Kemal Derviş is right when he writes that Europe must adjust to meet new challenges that are both local and global. He says the EU is looking for an answer to those challenges by creating a new European identity and argues that this won’t do, either locally or globally. His answer is that Europe should remain strongly linked to other parts of the world, with certain EU countries playing a particularly important role, such as the UK’s links with English-speaking countries, Spain’s links to Latin America and Turkey’s strong and growing links to the Muslim world.
The concept of ‘’bridging’’ countries is an interesting one, and it is worth adding that the EU’s new member states have already begun to contribute to its neighbourhood policy. But what Derviş refers to as ”futile attempts to define a European identity” and as “defining a new type of European nationalism” is in fact a defensive reaction against further enlargement. This is reaction caused by uncertainty and fear of opening Europe up to citizens and states that are culturally different, with their own views on issues that range from the economy to civilisation. We witnessed similar reactions amongst significant proportions of public opinion in France, Germany and Austria during the run-up to the “big bang” accession of the new member states. For many western Europeans, Poles, Slovaks or Lithuanians are strangers, the poor and slightly backward inhabitants of the “east”.
This defensive mechanism against opening up Europe should not be mistaken for an attempt to create a new European identity. During the recent discussions on the EU’s Reform Treaty, references to the Christian religion were rejected, as were references to such symbols as a flag or an anthem. Turkey has been recently given to understand that its chances of quick accession are poor; not because the Union wants to defend its European identity but because of Europe’s fear of globalisation. Because of this fear, Europe is shutting itself away instead of responding positively to the challenges of globalisation.
A European identity is anyway emerging, but in a natural and spontaneous way, and enlargement is conducive to this. Once the 10 new member states joined the EU in 2004 they became a part of the European family and started to catch-up not only with regard to living standards and economic growth but also by aspiring to European values and by looking for European solutions to problems. Without losing their national identities they have started to acquire a new one – the European identity.