1. Charlotte Galpin
The Euro Crisis and European Identities: What Future for European Unity?
Charlotte Galpin
Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
University of Copenhagen
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2. Key Questions How does European identity develop?
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Key Questions
How does European identity develop?
What impact has the Euro crisis had on European identities?
What future is there for European identities?
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3. Plan The Euro and European identity
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Plan
The Euro and European identity
Theoretical approach to European identities
Case studies and method
Findings
What does this mean for European integration following Brexit?
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4. Euro Crisis and European Identities
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Euro Crisis and European Identities
Money linked to identity (Helleiner, 1998; Cohen 1998)
Euro as an identity-building project (Kaelberer, 1998; Shore, 2000)
Test of European solidarity?
Effect on perceptions of other countries, role of Germany in Europe → did it ‘fall out of love’ with Europe?
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5. What is European identity?
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What is European identity?
European identity → collective social/political identity, who ‘we’ are as Europeans, as EU citizens. “Imagined communities” (Anderson, 1991)
Identity defined in relation to an Other, ”in” group and “out” group, ‘us’ vs. ‘them’, boundaries of community
Linked to attachment and behaviour, e.g. emotions, collective action, support for European integration.
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6. How do European identities develop?
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How do European identities develop?
Essentialism – national identity derived from ethnic cultures (e.g. Smith, 1992)
BUT social constructivist approach: the role of social and political factors in shaping identity (see e.g. Checkel, 1998, Christiansen et al.), social learning.
Multiple identities → also local and regional identities, or can be exclusive
Importance of signs and symbols of European integration as well as communication in shaping identity (Cram, 2009)
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7. European Identity in Surveys
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European Identity in Surveys
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8. European Identity in Surveys
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European Identity in Surveys
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9. Discourses on European identity
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Discourses on European identity
Discourses on European identity = meanings, narratives, the content of European identity, of what ’Europe and ‘being European’ is.
Constructed through language in the public sphere, such as the news media (see Habermas, 2001)
There is not one European identity, but different understandings of European identity - “Europeanised national identities” (Risse, 2010)
Therefore: European identities which are continually redefined as people communicate about the EU
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10. Communicating Crisis Identities become relevant at times of crisis
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Communicating Crisis
Identities become relevant at times of crisis
Crises can create a ‚window of opportunity‘ for actors change meanings
We therefore need to understand how crisis is talked about and what meanings are given to Europe and European identity
Political and media actors explain events in public sphere (Widmaier et al. 2007)
Expectation: Crisis is linked to existing discourses on Europe and European identity in different member states
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Method – Case Studies
Germany – Post-war commitment to European integration (’European Germany’)
Importance of Franco-German relationship
Nazi past as ‚Other‘
Ordoliberalism – bringing German economic model to Europe
Ireland – strengthening of Irish state
Economic interests – access to single market
Sovereignty - symbol of independence from Britain (Other)
Poland - 2 competing discourses on Europe
Post-communist ‚Return to Europe‘ – Cultural home in Western Europe (Jedlicksi, 1993)
Polish sovereignty – Poland as the victim of foreign powers (Russia and Germany as Other)
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12. Method – Data Analysis Political and media discourse
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Method – Data Analysis
Political and media discourse
3 most widely read newspapers in each country (2 broadsheets, 1 tabloid)
Political speeches and press releases
First Greek bailout (May 2010) and Fiscal Compact (December 2011)
Frame analysis, interpretive discourse analysis
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Findings - Germany
Euro crisis a broader threat to European integration and European unification
Recalls post-war European project and German EU ‘founding fathers’, e.g. Adenauer, Kohl
Franco-German reconciliation is invoked in the context of Euro crisis management
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Findings - Germany
‘if the Euro fails, then it is not just the currency which will fail. It will be Europe that fails, it will be the idea of European unification which fails’ (Merkel, 2010c). Adenauer and de Gaulle, Kohl and Mitterand, and now Merkel and Sarkozy: Europe’s destiny is always decided by the constellation of the most important leadership duo which steers the fate of the continent. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 3rd December 2011)
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Findings - Germany
However, Greece and southern Europe emerge as an ‘Other’ → idea of a Northern European community
This reflects existing conceptions of Euro monetary union as having incorporated German economic values, i.e. rules on balanced budgets, low deficits
Here, being a good European equated with economic discipline, individual responsibility
Greece and southern Europe seen as ‘bad Europeans’
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Findings - Ireland
A ‘European crisis’ referred to as a European banking crisis, currency crisis, economic crisis, calls to save the single currency
Irish economic interests – collapse of Euro would damage Irish economy
Calls for solidarity based on burden-sharing and redistribution from rich to poorer countries
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Findings - Ireland
Solutions to the crisis and economy more broadly are framed in terms of sovereignty
Those in favour use sovereignty to justify policy – EU to secure country‘s financial sovereignty, economic independence from Britain
Opposition to EU action – oppose loss of sovereignty and anti-German and anti-French sentiment, references to Irish War of Independence
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Findings - Ireland
The only alternative to the bailout would be to leave the euro zone and attempt to peg the Irish currency to sterling. That would effectively amount to an application to rejoin the United Kingdom on the 90th anniversary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that led to the establishment of this State’ (Irish Times)
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Findings - Poland
Polarised identities in Poland reinforced during crisis.
„Return to Europe“ discourse - risk of political marginalisation for Poland if excluded from core decision-making, concern about two-speed EU
Calls for federal Europe, strengthening supranational institutions to prevent loss of sovereignty through domination by a few powerful countries
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Findings - Poland
The real dilemma for Poland is how to be at the centre of Europe, how to be a real, major player on the European stage, and not, as a result of the crisis, to find ourselves at the margins, at the periphery, or outside the European Union (Tusk, Dec 2011)
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Findings - Poland
Exclusive Polish identity → focus on national sovereignty
Fiscal Compact = government accused of ’selling’ Polish sovereignty to foreign powers, betraying ‘heroes’ of Solidarity movement
Concern about German and Russian domination reflects discourse on victimhood and historical experience of partitions
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Findings - Poland
’we see that in practice Germany is creating the future legal framework of the new European Union, which is to be created in the image and likeness of Germany [...] But the progressive economic Germanisation of Europe is about to awaken past ghosts that have been dormant for 60 years (Rzeczpospolita, 2011).
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24. Crisis and European identities
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Crisis and European identities
Some new ideas took hold, but no dramatic change to meanings of European identity
BUT, lack of change does not = unity
Identities became more polarised during the crisis in all countries
This strengthens divisions, misunderstandings, can lead to rising Euroscepticism, makes decision-making more difficult
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Explaining Brexit
In the UK (England), national identity has mainly been exclusive
Pro-Europeans justified EU membership with economic reasons
Euro crisis → economic reasons no longer worked in justifying EU membership
Polarised identities? European Brits and the ‘48%’ vs. pro-Brexit
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26. Challenges for European integration
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Challenges for European integration
Calls for ‘hard Brexit’ in name of unity between the EU27 – will this strengthen European identities in remaining member states?
Regional identities/divisions will continue: North vs. South, East vs. West, Visegrad Four, e.g. managing refugee crisis
Different meanings of European solidarity, challenges to EU citizenship and freedom of movement
EU democratic legitimacy?
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Thank you!
Galpin, Charlotte (2017) The Euro Crisis and European Identities: Political and Media Discourses in Germany, Poland and Ireland, Palgrave Macmillan
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