Making European Citizens: Challenges to Solidarity Among EU Member States

Abstract

While Eurobarometer 479 reports that optimism and faith in the EU has been increasing, numerous crises have fractured the EU’s notion of solidarity and amongst many things, led to the rise of Euroscepticism and the official exit of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2021. While solidarity is central to the architecture of the EU, evident in its recurrent use in treaties and its public narrative, it is difficult to operationalize when Europe is built on the legacy of war, colonialism, and conflict. International bodies like the United Nations insist that solidarity “does not seek to homogenize but rather, to be the bridge across those differences and opposites, connecting to each other diverse peoples and countries with their heterogeneous interests, in mutually respectful, beneficial and reciprocal relations.”15 Therefore, solidarity within the EU can only persist if it repairs the cleavages of the past. In addressing the critiques that emerge from approaches to policy, the response to the financial and refugee crises, and other issues that citizens deem relevant, the ability of the EU to repair past challenges and to allow for a veritable Union rests on its commitment to combat Euroscepticism, pursue further citizen involvement in policy and legislative decision, and craft a comprehensive European identity that reflects the cultures, histories, and views of all citizens.