Thoughts about European Identity ⁱ
by Steve Austen
Presentation given at the ECP session of 18–19 September 2021 at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin
The role of arts & culture in strengthening European citizenship education and active citizenship ii
Tangible and intangible heritage
The material that comprises the European Union in economic or political terms is tangible, but definitions of its identity are rather insubstantial. These definitions, furthermore, differ. So, by leaving the solid fundament of the EU and joining a debate about Europe’s identity one enters the wide space of vague assumptions and inexpressible positions.
Old & new EU members
Those who do define the identity debate as a tool to talk about connectivity, trust, mutuality, mobility and multilingualism may have a point. The reality in nowadays Europe teaches us that those notions might have been on the agenda of the first elected governments of the new (former socialist) member
states, the voters of their successors had other ideas in mind of becoming part of the EU. Hardly any of these governments, in some cases run by artists and cultural personalities, were re-elected. Probably their drive to foster democracy and the rule of law did not at all match with notions in society,
especially not in rural areas, where after the communist period no citizenship education ⁱⁱⁱ nor spiritual or common perspective was at hand. The expectations of Western politicians however were rather high. It was quite usual at public debates about Europe that they expressed their disappointment with the fact that forms of nationalism seem vivid in the new member states. It was not easy to put the question on the table how people living so long in a more or less collective environment can become overnight devoted democrats embracing the European values. The more so if one wants these states and citizens to share his or her cultural identity. This identity, if it exists, has to be (re-)invented. This starts with feelings of belonging to a language community, or a religious or territorial one. One may call this nationalism, probably patriotism would be a more adequate term.
Common identity
Anyway, the European unification process cannot be speeded up by neglecting the organic developments from autocratic, communist reality through national awareness to more democratic practices. Often, the connection with the European Union is still far away. One first has to accept the
communality of basic aspirations, guaranteed personal standards of social and economic existence, health environment, quality education, justice and equal opportunity, followed by rule of law, pluralism, employment and prosperity. One therefore should strongly conquer those slogans that do
not recognize that there is no shared European heritage: the heritage is contentious and the value systems are heterogeneous in Europe. ⁱ
Recent experiences with divergent views as shown in the serious press on economic and political problems from new member states do teach us that the period of dreaming has come to an end. It seems that a quite large proportion of the citizens of these new member states do not see a common European identity as evocated in the great concepts of the EU. And right they are. In fact, most people stick to their national, regional or local conventions and interpretations. Although the majority supports EU membership, they feel no need to get involved in EU politics and they mostly know little about it.
Common rights
Apparently the only way to get people’s attention for the European Union is to offer them a foothold by defining a common ground, a common celebration of the individual rights guaranteed for every EU citizen as formulated in the Treaties. Pointing out the area of freedom, security and justice, stated in
article 3 TEU, one can avoid the search for an identity for all Europeans. It is this challenge that makes it possible to overcome the gap between the EU and the European peoples. I therefore wholeheartedly subscribe to the definition of the European Union provided in 2007 by José Manuel Barroso, then President of the European Commission: “The EU is the only geographical
territory that guarantees all its residents, regardless of nationality, the same civil rights with regard to their respective governments and fellow citizens.” v
Thus, it could be said that the EU Treaties, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which has the same legal force as the Treaties and the European Convention on Human Rights are the instruments par excellence to provide the only correct answer to the question of European identity. Unfortunately, this is not enough: the many judgments by the Court of Justice of the European Union as well as the European Court of Human Rights illustrate that too often national legislators still consider the citizens a necessary evil, and not the client served by the national parliaments. This process, in which the European space finally is becoming a homogeneous legal space for the citizen by small but evident steps, is an outstanding example of a cultural process. Of course the influence of this process will only be visible decades from now in its maturity. This should not be an objection.
This type of process as it is established in European culture, is more than a traditional ceremonial custom. In this regard it may be convenient to mention the procession to Echternach,vi in which the pilgrims are obliged to take one step backwards for every two steps forward, as a good exercise in European progress. From the many conversations the author had with young people everywhere in Europe, in and outside the EU, this notion seems to be virtually unknown. Apparently some people assume that citizenship can develop without an international legal framework. This could be seen as the greatest deficiency in the current debate about Europe. Anyone in regular contact with friends and colleagues in the European Union’s new member countries can only conclude that the orientation must drastically change to prevent from a grim reality where hardly any European under 40 does know the values of the EU by heart. After an ongoing political unification process, enjoying the benefits of the single market, opening borders and enabling free movement of people and goods, capital and services, and adjusting step by step an equal legal situation for all Union citizens there is more than enough reason to follow Jaap Hoeksma’s plea to define the European Union as “a Democratic Union of Democratic States”.vii This implies that the dual citizenship, namely that of the respective member state and that of the Union, cannot be denied by national institutions or systems.viii
Dual citizenship and culture
Since the Lisbon Treaty (2009) the EU citizen is legally recognized and on board. Now the EU wants to regain their trust and ignite their passion for a real binding. Following a “cultural approach”, the Union is referring to the common values and heritage that unite the Europeans and defining an identity that appeals to the people. The European Commission’s contribution to the Social Summit in Gothenburg in November 2017 was titled: “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture”.ix
For a “UPO — an unidentified political object” (Jacques Delors, 1985)x the EU has developed itself to a clear political entity. One important delivery since 1992 (Maastricht) is the fostering of the citizens’ role and the legal recognition of that role (Lisbon 2009) and the underlining of the driving force to promote citizenship through education & culture. The UPO became an IGO: an Identified Grassroots Object.
