This study examines the making of the European identity concept under the impact of the European Union (EU) project. In order to define the structure of the European identity, theoretical and historical aspects have been scrutinised. Besides, the Eurobarometers (EBs) have been used to analyse the condition of European identity perception among the people of the member countries. The results of the EBs data show that the popularisation of the European identity is limited and the elite character of this identity seems dominant. The EU still lacks its common political identity, which forms a political agenda, and a supranational political identity. This thesis has concluded that the popularisation of the European identity can ensure more political unity for the EU, and this unity can be realised only with a multiple identity perception including current strong identities of the Europe.

This thesis analyzes the democratic deficit problem inherent in the European Union since the initial stages. In the study, the two dimensions of the problem is studied and within this context, the decision making procedures in the European Union, the functioning of the European Union institutions, the European Parliament elections are discussed in detail. Moreover, issues related to Europeanness and European identity are referred to and the improvements achieved by European Union concerning institutional structure and popular unity to overcome the democratic deficit are analyzed.

This thesis aims to analyze the contributions of the Ottoman Empire to the construction of modern Europe in the early modern period. Conventional historiography generally argues that the Ottoman Empire contributed to the emergence of the modern European identity only through acting as the &amp / #8216 / other&amp / #8217 / of Europe. This thesis, however, aims to show that such an analysis is not enough to understand the Ottoman impact on the European state system. Moreover, it argues that the Ottoman Empire contributed to the construction of this system both politically and economically. By depriving the Habsburg Empire of dominating whole continent, Ottoman Empire helped the proto-modern centralizing states, i.e. England, France and the Netherlands, and Protestantism to survive the suppression of the Habsburgs. On the other hand, by granting capitulations to these European states, it contributed to the economies of these states in a way that they could be able to develop their emerging capitalist economies. In all, this thesis concludes that the Ottoman Empire was not a passive actor and an outsider to the European system, acted only as a counter-reference point in the formation of the European identity / rather, it actively involved in the European politics and economics as an active actor.

This thesis aims to describe and analyze the historical images of European identity and the contemporary initiatives of the European Union to promote it. By analyzing the common cultural elements that European identity consists of, namely Ancient Greece, Roman Empire, Christianity, Renaissance, Reformations, Enlightenment, French Revolution, and Modernity in terms of the images of European identity, the limits of these common cultural elements and how much they have contributed to the creation of a European identity will be presented. And by examining the contemporary initiatives of European Union to promote European Identity such as creating a European flag, anthem, passport, constitution, this thesis aims to explore and present the prospects for a common European Identity. In this regard, it is the main argument of the thesis that European identity is a limited form of a collective identity, among the multiple identities that a person has.

abstract: This dissertation critically examines whether and how the practices involved in the crafting of the European Union may be said to go beyond modern statecraft. European integration should in part be seen as an attempt to transcend the modern state. Among many of the early proponents of European integration, the nation state had become associated with militarism, jingoism and ultimately, at least partly, to the blamed for the many devastating wars on the European continent, and even a normative order that made the Holocaust possible. Most other studies that have dealt with the EU's alleged difference from the modern state have employed an understanding of the state which confers a certain ontological standing and status onto its purported object of study. This dissertation argues that a critical approach to European integration needs to go beyond such a representationalist, ontologizing understanding of a political entity. Instead, in order to start addressing the question of state violence that European integration emerged as a response to, the crafting of the Europe Union needs to be problematized in relation to practices of statecraft. The dissertation also contends that previous engagements of European integration in relation to the modern state have neglected engaging the broader normative horizon in which the modern Westphalian state is inscribed. The first chapter puts forward a way of understanding modern statecraft. The subsequent chapters examine four different legitimation discourses of European integration against such an understanding: EU's failed Constitutional Treaty, EU's foreign policy discourse, European integration theory, and an instance of European migration policy. The dissertation concludes that the crafting of Europe in many ways resembles the crafting of the modern state. In fact, the crafting of the European Union is plagued by similar ethical dilemmas as the modern state, and ultimately animated by a similar desire to either expel or interiorize difference. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Political Science 2012

