Am I European?

Germany.
Europe Arena 1: “European Union: Should it be a Union of Nations or a Union of people?”

Am I European?

The definition of the European Union is “ a group of European countries that participates in the world economy as on economic unit”

28 European states are defined as one union, sharing the same ideas of economy, having the same values, making decisions that prevail in all 28 states.

I living in this union am a citizen of this state – so what? Do I feel European? Are we one “big nation”, a union of people?

Well – in short words – I don’t. I mean I profit from this union, but I do not feel really like a citizen of the whole Europe.

The question is: Is that how it should be? Should we be a whole union?

If you take a closer look at the history of the European Union you can clearly see why it was founded: it was founded after the Second World War to be sure that nobody could take economic advantages. As it is also said in the definition: it is an economic unit.

Clearly that was the original aspect of the union. But in my opinion this has changed. First of all more and more states are joining the union. And all people of the member states profit from the union, for example travelling has become much easier and less complicated as you can just get from one country to the other without having to show your passport if you are in the Schengen countries. This saves a lot of money and time!

Also the UE passes orders that have to be fulfilled in the member states. Therefore we get closer as we share similar values and the differences between the states get smaller.

So I think we can definitely talk about a Union of people, even if we are not one big people. But I think that’s good. Every culture can keep their traditions, so the world is more interesting, but some things that make life easier we share. So we take the best from everything and in the end we get a good mixture of different people that are a Union – the European Union.

By Marie E., Germany
19 years old