Governing Identity or How the EU Institutions Have Shaped the States’ Europeanness

Article 49 of the Treaty on the European Union prescribes that a State wishing to join the EU must be “European”. In other words, European identity, or Europeanness, is the first condition for a State to be considered eligible for EU membership. Enshrined in EU law since the Treaty of Rome (Article 237 §1), the qualifier “European” has never been explicitly or institutionally defined, despite the fact that it may encompass geographical, cultural, historical or else political references. Yet, the EEC/EU institutions have had to interpret the State’s Europeanness in the course of enlargements and membership applications. This research investigates these institutional interpretations by analyzing a few specific cases and by perusing documents produced by the institutions. It then explores the impact of these interpretations on the shaping of the States’ Europeanness through normative conditionality and political-cultural constructs.