Fostering identification with Europe among citizens could legitimise European integration. Whether such an identity exists, however, remains an on-going debate among scholars. This research returns to the foundations of how a European identity is constructed, transmitted and transformed. It explores narratives of European identity in a carefully chosen context - European Schools for children of EU officials - where identification with Europe should mirror official EU visions. A qualitative content analysis explores narrations of 101 students collected during interviews and focus groups across three schools, and analyses documents and interviews with EU officials, school directors and teachers. This analysis reveals a descriptive puzzle: official EU and European School propositions of (multi-) national narratives differ markedly from teachers' and students' conceptions of cosmopolitan and transnational identities. The EU constructs an out-group of its own nationalist past and non-EU citizens. On the other hand, students construct an explicitly European in-group, but differentiate themselves from more national and less mobile lifestyles. This disparity, in turn, reveals a causal puzzle about how differences in narratives emerge. I use process tracing to elucidate the relationship between European schooling and students' identification with Europe. The results show a distorted transmission where broader EU goals are elaborated and transformed by teachers and further fuelled by interactions amongst students with similarly mobile and multilingual backgrounds. I develop a dual mechanism to understand how the varieties of identification with Europe develop: the concept of "doing Europe" explains how students nourish a transnational social network; "telling Europe", on the other hand, considers students' exposure to European symbols and stories in school and both national and anti-nationalist narratives provided by teachers and peers. Together, this leads to a transformed but ultimately European in-group understanding. Overall, this project underlines the complexity of identity construction, given that top-down transmission gets altered even in this favourable case. Specifically, it informs future research on European identity by detailing peculiar narratives and offering a causal approach to how these narratives emerge.

This document is a comparative synthesis of the reports on regional case studies written by PERCEIVE's partners. Each report is based both on an original data collection and on the analysis of the focus group's section that addresses communication issues. Each partner collected national and/or regional communication plans, which were mostly used for the first chapter of this report: "Communication strategy at different levels and LMAs' organization."

In recent years, the European Union has faced increased Euroscepticism and Nationalism. Fostering a sense of belonging of European citizens to and with the EU is crucial to ensuring its legitimacy. However, the EU stays relatively silent on the issue of European identity and how this identity is envisaged. Is the EU a purely political community or does it also have a cultural dimension? The Europe for Citizens Program offers a unique approach in uniting both dimensions of European identity under its objectives of fostering European remembrance and promoting civic participation by connecting them to the practice of active citizenship. This case study analyzed the conceptions of European Identity within the Europe for Citizens Program 2014-2020 and what role active citizenship plays in this context. Although the current program generation does not include an objective to foster European identity, this study found that promoting and constructing this identity in a civic and cultural dimension is a prominent part of the program. Through active participation of European citizens, a sense of belonging to and with the Union is supposed to be created. Europeans are said to belong to a political community that is based on shared cultural values that entail more than just a purely civic dimension.

The Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) was founded in 1992 withthe goal of facilitating cooperation between museums in Europe. Today, the networkworks closely with the European Union to advocate for museum professionals on aEuropean level. Its members, museums and museum organizations from countries in theCouncil of Europe, are heavily encouraged to take initiatives to improve jointinternational efforts. The repeated contacts of NEMO with the EU as well as their workto bring European museums together raise the question of the promotion of Europeanvalues and European identity: the hypothesis is that, in statements on the organization’swebpage, themes and patterns that coincide with the construction and defense ofEuropean identity will appear. To what extent does NEMO advocate for a Europeanidentity? How does it relate cultural heritage to European identity, and how is this relationrepresented in their dialogue with the EU? To answer the research questions, a qualitativedata analysis was conducted. This revealed, throughout the material, multiple instancesof NEMO reinforcing the principles of European values and European identity – and notjust in terms of exhibitions, but the people behind them as well: museum professionalsare incited to develop their own identity as well. Some of the arguments were reminiscentof Hobsbawm’s theories on the construction of nationalism. NEMO also defends cultureand cultural heritage as keystones of European identity, especially considering thevulnerability of the world of culture in situations of crisis. Therefore, NEMO uses culturalheritage to support the construction of a European identity among citizens, includingmuseum professionals; this relation is used as a foundation of their advocacy work at theEuropean level.

<p><strong><strong><p>This thesis has its focus</p>on media portrayal of a large political institution; the European Union. Articles from two nations daily newspapers have been analyzed in order to examine how the European Union is described and framed for their readers. The newspapers that was chosen for this study and from which the material was collected, were the Swedish newspaper <em><em>Svenska Dagbladet </em></em>the American newspaper <em><em>The New York Times</em></em>. The material was taken from three periods of time, and by this the results did not only serve a presentiment on how the media reports about the subject, but also an idea over the media’s coverage character over time. Also, by analyzing articles from newspapers from different countries, the material could give an answer to whether there is any difference in media reporting and coverage about the European Union over nation borders. </strong></strong></p><p>Theories that have been under observation for this study, and which have functioned as tools for the analyzing process are: the agenda-setting theory, media ideology, framing, media logic and political communication. Further inspirations that have been under consideration and of values through the development of this thesis are thoughts from the modern theorist Jürgen Habermas, and earlier studies that have been made on the subject in matter, for example ones by Lars Palm and Vanni Tjernström.</p><p>Results from this study showed that there were differences between the two nations way of reporting about the subject, and also that changes over time have occurred. Mostly, it was the Swedish news reporting that showed evident change over the three investigated periods. This can be explained by the countries over all changed relationship towards the European Union. Further did results from this study show that the American articles included more actors and subjects, compared to the Swedish articles. This can be a factor of the American articles longer character.</p>