Notre Europe's viewpoint
| 05/04/2007
European identity is a duty: a responsibility to the past turned towards the future, as Angela Merkel reminded us at the adoption of the Declaration of Berlin by the Heads of State and Government on 25 March. How otherwise can Europe become a home to the millions of immigrants and internal migrants who live on its soil? How then can this responsibility be passed to the younger generation of Europeans, who inhabit a world so different to that of Europe's founding fathers? The European idea does not force us to stick rigidly to the models and prescriptions of the past. It is rather a call to "meet the challenges of history", as Jacques Delors reminds us so often. Because if Europe's future were determined only by nostalgia and aversion to change, "there would still be only six of us".
In an effort to better understand how the feeling of European belonging is constructed, Notre Europe has published a first case study (English version to follow) in the series Recognising what binds us: The European identity. The study helps to define the complexity of relationships and attitudes to Europe as lived by European citizens in a winemaking region of the south of France. For the emergence of a common identity necessitates a good dose of self-questioning on the part of the populations involved in the European project. A premium will be placed on their ability to leave aside the dogma of absolute nation-state sovereignty, and on their capacity to weigh their own interests against those of their neighbour.
This potential for the past to illuminate the future was demonstrated with great success at the colloquium organised for Notre Europe's 10th anniversary, and again at the European Estates General on 17 March - an event which brought together politicians, representatives of civil society, trade unionists and business leaders to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. As is shown both by the proceedings of the colloquium Notre Europe tomorrow and by the first report of the Estates General, Europe does not lack new challenges a half-century after its founding act. The lessons of the past can help us to meet these challenges. The first responsibility of the peoples of Europe is to stay together and not to imagine that 50 years of peace have permanently immunised Europe against dehumanising fervours.
