European identity is seen as important in the process of constituting a supranational polity. This paper investigates how this type of identification is affected by both current pessimistic sentiments about society and the euro crisis. Surveys show citizens to be concerned with the direction their society is heading and believe their society is in decline. We hypothesize that societal pessimism counteracts European identification, because concern about one’s own country increases national identification and counteracts European identification. Moreover, we expect that this effect is stronger in countries with nationalistic anti-EU political parties, which stimulate national identification and oppose to European integration.
On the other hand, the economic crisis might have increased European identification, as the increased interdependency in recent years can stimulate a perception of ‘community of faith’. Therefore the effect of societal pessimism on European identification is analyzed with Eurobarometer data in 25 EU countries, in both 2010 and 2012.
