But Still, What's Identity?

            American civil rights activist, Andrew Goodman, stated that, “a people must have dignity and identity.” This leads me to pose the hypothetical question that my blog subconsciously was always leading up to: what makes an identity? Is identity a fluid concept that cannot defined? Should identity fit into the confines of a box? If there is no identity then what does this mean for the people?

           A theme examined during my time in Brussels was that of pan-Europeanism and what this meant to the overall identity of Europe. Is this good or bad? I easily think of the United States as an example and it makes perfect sense. I am fault for this, because it is far from even being close. Europe is not a single country like the United States. The European Union is made up of twenty-eight separate member states. There are multiple languages and cultures. How does one even begin to condense this? In the European project there are no European-wide holidays that countries are encouraged to celebrate. Actually, there were no European-wide initiatives promoted to try to help solidify this identity. Statistics show that current strategies are having successful results.

            A recent controversy that began to make me really assess how I personally felt towards pan-Europeanism came from Malta. Malta’s government has passed a law that allows one to buy aMaltese passport for 650,000 euros, which in turn would make this person an EU citizen. No tests are required, no applications must be filled, you simply spend 650,000 big ones and you’re officially a citizen. This caused an outrage among the Parliament.

            In the original legislation, Malta had created a privacy clause. People who came in and bought citizenship could do so, and no one would even know. It would be as if their citizenship had existed all along. Fortunately, this part of the clause has been dropped. Though I still wonder if that’s fair to the person who is purchasing the citizenship. Shouldn’t they just have the freedom to do so peace? Regardless, the whole situation is disheartening.

            This creation of a European-wide identity would be taking a major blow. Firstly, what would happen to the culture of Malta? Where is the dignity if someone can come in and buy rights that should be a unique privilege? Where is the identity if people unfamiliar to this identity flood Malta? Will its values start to transform? Anyone who is rich can just buy their way onto the island. What’s next? The commission has no power to stop the passing of this legislation. Malta, along with any other European member state, has the authority to pass this sort of law.

            My supervisor and fellow intern were not happy about this at all. They considered it classist and to make Malta look bad to the rest of Europe as well as the rest of the world who found out about the new law. They saw it as a way for wealthy criminals flee their own country and make residence in Malta and avoid persecution. I never thought of it in those terms, but that too was an excellent point. The magnitude of a law such as this passing had so manynegative repercussions attached to it. These wouldn’t only affect Malta, but the twenty-eight member states these pseudo-Maltese are now a member of. Europe is already in the midst of an identity crisis, and when others from all over the world can now buy their place in Europe, has does that aid in creating a ‘united’ Europe?

            I know that component of the blogs is to include a link to every paragraph, but I would like to use the last words of this post for internal reflection, something I cannot cite.

            I had a lot of trouble deciding how I would sum up my experience, how I would conclude my posts, and if I would walk away understanding pan-Europeanism. In my internship, the experience was such an amazing opportunity. I learned so much about Europe as a whole. That was one of the wonderful part of working for the press. Where with working for an MEP, I would be focused on the issues of a particular nation and only through the lens of the MEP. With the press, I was able to learn about all the member states. Maybe that’s why I see them in such an individual light?

            As to pan-Europeanism, I initially liked the idea. It seemed to be this prototype that could be taken into the future. It was successful in ending war on the continent of Europe, but that was on economic grounds. I often find myself wondering if in the beginning anyone could have ever imagined that it would turn into this. Did they have the foresight to know it would become this union that surpassed economic alliances? What if the founding fathers of the European Economic Community wanted it to be nothing more than purely economic? Of course, it’s too late to truly ponder on this now, the member states are too interconnected, it just serves as excellent food for thought.

            I left Europe with a sense of bettered identity. I had never felt more connected and at one with the United States or South Carolina in my whole entire life. Identity is important. We all have multiple identities that come into our being, and then we are left with the age-old question of “who are we?” As in, we have to choose the identity in which we feel fully defines us the most. To me, European is far too broad. There’s no way to capture twenty-eight member states’ and morph them into one. So what is a European? I could not even begin to tell you.