between support for European integration and the attachment that Europeans feel for the EU or between economic rationality and affective evaluation in regard to the EU. The article argues that, while the identification of a European identity seems increasingly difficult to attain, this support for European integration could be viewed as a temporary solution for solving the legitimacy deficit the EU suffers from.