THE EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP AND THE CHALLENGES OF THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY

Abstract

The authors of the article claim that the European identity can be build and that the European institutions have very important role in this process. Namely, the European institutions affect the European identity when they are developing politics working regarding their competencies. The theoretical frame and the main hypothesis of this article is given by the theory of social constructivism whose developer Thomas Risse says that the European political identity can be create and changed and that the politics brought by the institutions are one of the mechanisms for that purpose. In that direction the authors of this article say that the European citizenship that was introduced with the Treaty of Maastricht is one of the attempts of the institutions of the European Union to crate feeling of belonging to the supranational organization to the citizens of the member states. In order to proof its claim the authors of the article make short analyze of the development of the rights that were introduced with the Treaty of Maastricht and compare how they evolve in every other next Treaty. Furthermore the authors make a preview of the most important decisions, regulations, directives, reports, declarations, and proposals that were brought by the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council and the European Council regarding the rights and obligations that the European citizens obtain with the European citizenship and in that manner influence creating the European identity.