THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF EUROPE AND EU
THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF EUROPE AND EU

Summary/Abstract: The name ‘Europe’ implies an intercultural identity that is felt so much that, within its borders, the notion of ‘foreigner’ has undergone a profound change over the centuries and now retains a merely legal and administrative sense. The use of the same term ‘foreigner’ to indicate a citizen of a different European nation has almost disappeared. Plural participation is essential in creating wider affiliations: the European identity comes from more restricted and hard-fought identities, but is becoming the identity of an extended group within which tensions are going to ease and bonds of solidarity are going to be accepted as normal among different European nations. The use of a plurality of languages as instruments of communication, in the inevitable pluralism of a European community, is the acceptable solution, provided that the expressive possibilities of minority languages are not stifled, with the term ‘minority’ applying to all the national languages spoken only in Europe. Individuals become bilingual so as to respond to specific functional demands existing in their situation of life, to meet certain communication needs that are imposed on them by the social reality. All the nations that make up Europe have a European sense of geographical belonging. If a political-administrative bond, that of the EU, is also added, then Europe itself is configured as a voluntary, shared sense of belonging that strengthens the bonds of the European identity itself.

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