‘Nobody falls in love with a Common Market’: Why Cross-border Interactions Don’t Always Foster European Identity

Amid increased transnational interactions and networks in the European Union today, one may thus expect that European citizens support European integration. However, while transnational networks and activities have indeed proliferated over recent decades, they have not been accompanied by an increase in political support for European integration.

Quite to the contrary: Since the signing of the Treaty of the European Union in 1992, an eurosceptic public has challenged Deutsch’s optimistic assertions. Whereas transnational contacts and information flows, taken from the KOF index of globalization, have increased tremendously over the past decades, net EU membership support has not. In short, whereas Europeans lead increasingly transnational lives, they have not become more European-minded.

This raises the question: To what extent are cross-border interactions among ordinary people really helpful in fostering a feeling of European identity and EU support?

Blog: Eurosearch, 01.12.13: How Bad is the EU’s “Communitarian Deficit” Compared to the US’s Shared Identity? http://eurosearch.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/how-bad-is-the-eus-communitarian-deficit-compared-to-the-uss-shared-identity-2/

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