Culture and citizenship education: The Artist as Citizen xi
If the European unification process has to be considered as a cultural process, where do the cultural organisations, their leaders, their audiences and the artists come in? Following the EC launch of a widespread consultation of the cultural NGO world under the motto “Access to Culture” (2008), xii one of the working groups presented a remarkable outcome: audience development should from then on be understood as citizenship education. The question of the changing role of culture was the overall theme some years earlier at the first Berliner Konferenz (2004), a bottom-up initiative of professionals from the cultural and political world, working and living in Berlin. Immediately after the unexpected success of this event, meant as a single occurrence, the initiators decided to make it a permanent one under the name: “A Soul for Europe” (ASfE). As a result of the immense and wide-spread publicity, various cultural organisations criticised the policy of the initiative not to lobby for culture but to lobby for Europe through culture. ASfE, indeed, brought
in a political component in the rather non-existing debate about the role of arts and culture in the European unification process. xiii
At the time, ASfE’s vision was completely new. Even nowadays it still is rather common that artists, talking about Europe, immediately start to complain about the lack of European means, the complexity of the EU procedures or the absence of a European cultural policy. The rejection of the idea that an artist would embrace additional roles and responsibilities as a European citizen towards other fellow Europeans not rarely is presented as a serious, even sexy standpoint.
One can ask oneself what so many from the cultural community want to achieve by demonstrating no other message than that of victims suffering from institutional neglection. What additional and unique values are they offering society apart from doing their work, making pieces of art or presenting these to their audiences?
Are they aware of the unique position the cultural community has, to attract so many readers, visitors, viewers and buyers willing to learn not only from the works itself but also from the context in which the works are conceived? And even more: willing to discuss and to meet the people from the cultural
organisations and/or the artists themselves on the same level: that of a fellow European citizen. If more artists and cultural organisations would realise that times of splendid isolation are over, more individuals and organisations would discover that the implicit responsibility as citizen educator can be beneficial for both: for the interested and curious citizen, in this case the reader, visitor or arts lover and for the writer, presenter or artist.xiv
Such a growing exchange of views can foster the awareness of EU citizenship significantly. This citizenship only can be practised, and the arts and culture only can flourish in this European area where the rule of law reigns,xv as the President of the EU Court of Justice at another ASfE meeting in Berlin
stated.
This fact of our European life is indeed a basic provision for a flourishing artistic and cultural climate in Europe, but there is more. The Commission’s appeal to the role of education and culture for the future of Europe will only be effective if artists and cultural organisations do realise that they are, if they want it or not, important factors to establish a strong civil society.xvi
The power of the cultural sector is absolutely necessary and needs to be followed by more and more cultural actors to create a citizens’ Europe.
Amsterdam, September 2021
i “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture” was the title of the European Commission’s contribution to the Social Summit in Gothenburg in November 2017. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52017DC0673&qid=1611997997454&from=ENIn their successfully completed Erasmus+ project “ECHC — European Citizenship, Heritage, Culture”, 2017–1-NL01-
KA203–035238, the consortium of leading European academic and cultural institutions that developed a joint curriculum on European citizenship, heritage and entrepreneurship adopted this title and made it their guiding
motto by adding “and How to Manage it”.
ii See the EU definition of active citizenship: “participation in civil society, community and/or political life,characterised by mutual respect and non-violence and in accordance with human rights and democracy.” (Hoskins, 2006)
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/jrc-coin-measuring-active-citizenship-2006_en.pdf
iii For information on citizenship education in Europe as a public responsibility, see NECE (Networking European Citizenship Education) https://www.nece.eu/
iv As former EC President Romano Prodi stated during the Round Table Debate in 2019 in Ravenna, organised in the framework of the Erasmus+ project “ECHC — European Citizenship, Heritage, Culture”: “We don’t need a strictly European culture, but a dialogue among European cultures. We are integrating ourselves in some basic common rules. This is what we have to do. Culture is basically important, but not getting homogenous, but getting a dialogue among cultures.”
