NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION
NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Summary/Abstract: In this paper the author poses several questions which profoundly tackle the essence of the EU functioning in the circumstances of multitude of national identities which are of exclusive nature. In such case of exclusive identities the question of feasibility of Europe is implied. Furthermore, is the search for the European identity oriented towards something which at one point, long ago existed and which has disappeared and has been forgotten, but is to be discovered today, similarly to the way it has been done or is done in the formation of the distinctive national identities? To which degree can the European identity be founded on the diversity of the European nations’ cultures, an issue that eurosceptics deem impossible? Is there an existence of European culture, and by that, an existence of European cultural identity? Can the culture be considered as the “glue” for the European Integration? What is more, can there be a European identity if the same is only “on civil basis” relying on a social agreement, and not on “cultural basis rested on common tradition”? This paper gives an analysis of several aspects which approach the phenomenon of national identity within EU and the possibilities for founding one common European identity from different perspectives.

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