Why Is it so Difficult to Know if National Pride Leads the Way to European Identity or Prevents it ?

Abstract

For a long time, support for European integration could be analysed without much reference tothe attachments of European citizens to their nations. Beyond the recurring acknowledgement of thestrong social determination of attitudes towards Europe, analysts did observe important differences insupport between European countries, but these were considered as encompassing all sorts ofdifferences between these countries; there was no need to infer major differences in the ways differentpeoples of Europe relate to their own country.Nowadays, most analysts of European Union consider that the growing process of Europeanintegration has changed the very nature of attitudes towards Europe. Since 1994 and the setting up ofEuropean citizenship, support for the European Union should no longer be analysed as tolerantattitudes towards a remote and foreign object, and might be addressed as a European identity buildingprocess. Hence, the question of the relationship between the support for the European Union and thecommitment of European citizens to their own country should not be avoided anymore (Diez Medrano2003). This article will examine over time the relationship between national and Europeancommitments, which we will apprehend through the notion of national and European identifications.European identity; identity; Europeanization; Europeanization