Can a true European identity emerge if the EU keeps enlarging and sucking in new countries?
We need to clear about what kind of identity we’re creating. It’s not an ethnic or religious identity, but one which is embodied in the European way of doing things. In other words, a belief in the rule of law (both at home and internationally), in multilateral solutions and in the need to marry economic dynamism with social cohesion – all of which are embodied in the 80,000 pages of EU laws. Of course, there are vast differences between the different member states, but they share more in common with each other than with the rest of the world. Britain and France have got different electoral systems, languages and currencies but if you look at the two countries together, they are much more similar to each other than to say China or the US, for example in the role of the state. This is true of all EU member states. The EU has never been about creating a single model which everyone signs up to, it’s about managing diversity. But there are common values and norms which bind European countr
