The Construction of European Identity at the Social Level

This paper analyses the significance of the establishmet of social to the construction of the European identity, stresses the importance of the EU’s impetus to modernise the European Social Model, and discusses the constructive function of European social policy framework in the emerging European identity. The author takes the concept of European Social Model modernization as the core of European identity at the social level, because it both integrates the European social values in the process of welfare state transformation and distinguishes the Europe as an us from the others in the world. The European social policy framework is the main tool for the EU to keep close with its citizens and to increase the practibility and legitimacy of European integration process at the social level. In addition, the expanding definition and strengthening protection mechanism of European citizens’ social rights illustrate that a new European identity at the social level is growing in the Europeanization process.