Europeans and Europe: From Identification to Fears

With its economic success and its successful keeping of the peace on the Old Continent behind it, what was once the European Community and is now the European Union has gradually expanded to include 27 countries and has seen its political competence extend into many fields. Given this context, what feelings do Europeans have towards the entity? As Céline Belot and Isabelle Guinaudeau show here, the surveys of Europeans’ values offer a partial answer regarding, on the one hand, their sense of belonging to Europe and, on the other, the way they view the European political system. Generally, for example, the sense of belonging to Europe is not widely expressed, Europe being far from the main level to which people claim allegiance, but there are different country profiles and no doubt also multiple levels of belonging that are not always revealed in surveys, as the authors stress. Moreover, almost half the citizens of the “Europe of 27” trusted in Europe and were quite positively inclined towards the Union’s political system in 2008, even though this favourable attitude seemed set on a downward course by comparison with 1990. Finally, since 2008 surveys have made it easier to identify Europeans’ fears in political, social or economic terms (social security, employment, power, identity, culture etc.). These vary greatly from country to country and complex explanatory factors are involved –factors often linked to national contexts, though present in most of the countries surveyed.