Europhiles often meet national consciousness with incomprehension and disdain. To them, it is a backward-looking and irrational obstacle on the path toward an enlightened and ‘inclusive’ European order. A united Europe, they argue, should have at its core the transcendence of national ideas. However noble, this approach is doomed to fail. Europe’s history shows that its sociopolitical structures are deeply intertwined with national identities, and that political unification requires a shared sense of belonging.
