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Article
Normative Conceptions of European Identity - A Synthetic Approach
Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics
(2010)
Abstract
The European project was aimed from the outset, alongside reconciliation (peace) and economic reconstruction (prosperity), at a degree of political integration too. Political integration has progressed modestly. Not everybody is convinced of its benefits. Besides, the notion of a European polity opens the question about its sources of cohesion. Those sources are more or less evident in the member states – language, history, legal, political and religious traditions, for instance. They give, say, Latvia, Italy or Hungary a certain degree of unity – a national identity. But what ought to be that source of cohesion – or identity – for the European Union (EU) considered as a whole? This paper analyses five normative conceptions about such ‘European identity’ (EI) – cultural, legal, economic, international and cosmopolitan – and suggests that they are not mutually exclusive, but can be combined in a synthetic notion that promises to reflect in a more comprehensive and accurate way the sources of the minimal unity required to hold the EU polity together.
Keywords
- Diversity,
- European identity,
- Normative conceptions,
- Political integration,
- Political unity,
- Synthetic Notion
Disciplines
Publication Date
Summer December 12, 2010
Citation Information
Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira. "Normative Conceptions of European Identity - A Synthetic Approach" Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics Vol. 12 Iss. 1 & 2 (2010) p. 159 - 170 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/pablo-jimnezlobeira/6/
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