What is it to be European? The question what is it to be European has several meanings.

. The term identity is made up of several layers of different forms of identity and this may include social, professional, family or national identity. n !""#, $ames %urth said that wars often emerge out of forms of conflict of identity and the result is that the identities can change. &e also suggests that the modern era produced a reformation which led to a war. 's a result, new identities were created( emergent, secular and non)*hristian. These secondary alternatives then led in turn to the creation of liberalism, socialism and nationalism. +uch products also created new conflicts of their own and the liberalism became transformed into democracy, socialism into communism and nationalism into fascism. With these, new conflicts were created which led to the +econd World War. The consequences of the war led to the triumph of a strong form of liberal identity. 'nother point of the lecture is that the sense of an European ,nion, which can develop transnational perspective, might be what an immigrant needs in order to solve his problems of citi-enship. The topic of the European identity was always considered a topic of significant interest in the last decade. This is in part a consequence of the recent growth of the E, at an official level. n the declaration of European identity it is noted that European identity will evolve as a function of the dynamic construction on a ,nited Europe. 's &obsbawn thin.s that a nation should be separated from another, /auboc. agrees that the construction of a common Europe requires for its success not 0ust the presence of the other, but the threat of the other. The official institutionali-ed E, approach to the European identity has always tried to avoid the problems of national identity. The idea that E, is a threat to the concept of 1nation2 is one that has assumed a central importance in considering the potential of a European identity. 3ational identities are reaching a level of maturity due to the growth of the union and due to the e4pansion of movement across borders. 'ttachment to Europe varies by country and the overall E, level is #56 , but there are even lower levels li.e in Estonia7 5869. n the end there is a common sense view that centers what is it to be European and this is something which is continually fluid and it shifts within ever changing social, historical and political circumstances. :inally, we might find some insight to what is it to be European even by considering what Europeans tal. about.