A Resilient Community? European Identity, EU Citizenship and Transnational Mobility in the Context of the Crisis

Abstract

The global economic and financial crisis significantly affected the image of the European Union (EU) as a political community, leading to sharp increase in questions about its very purpose and democratic legitimacy. Against this backdrop, the proposed panel brings together scholars who work in the fields of European identity and European citizenship. More specifically, the panel seeks to address the intertwined issues of the EU’s declining image as a political community and the re-politicization of the integration process. To this end, it explores the core components of an (ideal) EU political community, specifically political identity, as linked to EU attitudes, and EU citizenship, as a transnational practice. The purpose of this panel is to shed new light on whether and, if so, how European identity and European citizenship may constitute a source of resilience for the distrusted EU and its political community image. The papers included in this panel constitute comparative studies and adopt both quantitative and qualitative methods in addressing these issues. In so doing, the papers explore various aspects of European identity and European citizenship, all of which feature prominently in Eurosceptic narratives and contemporary contestations of what the EU signifies.