ABSTRACT

In the Introduction to this volume, Rebecca Friedman and Markus Thiel contend that liberal, postnational European values, which disregard cultural differences in Europe’s demographics, may exacerbate some of the main problems confronting the EU. These problems include the exclusion of immigrants and the marginalization of minorities in addition to the challenge of accommodating culturally unique EU candidate countries, whether Turkey or the Balkan states. The interplay of, on the one hand, cultural representations within the multi-level governance system in the EU with, on the other, a multiplicity of nationalist identifications makes the narrative construction of a transnational sense of selfhood problematic. A transnational identity is not just an ideal but has practical implications as well: it can shape the normative and geopolitical role that the EU can play globally. Europe’s future place in the rapidly shifting global economy may in large part be determined by how successfully it develops a shared set of values and a common identity.