scholarly journals Christianity and Tolerance: A Genealogy of European Identity

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Augenstein
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Religious Tolerance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Intractable Conflict ◽  
European Nation ◽  
Nation States ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Over Time

In the process of European constitutionalisation, the European Union continues to struggle for an identity that can generate widespread support amongst its peoples. Against this background it has been suggested by some that a European identity should embrace the Christian values that underpin Europe’s national traditions and cultures. In this paper I shall argue that, instead of relying on a communitarian vision of a ‘Christian Europe’, a European identity should build on a culture of religious tolerance. A European culture of religious tolerance draws on the enduring of difference and the acknowledgement of persisting and intractable conflict as essential experiences of Europe’s Christian past. Thus understood, tolerance lies at the roots of a European identity. At the same time, and through the conditional inclusion of religious diversity in the European Nation-States, a European culture of religious tolerance creates over time new commonalities between Europe’s religiously permeated national traditions. Thus understood, tolerance only brings about the conditions for the development of a supranational European identity that amounts to more than (the sum of) its national counterparts.

Christianity and Tolerance: A Genealogy of European Identity

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Augenstein
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Religious Tolerance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Intractable Conflict ◽  
Nation States ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Over Time

  In the process of European constitutionalisation, the European Union continues to struggle for an identity that can generate widespread support amongst its peoples. Against this background it has been suggested by some that a European identity should embrace the Christian values that underpin Europe’s national traditions and cultures. In this paper I shall argue that, instead of relying on a communitarian vision of a ‘Christian Europe’, a European identity should build on a culture of religious tolerance. A European culture of religious tolerance draws on the enduring of difference and the acknowledgement of persisting and intractable conflict as essential experiences of Europe’s Christian past. Thus understood, tolerance lies at the roots of a European identity. At the same time, and through the conditional inclusion of religious diversity in the European Nation-States, a European culture of religious tolerance creates over time new commonalities between Europe’s religiously permeated national traditions. Thus understood, tolerance only brings about the conditions for the development of a supranational European identity that amounts to more than (the sum of) its national counterparts.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v4i2.195

scholarly journals ‘Miki-le-toss ou comment repérer un guech en quelques leçons’: l’identité ethnique ‘tos’ en France à travers les blogs de jeunes lusodescendants ('Miki-le-toss' or How to Spot a 'Guech' in a Few Lessons: 'Tos' Ethnic Identity in France in the Blogs of French-Portuguese Youth)

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martine Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Migrant Populations ◽  
European Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Movement

In this article, I analyze the ‘tos’ ethnic identity, as expressed in blogs written by French-Portuguese teenagers in France, also called ‘lusodescendants,’ who are the children of Portuguese residents. Starting in the eighties, the reclaiming of this ethnic identity has been reinforced by Portugal’s entry in the European Union in 1986, the institutionalization of links between the lusodescendants and Portugal, and France’s recent opening to its migrant populations. Influenced by the Chicano cultural movement, the ‘tos’ movement shares some of its foundational features: a myth of origin, a privileging of unity, and a conservative notion of family. Despite this movement’s nationalist tendencies, I argue that it does not threaten this youth’s integration to France or to Europe, especially since lusodescendants, who are often Portuguese and French nationals, feel ‘twice European.’ In their case, European identity, to which they never refer in the blogs, is a mere sum of national identities. If a common European identity were needed, it should not be in the form of assimilationist policies replacing national cultures by a ‘European culture.’ Indeed, most European countries share a history of dictatorships and nationalisms, i.e. of official cultures being forced onto people. This dictatorial and nationalist past is directly responsible for the Portuguese diaspora and the lusodescendants’ ethnic identity claims today.

The Idea of Thick Constitutional Patriotism and Its Implications for the Role and Structure of European Legal History

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Kumm
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Legal History ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constitutional Treaty ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Constitutional Patriotism ◽  
Common Identity ◽  
Over Time

A sense of cohesion grounded in a common identity is widely believed to be a prerequisite for a functioning democratic European polity. If the European Union is to master successfully the tasks assigned to it in the Constitutional Treaty and, using a non-consensual procedure, decide on policies that concern the security of its citizens or have significant distributive effects, then a sufficiently thick common identity is believed to be necessary both to legitimate and to ensure the functioning of the polity in the long term. There is little doubt that such an identity is currently missing. The question is what such an identity should be and whether the prepolitical pre-requisites for the development of such an identity exist. Are there historical experiences and accomplishments that enable European citizens to understand themselves as having suffered a common past and which animate them to see themselves engaged in the construction of a common political future? What are the appropriate narratives around which a European identity could, over time, develop? What should the focus of a self-conscious politics of memory be? What are the implications for the role and structure of European historiography, in particular for the European legal and political historiography?

The Radical Right and Euroskepticism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Vasilopoulou
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Radical Right Parties ◽  
Issue Competition ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the role that the European Union (EU) issue plays in radical right party agendas. It shows that, despite the fact that radical right parties tend to adopt dissimilar positions on the principle, practice, and future of European integration, they all tend to criticize the EU from a predominantly sovereignty-based perspective justified on ethnocultural grounds. The EU is portrayed as posing a threat to national sovereignty, its policies dismantling the state and its territory, as well as being responsible for the cultural disintegration of Europe and its nation-states. The analysis of EU issue positions and salience over time suggests that—despite variations—radical right parties engage in EU issue competition not only by adopting extreme positions but also by increasingly emphasizing these positions over time.

A European Culture Exists

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-78
Author(s):  
Julia Kristeva
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
National Pride ◽  
Current State ◽  
European Culture

Julia Kristeva’s essay looks to yet another form of polyvalent and multilingual universalism: European identity. To address the contemporary malaise and crises that mark the current state of many countries within the European Union, including France, Kristeva proposes an embrace of a European identity that allows for the flourishing of national cultures, national pride, and multilingualism.

Kryzys w Unii Europejskiej a tożsamość europejska

2016 ◽  
pp. 110-136
Author(s):  
Zbigniew B. Rudnicki
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Model ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
Internal Relations ◽  
International Identity

The aim of this article is to show what impact the crisis in the European Union, along with the crisis in the euro zone at the forefront, had on European identity, interwoven with the identity of the European Union to such an extent that these terms are often handled as equivalent. Developments and crises situations which exert an influence on European identity were presented with respect to areas of particular importance that affect the way the European Union is identified within the community and abroad. Following issues were discussed: implications of the crisis for the European Union’s international identity, for the European social model (welfare state), for transnational identity (in internal relations) and for unity and solidarity in the European Union. In the conclusion, it is stated that the economic, political and social crises had undermined the gradual development of European / European Union identity among citizens and had an impact on its image in international relations.

The European Union and Diplomatic Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Butler
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
External Action ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Second World War ◽  
First Century ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Supranational Institutions ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Eu

Not long after the establishment of supranational institutions in the aftermath of the Second World War, the early incarnations of the European Union (EU) began conducting diplomacy. Today, EU Delegations (EUDs) exist throughout the world, operating similar to full-scale diplomatic missions. The Treaty of Lisbon established the legal underpinnings for the European External Action Service (EEAS) as the diplomatic arm of the EU. Yet within the international legal framework, EUDs remain second-class to the missions of nation States. The EU thus has to use alternative legal means to form diplomatic missions. This chapter explores the legal framework of EU diplomatic relations, but also asks whether traditional missions to which the VCDR regime applies, can still be said to serve the needs of diplomacy in the twenty-first century, when States are no longer the ultimate holders of sovereignty, or the only actors in international relations.

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