v Barroso took part in a public debate on “Secular modernity and the increasing presence of Islam in Europe”, with Nilüfer Göle and Paul Scheffer, organised by A Soul for Europe in Brussels on 19 November 2007. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/CES_07_110
vi The hopping procession of Echternach (Luxembourg), inscribed in 2010 on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
vii Elaborated in J. Hoeksma, The Case BundesVerfassungsGericht versus EU Court of Justice, Tilburg 2020 https://www.wolfpublishers.eu/futureofeurope
viii Ibid.
ix https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52017DC0673&qid=1611997997454&from=EN
x https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2001/10/19/423d6913b4e2-4395-9157-fe70b3ca8521/publishable_en.pdf
xi “The artist as citizen” is the title of a publication of Joseph W. Polisi’s articles and speeches from his two-decade tenure as president of the Juilliard School of Music, NY. His writings focus on the role of the artist in American society as a leader and communicator of human values. Polisi makes a strong point: “there should be no dividing line between artistic excellence and social consciousness.” He contends that the traditional “self-absorbed artist” is the wrong model for the arts in America in the 21st century.
xii In June 2008 the Directorate General responsible for Education and Culture of the European Commission launched, in the framework of the European Agenda for Culture and the Structured Dialogue with the Cultural sector, three thematic platforms: Cultural and creative industries; Intercultural Europe; Access to Culture.
xiii ASfE, not lobbying for culture in Europe, but lobbying for Europe through culture — “if the European unification process will be successful, it needs to be defined as a cultural process” — was from the very beginning the only
civil society partner for those European politicians that shared this vision.
As we learn from the European Commission’s contribution to the Leaders’ meeting in Gothenburg on 17 November 2017, the message not only follows the raison d’être of ASfE, it probably could need more civic initiatives such as ASfE, to assist in debating the content and promoting the philosophy behind the Commission’s ambition. Besides, the existing programs on culture and education, such as Creative Europe and Erasmus + need to be upgraded and reformulated as well.
xiv At the NECE (Networking European Citizenship Education) Conference in Glasgow, October 2019, the author emphasized that citizenship education should not stop after primary or secundary school and cannot be limited to school education and government’s tasks. The broader cultural and socio-cultural sector have to rethink their policies and practices. Their responsibility for implicit citizenship education through their work and actions should be seen as additional but necessary to that of organisations such as NECE and its co-organising partner the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. To assist organisations and institutes, NGOs and informal networks to manage these changes, a consortium of universities and cultural organisations has set up an accredited MBA European Culture, Heritage & Citizenship in the framework of the successfully completed Erasmus+ project “ECHC — European Citizenship, Heritage, Culture” 2017–1-NL01-KA203–035238.
xv Koen Lenaerts: (Europa Rede, Berlin, 9 November 2018): „Diese drei Werte sind untrennbar miteinander verknüpft: Ein Rechtsstaat ist undenkbar ohne Demokratie, eine Demokratie ist undenkbar ohne Grundrechtsschutz und der wirksame Schutz von Grundrechten ist ohne Rechtsstaat schlicht nicht vorstellbar.“ „Darüber hinaus hat die Natur der Rechtsunion zur Folge, dass dem Einzelnen das Recht zusteht, die Rechtmäßigkeit nationaler Entscheidungen oder jeder anderen nationalen Handlung, mit der eine Handlung der
Union angewandt wird, gerichtlich anzufechten.“ (“These three values are inextricably linked: the rule of law is unthinkable without democracy, democracy is inconceivable without the protection of fundamental rights and the effective protection of fundamental rights is simply inconceivable without the rule of law.”
“In addition, the nature of a Union based on the rule of law has the consequence that individuals have the right to challenge before the courts the legality of any decision or other national measure relating to the application
to them of an EU act.”)
xvi These questions were on the table during student encounters, subject of intellectual output and the listing of best practices of the successfully completed Erasmus+ project “ECHC — European Citizenship, Heritage, Culture”,
2017–1-NL01-KA203–035238.
STEVE AUSTEN is a cultural entrepreneur, publicist, moderator and founder of leading initiatives, e.g. Shaffy Theatre, Festival of Fools, ECoC 1987, Felix Meritis Foundation (FMF), Gulliver, Amsterdam-Maastricht Summer University, the MBA ECHC and the Observatory for European Citizenship; co-initiator of IETM and A Soul for Europe. His publications are distributed in EU and beyond. He is permanent fellow of FMF and director of MBA Culture, Heritage & Citizenship at Netherlands Business Academy.
