European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

136 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYEuropean identity; do national identities and European identity enterinto conflict? It depends on the type of Europe that we are looking forand, consequently, on the identity that we are looking for. Let us explore,in this regard, the four options that I previously mentioned.The first option, a Europe with very markedly sovereign states,really calls for a very weak political and even cultural European identityin which national identities maintain their political pre-eminencewithout giving any trouble. However, it seems as if this is not the finalhorizon that us, the majority, want.In the extreme opposite is the attempt to create an authenticnational European identity, which would transform present-daynational identities into regional ones. Given the strength of present-daynational identities, this looks like an inappropriate short-term goal. Shouldwe aspire it in the long-term, developing a European nationalism?Obviously, it is the identity offering more cohesion. However, consideringhow linked national identities are to issues such as language, land,shared history, tradition, etc. in order to maintain the richness of suchdiversity, it indeed seems convenient to maintain national plurality, itsbest guarantor, as long as its democratic, weak and open. This wouldmean pledging our commitment to a European identity defined, oncertain occasions, by its diversity.If we considered this orientation valid, we would then have to aimat the third option, i.e. at a European identity corresponding to thewish of a complex multinational federalism (that trying to integrate thevarious nationalisms). In such case, European identity must also be anidentity within the framework of complexity: we feel European, andthat identity is politically relevant because it refers to the federation,but at the same time we coordinate the identity which unites us allwith others, that are also significant, which differentiate us: ournational and regional identities, each identity having its own realm andexpressions.We could well think that although democratic nationalism has donemany significant services to human beings in areas such as the exerciseof popular sovereignty and national justice, it is high time we overcame itsince its benefits have been accompanied by exclusion and dominationdynamics in some way inherent to it. Consequently, we should —followingsuggestions such as Habermas´3— commit ourselves to a post-nationalidentity for Europe. In this case, the only public identity —with an explicitand direct political impact— that should exist and that all Europeans3See J. Habermas, La inclusión del otro, Barcelona, Paidós, 1999; and LaConstelación Posnacional, Barcelona, Paidós, 2000.