A European Cultural Identity Myth, Reality Or Aspiration?
Introduction
1992 was supposed to herald a positive turning point in the history of Europe. However, as one commentator succinctly remarked, at the end of 1992 the European Community had to worry about protecting yesterday's accomplishments rather than facing tomorrow's challenges. The collapse of the Soviet empire at the end of 1991 raised old and new European demons. These originated from the re-invigoration of the nation state and of ethno-nationalism in Europe. The continent became embroiled in a sometimes deadly clash between two opposing forces: the logic of global socio-economic interdependence that spells integration and the logic of ethnicity and nationality that demands separation. It is not inevitable that the logic of unity and interdependence will prevail and there is a consequent danger of a return to a dangerously fragmented Europe with potentially devastating consequences.
As old historical frames of reference emerge from beneath the mantle of the Cold War and internal European boundaries are dismantled, difficult questions about the definition of Europe are raised. In response, policy makers have asserted that within the diversity that is Europe there are also unifying European values. Despite these rhetorical assertions there are those who dispute the existence of a European identity or of a European culture. Herve Varenne refers to the notion of Europe as a cultural entity as nothing more than an intellectual discourse "which has something that balances in the interpretive realm what politicians and bureaucrats have been doing in Brussels".
If one adheres, as many do, to the concept that 'Modern man is not loyal to a monarch or a land or a faith, whatever he may say, but to a culture', then the attempt to promote the idea of a distinctive European culture, tradition, or set of values is of high political significance. In the context of the European Union the ultimate success of the...
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