Europe is not an enlarged nation nor a community built on a single language, a single memory or a single historical experience. Its distinctiveness lies precisely in having built a common political project out of different histories, at times wounded, contradictory and even opposed.
Perhaps the mistake has been to assume that a European identity can only grow out of what everyone shares equally. Political identities are not built solely on commonalities. They are also forged in the ability to recognise as one’s own what others contribute to the whole.
Europe shares history, but does not always share the same memory of that history. What for some was liberation may for others have been defeat; what for some was expansion may for others have been loss; what for some is national pride may for others still be an uncomfortable question.
The Spanish paradox: too European for America and too American for Europe
The real European challenge, therefore, is not to manufacture a single memory. It is to shape a shared narrative.
