Introduction

Abstract

The question of the nature of the notion of ‘Europe’ poses itself. What is Europe? Is it simply a geographical place or unit? A historically and culturally based community of values? An economic and political project without noticeable popular anchoring? Does a specific European identity exist at all? In what way do Europeans differ from the ‘others’? And who are strictly speaking Europeans, and who are then the ‘others’? These and many more controversial questions of identity policy have been posed and sought to be answered on countless occasions during the twentieth century. Perhaps it is even characteristic for ‘the Europeans’ that the question of what is European never ends? Definitely no exclusive established idea about Europe and ‘the European’ has crystallized, but through the centuries there has been a manifold and ever-changing discourse on Europe that ranges from intellectual utopias over more or less chromium-plated plans and designs to absolutely pragmatic agreements on, for instance, coal, steel, agriculture, customs and nuclear power (Wilson and van der Dussen, 2005).