Are Money And Passports The Real Foundations Of European Identity?

Are money and passports the real foundations of European identity?
Since the European Union was found in the last century, and by its enlargement, the Union has been enlarged from 6 to 27 members. In other words, the European Union has become a supranational and intergovernmental body. This co-operation between the member states has created a large number of benefits for the states in economics and politics. Nevertheless, this enormous Union causes the problem of identifying Europeans. There are several controversial arguments such as the single currency, the Euro, and the lack of identity support by using the EU passport, since the Euro has not been adopted by all the member states which makes the Europeans cannot clearly be defined. In this way, this essay will attempt to argue that money, the Euro, is crucial for founding the European identity and the passport is another indispensable fundamental symbol for the identification of Europeans.

Firstly, it is widely believed that money is often considered as one of the most crucial foundations of European identity. The introduction of Euro bills and coins on 1st January 2002 has been one of the most important events in the history of European integration. (Risse 2003, p487) The relationship between money and collective identity is reciprocal. Collective identity is a key concept to understand the problems of European identification. Kohil has given a thoughtful definition on it,
  “The term ’collective identities’ refers to the categorical end of the continuum: to those social identities that are based on large and potentially important group differences, e.g. those defined by gender, social class, age, or ethnicity. Collective identities are sometimes viewed as mere strategies of distinction - as stylized practices used by groups to differentiate themselves from others. But in most cases, the interest in using this term is to find strong categories that are highly salient for behavior, especially with regard...