A QUESTION OF IDENTITY

Europe is a great idea but leaves us with a challenging task: creating a common identity.

The difficulties are obvious. On the one hand, Europe benefits from the various cultural differences of its members. However, these differences could also be seen as the main obstacle towards a common European nationality.

The EU, for instance, has now 27 members with 23 official languages. This can become a real problem, as identity is closely linked to native languages. In the EU, the three main languages are English, French and German. But what about other states such as Greece, Poland and Portugal? Language is still a hurdle to common understanding and will remain a problem for European identity.

Therefore, building our nation requires different methods. One of them has been the introduction of a common currency, the Euro. A spontaneous look into my wallet revealed coins from Ireland, Italy and Germany. Suddenly, bridging cultures and countries becomes very easy indeed. Unfortunately, the UK has refused to join the Euro until now and therefore missed the opportunity to move closer to the continent.

According to last week’s New Statesman “The euro has become the world's favourite - and most stable - currency and no country has lost its identity.”¹ Still, the author remains too general about the term ‘identity’ and neglects the issue of a European nationality. But joining the European currency could make it much easier for Britain to become part of a multinational Europe – a step it only has taken half-hearted up to now.

Europe has to take every opportunity to become one. As part of Europe, Britain should not wait any longer.