Europeanism

Europeanism is a term that encapsulates the norms and values that Europeans have in common, and which transcend national or state identity. In addition to helping promote the integration of the European Union, this doctrine also provides the basis for analyses that characterise European politics, economics, and society as reflecting a shared identity. Opponents to the idea stress that there are various differences among European groups and that the factors seen as characteristic of this shared culture do not necessarily follow its premise.

Recent arguments

A new assessment of Europeanism was sparked by the events leading up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Widespread public opposition in every major European country (even those such as Britain, Italy, and Spain, whose governments supported the invasion) prompted the 15 February 2003 anti-war protests in London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Madrid and other cities. The philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida were inspired to write an article for the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in which they claimed the birth of a 'European public sphere'. They argued that new values and habits had given contemporary Europe 'its own face', and saw an opportunity for the construction of a 'core Europe' (excluding Britain and Eastern Europe) that might be a counterweight to the United States. Attempting to explain what Europe represented, they listed six facets of what they described as a common European 'political mentality':