Izazovi u odnosu evropskog i nacionalnog identiteta
Challenges in the relationship between European and national identity

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the relationship between European and national identity, which is essential for the analysis of the crises which the European Union has been going through in the last decade, as these crises have also been caused by shortcomings in the construction of a European identity. The concept of national identity is explained through a review of civic and ethnic notions of a nation as the nation represents its fundamental element from which the various forms of this identity are derived. The type of national identity prevailing in the Member States also determines their citizens’ attitudes toward the European identity. The European identity (the European Union identity) is constructed concept, and it is defined as a political type of identity, according to the founding treaties, whose content comprises the common values on which the European Union is founded. Although this has been the most acceptable form of identity given that the Union is currently comprising as many as 27 states, the aim of the paper is to show that just as the European Union, being a political and economic community, cannot function or exist without cultural elements, neither can its identity, as clearly demonstrated by Brexit. The relationship between national and European identity is an important issue for the accession process of the Western Balkans countries, in which a dominant nationalist ideology portrays the European identity as a threat to traditional postulates and the national identity (which is mainly of an ethnic type in this region).

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