Towards a European demos? On the growth of European identity and attachment

Shared identity and attachment are widely considered important societal foundations of a political demos, legitimising and facilitating collective action. Yet scholars have long argued that Europe lacks such affective foundations. This article reassesses that claim using Eurobarometer and European Social Survey data from 1992 to 2024. European identity developed unevenly during the 1990s and 2000s, but attachment to Europe has subsequently increased markedly and across almost the entire continent. Large majorities now express attachment to Europe in most European countries, regardless of European Union membership, including in countries where such attachment was recently a minority position. Moreover, attachment to Europe generally exceeds attachment to the European Union, demonstrating that European political community cannot simply be equated with its principal institutional expression. The findings suggest that Europe may recently have crossed an important threshold in one of the fundamental societal foundations of a demos. This has implications for the legitimacy and feasibility of collective political action, including forms of European cooperation within, alongside and beyond existing EU institutions.