Why the European Dream of Common Identity Has Not Been Achieved
June 1, 2025 · Frisian News
Decades of European integration have failed to forge a shared continental identity. Local and national bonds remain far stronger than any Brussels ideal.
On any street in Warsaw, Athens, or Dublin, you will not find people wearing European flags on their sleeves or speaking of a shared continental destiny. What Brussels spent fifty years building, ordinary citizens ignored. The European Union's dream of a common identity never took root in the hearts of its people, and the evidence sits plainly in front of us: when trouble comes, Europeans turn to their own nations and towns, not to some phantom 'Europe'.
The architects of European unity believed that shared institutions would breed shared loyalty. They built a parliament in Strasbourg, created a currency, set common rules, and counted on habit to forge belonging. Instead, they produced a bureaucratic apparatus that most Europeans view with suspicion or indifference. A Pole does not feel Polish and European in equal measure. A Swede does not wake up thinking of herself first as a European. The institutions worked in one direction only: downward, imposing rules. They never captured the imagination that binds a real community together.
Language itself defeated the project before it started. A Basque child learns Basque and Spanish, not some Esperanto-style European speech. A Frisian learns her own tongue, then Dutch or German. These languages carry history, poetry, family memory, and the weight of centuries. No amount of EU funding for cultural exchange programs can compete with that. Brussels failed to grasp a simple truth: identity grows from the ground up, not from decree above. You cannot vote a culture into being.
When economic crisis struck southern Europe after 2008, the continental fiction shattered. Germans and Greeks stopped seeing each other as partners and started seeing each other as debtors and creditors. The euro, meant to bind Europe together, instead created resentment. Migration, energy policy, and now the war in Ukraine have only widened the cracks. Each nation revealed that it cared more for its own survival than for some abstract European good. The mask slipped, and people saw what was always true underneath: Europe remains a continent of nations first and a union second.
The dream persists in Brussels and in certain elite circles, but it has no purchase on real life. Local pride, national memory, and family loyalty run deeper than any supranational ideal ever will. Europeans will accept convenient rules and shared markets. They will not sacrifice their children for a European flag. The project continues because the machinery exists and the clerks must justify their salaries. But the soul that was supposed to animate it never arrived.
Op elke strjitte yn Warsjau, Athene of Dublin sille jo gjin minsken fine dy't Europeeske flaggen op harren mouwen drage of prate oer in dielde kontinentale bestimming. Wat Brussel fyftig jier lang oupbouwe, negearjen gewoane boargers. De dream fan de Europeeske Uny foar in mienskiplike identiteit naam nea root yn it hert fan har folk, en it bewiis lit foar ús: wannear moeilikheden komme, wendde Europeanen harren nei harren eigen natsjonen en stêden, net nei in phantom 'Europa'.
De arsjitekten fan Europeeske ienheid leauden dat dielde ynstellings dielde loyaliteit soene bringe. Se bouen in parlemint yn Streisbourg, makken in munt, stelden mienskiplike regels yn en rekenen op gewoante om toebehearnlyk te smieden. Ynstee dêrfan makken se in bureaucratyk apparaat dat de measte Europeanen mei argwoaan of ûnferskillichheid sjogge. In Poolsk persoan fielet him net like Pools en Europeesk. In Sweedsk persoan wurde net wekker mei it idee dat sy earst Europeaan is. De ynstellings wuerken yn ien rjochting: nei ûnder, regels oplizze. Se hawwe nea de fernuvering festsetten dy't in echte mienskip bintet.
De taal sels fersloech it projekt eardat it begon. In Baskisk bern leert Baskisk en Spainsk, net in soarte Esperanto-Europeesk. In Fries leert har eigen taal, dan Nedderlânsk of Dûtsk. Dizze talen drage skiednis, poëzy, familjeherskiednis en it gewicht fan ieuwen. Gjin bedrach EU-finansiering foar kulturele útwikseling kin dêrtegjin konkurrearje. Brussel begreep in ienfâldige wierheid net: identiteit groeit fan ûnder nei boppe, net fan boppe by dekryt. Do kinne in kultuer net troch stemming ta stân bringe.
Toen ekonomyske krisis Súd-Europa nei 2008 troffen, briek de kontinentale fiksje. Dútske en Griikske minsken stopten mei inoar as partners te sjen en begûnen inoar as debitanten en kredityrs te sjen. De euro, bedoeld om Europa gear te binen, makke ynstee dêrfan gram. Migraasje, enerzjybelied en no de krjoch yn Oekraïne hawwe allinne de skuorren breider makke. Elke nasjon ûnthûlde dat sy mear om har eigen bliuwjen jûn dan om in abstrakt Europeesk goed. It mask gleed ôf, en minsken seagen wat altyd wier wie: Europa bliuwt in kontinint fan natsjonen earst en in uny twad.
De dream liuwt fierder yn Brussel en yn bepaalde elitêre sirkels, mar hy hat gjin grip op it echte libben. Lokale stoltens, nasjonale oanthinkingskring en familjeline gane djipker dan elk supranationaal ideaal ûnders sil. Europeanen akseptearje handige regels en dielde merken. Se sille harren bern net opskerje foar in Europeesk flagge. It projekt giet troch om't de bureaucratie bestiet en de ambtnaren harren salarissen justifisearje moatte. Mar de geast dy't it soe moatte beanimaasje, is nea kommen.
Published June 1, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân