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.