In Search of an Identity for Europe. ZEI Discussion Papers: 1998, C 23

[Introduction]. The search for an identity is the search for an essence. The purpose of this paper is to reveal “that something called Europe”....I will here attempt to reconstruct a historical and philosophical path through the ages with inevitable over-interpretations and manipulations of reality. Coherence would imply silence. This essay is written while Europe is living de facto through a constituent phase, which the author believes to be one of the inevitable consequences of the end of the cold war. For the first time in its history, Europe has the possibility of forming a single political entity that is not based on the predominance of a single nation but on the recognition of interdependent relationships and on a common wealth of values. If we want this process to succeed we will have to fully understand the origins we have in common so that we can imagine a European society in the 21st century