What are the Political Values Shared by Europeans Citizens Today?

The European Union is a very complex political structure unifying a large range of cultures, from the North to the South, from the West to the East. Few citizens are sharing exclusively a European identity, even though European citizens enjoy largely the benefits of the Union (common currency, freedom of movement, peace…). The diversity of such a large union justifies the various studies held on social and political values of the European citizens. The European Values Study, for example, has collected various data on society, politics and religion since 1981. Questions about political interest, willingness to join in political actions, left-right placement, post-materialism, and support for democracy are particularly important to understand the political cohesion of the Union (as well as questions on social networks, confidence in others, solidarity, and tolerance). Those dimensions have to be analysed in a regional perspective and according to generational cleavages. EVS will not be our only source of data. From 2009 to 2012, we were part of the Belgian team of the PIDOP project (“Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation”). Dealing with “democratic ownership”, the final report revealed interesting information about the perceptions of the European level of power: “[…] multi-level process models of civic and political engagement and participation were constructed to explain how and why different forms and interpretations of democratic ownership and participation develop or are hampered among citizens living in different European countries and contexts.” ( http://www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/pidop/). We would also like to revisit those data and bring another light to the European and domestic identities, especially among young people.