Constructing the European identity - trap or gap? European integration between community-building and path-dependency

This article scrutinises the application of collective political identity construction as a political concept to the process of European integration. As a starting point for my approach I take the recurring demands for a European identity which reflects a strong link between democratic legitimacy and the EU. Given the sui generis nature of the European integration process, I argue that these perceptions derive from the nation-building processes of the 18th and 19th centuries rather than reflecting the experience of an incremental political integration process. Contrary to the generalised assumption that identity construction is a prerequisite for political integration in Europe or the ‘missing link’, my argument is that European identity should rather be treated as a possible end product. Applying a strong pathdependence model to European integration risks stepping into an ‘identity trap’, which constrains indispensable systemic flexibility.