Affection to and exploitation of Europe: European identity in the EU

Abstract

Since the 1990s, we have witnessed an increase in the search for European identity.Concepts of European identity are manifold and span from historical and political to cultural criteria. Less often, scholars refer to basic concepts of identity in psychology or sociology. We derive our understanding of European identity from both and conclude in a European
identity based on the self-concept. It includes emotions, opportunistic attitudes and a strong impact of the social context. Data from the Eurobarometer help us to critically analyse this identity. We argue that European identity is an outcome of positive emotions towards Europe on the one hand and/or opportunistic attitudes towards the European Union on the other. An ordered logistic regression models proves that emotions and attitudes shape people's identification with Europe in the European Union (EU15 in 2003). We observe large differences across European societies with high identification in Italy, Spain, France and Germany. The opposite is the case in Greece, Sweden, Finland, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Concerning the effects of the predictors of European identity, affection is much more important for European identity than opportunistic attitudes.