ABSTRACT
How Dutch identity is affected by the European integration process will be investigated later by testing supranational European identity of the Dutch. Meanwhile, the description of such a European identity seems a difficult issue because studies and surveys contradict each other. Some emphasize the values of the French Enlightenment, others see a combination of Greek-Latin, JewishChristian, and Byzantine components (Wilterdink 1991; Bakker et al. 1994). Pinxten (1994, pp. 71-2) considers the following components as crucial to European identity: belief in the sovereignty of the individual, a political state construction which maintains a division between state and church, a mechanistic Newtonian conception of the world, a Christian or semi-Christian vision of life and a materialistic attitude.
