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On Defense, France Bites the Bullet, But Avoids Strategic Insolvency May 7, 2013

Iceland’s Recovery Saga Presents Opportunities for Brussels, Washington—and Beijing May 6, 2013

Which Way Forward for Europe’s Hybrid Regimes? May 2, 2013

The Arab Revolts and the Liberal Order May 2, 2013

Events
Andrew Light Speaker Tour in Europe May 14, 2013 / Berlin, Germany; Brussels, Belgium

GMF Senior Fellow Andrew Light participated in a speaking tour in Europe to discuss opportunities for transatlantic cooperation on climate and energy policy in the second Obama administration.

Audio
Deal Between Kosovo, Serbia is a European Solution to a European Problem May 13, 2013

In this podcast, GMF Vice President of Programs Ivan Vejvoda discusses last month's historic agreement to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Andrew Small on China’s Influence in the Middle East Peace Process May 10, 2013

Anchor Elaine Reyes speaks with Andrew Small, Transatlantic Fellow of the Asia Program for the German Marshall Fund, about Beijing's potential role in brokering peace between Israel and Palestine

The European Union Between Interests and Identity February 17, 2006 / Ulrike Guérot
Speech, Cultural Politics Convention Evangelical Academy, Loccum, Germany

Related Regions: European Union
The current discussion on the expansion of the European Union is usually conducted with an undertone that implies expansion is a "burden" for the EU, or with an undertone of European generosity, i.e. the EU is providing these new members with stability and prosperity.  My thesis is that the parameter of this discussion must be turned around.  Europe does not need a discussion about the costs of expansion, but about the costs of non-expansion.  These costs are of a political, economic, cultural, and geo-strategic nature.
 
The fact that we can outline the interests of the EU far more simply than we can implement them shows that our political will is lacking in that regard.  There are many reasons for this, but one of those reasons is the lack of a European "We" feeling, a perception of being a political collective.  European debates are only rudimentally led on a transnational level; the political discourse mostly runs on a national level, and the nation is still the frame of reference for daily occurrences.  We also lack a common language, a common European media, and the European Parliament is not influential enough.
 
A central problem of the European identity debate seems to be that the citizens seem to feel lost between the parallel processes of ‘Europeanisation” and "globalization," and understandably so, as the processes seem almost impossible to distinguish from one another. Here European identity can be regarded not so much as an inflexible value canon, but rather as a maxim and a guideline that can be expanded. It is clear that the EU must deal with the consequences of globalization, as they are unavoidable. This includes increasing the EU's competitiveness, as is being attempted through the Lisbon Agenda.
 
To find a European identity requires an "other."  In the last few years, the debates have been dominated by the idea that the EU will establish and define itself as a counterweight to the United States.  The issue is whether, in defining its foreign policy, the EU will take up a new ally/enemy definition -- between the West and Islam.  I argue that this should not be the goal of European foreign policy, but rather that Europe should consider what it can provide in terms of integrating Islam into the modern international system.
 
We are in a process of transformation, but we cannot lose sight of the goal. We must also realize that Europe/the EU will never be "finished," and that therefore the European identity will never be defined in a final manner.