The European identity - Romanian youths' perspectives in times of crisis

The European identity is a fundamental concept with concrete implications in the way citizens relate to the integration process, and the support for the European integration is dependent on the development of a stronger collective attachment towards Europe [1, 2]. The EU institutions have strived to develop a common shared identity since a sustainable, legitimate European project needs a complementary identity [3]. The Union cannot remain an elites' project especially since in the context of the European crisis, the citizens face concrete implications. The economic situation along with the costs and benefits of EU integration shape the citizens' attitudes towards the EU as well as their sense of affiliation. The feeling of common identity may be weakened in times of crisis especially if people perceive a series of inequalities in terms of benefits and obligations [4]. The way people understand the European identity is different from one individual to another according to their experiences and to their different ways of relating to the European community. The European identity can be defined from several perspectives such as cultural, civic or instrumental [5, 6]. These multiple representations can coexist and can be activated depending on particular situations [7]. Therefore, the European identity is a social construct with multiple layers negotiated in everyday interactions [8, 9], which make the feeling of EU affiliation prone to external influences. In order to analyze how citizens understand and experience the European identity, we conducted a qualitative research consisting in two series of 20 and 19 respectively in-depth interviews with Romanian graduate students. The interviews were conducted in the aftermath of important European events such as the rejection of the 2014-2020 EU budget, the severe crisis in Cyprus, the rejection of Romania and Bulgaria's request to join the Schengen area at the JHA Council in 2013, and the European election campaign, the conflicts and elections in Ukraine, EU's approach towards Russia in the context of geopolitical animosities in 2014. The research questions guiding the analysis focused on how is the European identity perceived among young educated people; which factors/contexts can foster the feeling of Europeanness; what is the relationship between the European and the national identity layers and what are the citizens' perspectives regarding the future of the European identity. Thus, this paper provides relevant information regarding the way citizens experience the feeling of Europeanness and define the European identity. The youths' perspective on European identity is generally an optimistic one. Although the interviewees have experienced only episodic moments of identification with other Europeans, they believe people will assume a European identity in the future. For each citizen, the European identity means something different and generally, it implies an identity accessed only in certain circumstances and added to the national one.