ABSTRACT
In 2007, the European Union (EU), an unprecedented project of international peaceful integration, celebrated its 50th anniversary. The unstable yet distinctive manner of the EU’s development, where it moves ‘from crisis to crisis’,1 has brought critical attention and raised fundamental questions about the Union during most of those years, both from within and outside the polity. With 50 years under its belt, has this perpetual ‘objet politique non-identifié’2 discovered what makes it so unique for Europe and for the rest of the world? Does the EU have its own geo-political and socio-economic identity? Is a more coherent identity crucial to advance European integration? Does the process of European integration affect how the EU is seen among major global players? Is the Union satisfied with this vision, compared to its self-perceptions? Where has all the talk about identity come from? Why now?
