A POLITICAL ENTITY NEEDS A COMMON IDENTITY? THE CASE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Strengthening European Union (EU) citizens' identification with the process of European integration, particularly EU institutions and policies has become one of the major challenges facing the policy maker within the Union. The creation of a common and unify European identity in which European citizens consider the EU that is identical to their social, cultural, political, economic norms and values is critical for the long-term integration of the EU. The increases in the diversities of European societies because of migration and globalization made policy maker and political actors in various levels both on- local, national, regional and the EU- to come in conclusion that there is need to address the issues of common identity and citizenship as one of the means to prevent social conflict and disintegrated societies with the Europe. The need to create identity politics which means that there is an attempt to form a collective identity by redefinition of attachments and loyalties which will aim to enhance a consciousness of being European, hence, forming long lasting forms of social and political integration (Latcheva et al 2012: 235). Decades ago, this issue has become a more pressing than before for policy makers among others. Earlier in history of humanity, answers to questions like who am I? and sometimes who are we? were very often sought in not only in religion, mythology but also in philosophy. In this modern industrial society, national identification has become the cultural norm. Although the nation and national identity are dominant, human beings have multiple identities. European people like to be identified with one single cultural entity such as common language, even though there is common law, single currency, flag and anthem of the EU within the member states. The most important issues about this European identity is that there are national identities before the creation of European Union, can the identity of the EU sweep away the national identities of the member state? To answer this question, the following questions will be address in this essay, the questions such as Is there any European people? What is to be European? Can the European identity be created? How? The aim of this essay is to engage with such debates and to evaluate the relationship between national identity and European identity.