This article examines how the representation of the European Union’s identity has shifted over time by focusing on the speeches of key European leaders. Drawing on a post-structuralist framework—particularly informed by theorists such as Foucault and Laclau and Mouffe—it illustrates how identity is discursively constituted and subject to transformation in accordance with historical and political contexts. The central research question asks: How have European leaders discursively constructed and reconfigured the notion of a ‘Christian Europe’ at specific historical junctures?

Methodologically, the study employs a detailed discourse analysis of leaders’ public speeches from 2003 to 2008, complemented by a historical reconstruction of major events. This systematic approach includes coding procedures that highlight the interplay of power, identity, and discourse. The findings reveal that, while European identity was previously associated with democracy, freedom, universalism, and the public sphere, it gradually came to be portrayed as intrinsically linked with Christianity. Crucial to this shift were three specific developments unfolding between 2004 and 2005: (1) the advent of Joseph Ratzinger’s papacy and his direct intervention in championing Christian values in Europe, supported by leaders in France, Germany, and Poland; (2) the accession of Poland to the EU; and (3) the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey. These events, occurring within a narrow timeframe, significantly reinforced a Christian-inflected identity discourse for the European Union. Notably, this narrative remains influential in contemporary political debates, with many leaders continuing to invoke Europe’s Christian heritage as a defining element of the Union’s future direction and values.

By situating these discursive shifts within the broader field of post-structuralist literature, the article contributes fresh insights into the fluidity of identity construction in international relations, demonstrating how leadership narratives can redefine collective self-understandings. The study’s originality lies in its historically grounded analysis of this pivotal period, shedding new light on contemporary debates over European integration, the role of religion in public discourse, and the dynamic processes through which collective identities are shaped.

The recent crises of the EU fostered different manifestations of the European identity implying various interpretations of the ‘what it means to be European’ because of the incremental salience and politicization of the European affairs. Therefore, identity construction became an instrumental role in achieving European in-group identification among the European citizens to bear the dramatic repercussions of the crises. Yet, such a process does not follow a monolithic pattern of identity construction throughout the different crises. Based on such premise, this research examines the differences in how European identity is depicted in German media during the Euro and refugee crises. It conducts a critical discourse analysis of the newspaper articles published by the three prominent German news outlets, Bild, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), and Die Welt. In conclusion, the research shows that discourses articulated within the German media on the reinforcement of the compliance with the attained values and the norms of the European identity created idiosyncratically a polarization within the in-group of the European identity. European identity construction is manifested through the intra-group differentiation implied the internal othering within the in-group of European identity by the media discourses.

This article examines how horizontal ‘Europeanization’ shapes the reconfiguration of multilayered collective identities in cross-border micro-spaces by looking at Cerveira-Tomiño Euro-city. Whilst it is commonly argued that socialization processes from below may reinforce citizens’ affective ties with ‘Europe’, it remains unclear why this may result in different levels of support or may involve situations of rejection or benign neglect. Furthermore, given that these practices may take place in cross-border spaces operating within different state structures (i.e., centralized unitary nation-state versus decentralized ‘pluri-national’ state), variations in the replacement of previous connectivity to national and regional identities require further inspection. Hence, although research on bottom-up horizontal Europeanization is no longer in its infancy, the impact of socialization processes on multilayered collective identities in cross-border micro-spaces has deserved little attention in the literature. To this end, this contribution takes a sociological-individual view which places Europeanization at the micro-level and where socialization processes play a prominent role. Drawing on a survey and other qualitative data, this research answers the following questions: Does cross-border cooperation in Cerveira-TomiñoEuro-city automatically lead to a sense of European identity? Is it possible to discern different categories of Europeanized citizens in Cerveira-Tomiño Euro-city cross-border micro-space? What are the implications for regional and national identities on the Portuguese and Spanish side of the border? In sum, it is our wish to contribute to the comprehension of socialization processes on Europeanization of identities, while bringing theoretical and empirical novelty to the literature on horizontal Europeanization.

The Russian war in Ukraine has amplified the enduring tensions of Baltic states’ foreign policy, highlighting the impossible reconciliation with their ‘negative Other’ – the Russian Federation (Kascian, Denisenko, Matonyte, 2024). At the same time, the conflict has markedly revised the citizens’ attachment towards the European Union, strengthening the sense of belonging towards it (Nicoli et al., 2024). However, the realignment from the perspective of political elites and the narrative mechanisms underpinning this transformation remain underexplored.

It is against this background that the study investigates how the Baltic states have actively reframed their relationship with the EU, transitioning from perceived passive recipients of EU foreign and security policies (Veebel and Ploom, 2016) to assertive contributors to European integration (Palkova, 2024).) To uncover how these states have reshaped their national self-perception vis-à-vis the EU and reimagined their European identity, the article theoretically draws on the political narratives understood as a key tool for articulating the sense of belonging within imagined communities affected by politics (McLaughlin et al., 2019). Methodologically, it employs a comprehensive narrative analysis of an extensive set of official documents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (such as governmental priorities, foreign policy strategies or prime ministers’ speeches) published since 2022.

As such, this analysis contributes to our understanding of the narrative construction of European identity and how Russian aggression has influenced it. It highlights the new means of how relations between the member states and the European Union can evolve, serving as an alternative to the examples of growing populism and illiberalism present in Central Europe.

This paper explores the ways in which UK citizens have had to reimagine their sense of European belonging in light of Brexit and the consequent loss of EU citizenship and rights.

Few legislative and regulatory changes arising from the United Kingdom’s (UK) separation from the European Union (EU) were felt as immediately, as tangibly or as extensively than those of the changes to the rules governing EU citizenship and UK-EU migration. For some, such changes have been experienced merely as an annoyance, for example in the form of a delay at the airport, or temporal limits placed on holiday home visits.

For others however, the loss of EU citizenship and new immigration rules represent a loss of European identity: a sense of physical, emotional and cultural disconnect from an ‘imagined community’ of which they felt they had been part. Thematic and narrative analysis of data collected through guided interviews conducted with forty-one individuals between December 2023 and November 2024, reveals this loss to be one of very few Brexit consequences perceived and experienced in the daily lives of UK citizens.