European citizen of French nationality, Bulgarian by birth and American by adoption, I am not insensitive to harsh critiques of Europe, but I also sense the desire for it and its culture. Despite facing financial crisis, the Greeks, Portuguese, Italians, and even the French do not question their European belonging; they ‘feel’ European. But what does this feeling mean? It is so self-evident that culture is not even mentioned in the Treaty of Rome, and it is only recently that it became part of the agenda of Europe's leaders (though initiatives in favor of national heritage have not been lacking, they are not forward looking). I believe European culture can provide the means to lead European nations to a federal Europe. But this begs the question: which European culture?

Which Identity?

In opposition to a certain cult of identity, European culture never ceases to unveil a paradox: there exists an identity—mine, ours—but it is infinitely constructible and de-constructible. To the question ‘Who am I?’ the best European response is obviously not certitude but a love of the question mark. After having succumbed to identity-focused dogmas to the point of criminality, a European ‘we’ is now emerging.

Though Europe resorted in the past to barbaric behavior (something to be remembered and analyzed incessantly), the fact that it has analyzed this behavior better than others perhaps allows it to bring to the world a conception and practice of identity as a questioning uneasiness. It is possible to take on European heritage, rethinking it as an antidote to the tensions of identity: others’ and our own. Without wanting to enumerate all the sources of this questioning identity, let us remember that ongoing interrogation can turn into corrosive doubt and self-hate: a self-destructiveness to which Europe is not immune. We often reduce this heritage of identity to a permissive ‘tolerance’ of others. But tolerance is only the starting point of questioning. When not reduced to simply ‘welcoming’ others, it invites them to question themselves, to carry the culture of questioning and dialogue in encounters that problematize all participants. This reciprocating questioning produces an endless lucidity that provides the sole condition for ‘living together.’ Identity thus understood can lead to a pluralistic identity: the multilingualism of the new European citizen.