The Shadows of the National State and the European Identity
The Shadows of the National State and the European Identity

Author(s): Roberto Rampi, Asia Jane Leigh
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Future of Europe; National state; Perception of identity; Cosmopolitanism
Summary/Abstract: What should we expect from the European Union in the next decade? This is the question future elections have to answer, and the question all European citizens should ask themselves. After the Brexit crisis, rivers of insecurity have flown across the whole continent, flooding our minds with doubts and hesitancy. Is the European Union still the best answer to strengthen policies inside our continent? We think the answer is yes, but changes are needed. What we need is a new, different and much deeply rooted European Union. But before even coming up with the actions or the path that the EU needs to take there are two concepts that we need to tackle and analyze. First of all, the concept of the national state. If we agree on the fact that the future of the European Union lies on what we like to describe as an intertwining dialogue between cultures, what can we say about the national state? In our analysis, we wanted to underline the artificial essence of the national state, created by men to stabilize their power. The national state carries an internalized concept of violence within itself. By creating borders, raising walls, we pinpoint Us and Them, setting the foundation for contrast (examples are given us by the two world wars that have devastated Europe in the 20th century). For a strong Europe, we need to unmask the national state’s real destructive essence. Another fundamental concept is the identity, the concept that has to be adapted in accordance with nowadays cosmopolitanism, taking into account the fluidity of globalism. Only through this change of view, we can build a new face for our continent and the structure of a new European Union, according to the new needs of citizens.

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