IDENTITY, SOLIDARITY AND INTEGRATION: EUROPEAN UNION DURING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

How Europeans see themselves, how they see one another and how sympathetic are they one another are some of the questions that preoccupy those who study the European integration process. The paper addresses these questions and explores the effects of the ongoing economic crisis on citizens' perceptions and sense of belonging to the European Union. Using data collected from several Eurobarometers, it tries to find out how has evolved the feeling of belonging to the European Union during the economic crisis. The levels of trust in political institutions, the perceptions about the most effective actors for deling with the crisis, the reasons for solidarity or non-solidarity between the Member States are analyzed in order to emphasize both the general picture and differences occurring between citizens in different EU countries.