essay european values

Reflections on European Values: Honouring Loek Halman’s Contribution to the European Values Study

Reflections on European Values: honouring Loek Halman's Contribution to the European Values Study is the second volume in the European Values Series. The Series is a leading platform for the comparative study of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes, and opinions, and contributes to the academic and public debate on European values.

Edited by Ruud Luijkx, Tim Reeskens, and Inge Sieben

This book on Reflections on European Values is a Liber Amicorum honouring Loek Halman's contribution to the European Values Study. For years, he has been a key figure in this longitudinal and cross-national research project on moral, social, and political values, dedicating his academic life to advancing the understanding of values in Europe. This Liber Amicorum is published at the occasion of Loews retirement after a long career at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University.

It brings together essays on the study of European values, written by his academic friends. The 32 chapters in this volume are structured in five themes that reflect Loek's scholarly interest A first group of contributions presents theoretical and methodological reflections on the European Values Study. Second, essays on the sociology of religion reflect Loek's interest in this topic Third, comparative studies using the European Values Study are presented. The fourth part focuses on a case most well-known the Netherlands. The fifth and final section further deepens the understanding of values in several specific countries in Europe.

Upon his retirement, this book will serve as an inspiration for scholars who want to walk in Loek Halman's footsteps in continuing research on values in Europe.

This Liber Amicorum is edited by Ruud Luijkx, Tim Reeskens and Inge Sieben, and published at the occasion of Loek’s retirement after a long career at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. It brings together 32 essays on the study of European values, written by his academic friends. The book is available Open Access and can be fully downloaded via this link:

The printed edition is available through the Print-on-Demand platform of Open Press Tilburg University.

Series Editors Preface

Turning a page in the history of european values research, theoretical and methodologocial reflections on the european values study, the european values study and grand theory: a fruitful alliance, conflicts of european values in times of turbulence, beware surveys are not universal tools, the data of the european values study from 1981 towards 2026: achievements, synergies, impact, and future, challenges for comparative surveys in europe: five theses, what do changes in the evs questionnaire reveal, does within-country agreement on beliefs matter for ranking countries on values dimensions evidence from the european values study 2017, sociology of religion, modernization and secularization in spain: evidence from values surveys, saints, scholars, sceptics and secularists: the changing faith of religious practice in ireland, 1981-2020, the transmission of religious values, between romania and hungary: religiosity among hungarians in transylvania, secularization and values: exploring changes in the religious factor in preferences for obedience and autonomy, the impact of the child abuse scandals on trust in the church: empirical evidence from belgium, the rise of the nones in iceland, trust thy neighbour: contextualizing the relationship between non-religiosity and tolerance, populism and religion: effects of religious affiliation on populist attitudes, comparative studies into european values, living arrangement and values of young adults in 1990 and 2017: bridging generations, gender equality values and cultural orientations, are childrearing values’ preferences in europe associated to socioeconomic development and social inequalities, changes in work values under the influence of international migration, income inequality and acceptance of corrupt acts, income, values and subjective wellbeing in europe: results from the evs 1999-2017 data, is political protest in western europe becoming less of a prerogative of the young and of the left, value insights from national case studies, same old, same old value change and stability in the netherlands, you can look (but you better not touch): who justifies casual sex before and during the covid-19 pandemic, conditionality of solidarity in the netherlands: an analysis of three waves of the european values study, the nordic exceptionalism revisited, danish values: how special are they, traditional and post-materialist values about family and marriage in greece, gender role attitudes in the macedonian sociocultural context, transformation of values in croatia in democratic times, contributors.

Koen Abts is Research Manager at the Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO) at KU Leuven, and responsible for the building of the Belgian Online Probability Panel – an infrastructure by a consortium of all Belgian universities. His research focuses on the effect of resentment and cultural, economic and political attitudes as well as on populism and populist radical right.

Peter Achterberg is a Professor of Sociology at Tilburg University. He is the former neighbour of Loek Halman at the S-building. Peter teaches in courses in cultural sociology, politics and society and is involved in several other courses. His research is focused on cultural, religious and political changes in the West, with a central focus on institutional trust.

Wil Arts is a Professor Emeritus of General and Theoretical Sociology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, and former chair of the Theory Group of the European Values Study. With Loek Halman, he co-edited several books and co-authored quite a few articles on comparative social research and changing value patterns in Europe. He has also extensively published in the fields of economic and theoretical sociology and on topics such as industrial relations, social inequality, and the welfare state.

Josip Baloban studied philosophy at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, graduated in theology, and received a PhD in theology in Munich. He is a Full Professor and he taught at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb from 1981 to 2019 where he also served three terms as Dean. He has participated in national and international scientific projects since 1997. From 1998 to 2019 he was EVS National Programme Director for Croatia, where he, together with several theologians, formed an interdisciplinary team of experts in methodology, sociology, psychology and political science. He is a member of Konferenz der deutschsprachigen Pastoraltheologen and Verein der mittel- und osteuropäischen Pastoraltheologen . He writes and publishes scientific papers in Croatian, German and occasionally in English.

Edurne Bartolomé Peral is an Associate Professor at the University of Deusto, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department of International Relations and Humanities. She has been dedicating most part of her research and publications to the study of political culture, political values and attitudes in comparative perspective, as well as political support and trust, and the application of experimental models. She is currently National Programme Director for Spain of the European Values Study.

Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld is a historian educated at the universities of Nijmegen (BA), Amsterdam (MA), and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (PhD; 1993). For research and teaching, he was affiliated with universities and research institutes in Belgium, the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. Since 1999, he has held the funded Chair for Regional History of Brabant at Tilburg University. In 2004, he was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. Between 2012 and 2020, he taught the course on National and Regional Identities together with Loek Halman. His research and teaching revolve around (regional) history, heritage, memory, and identity.

Giovanni Borghesan is a junior researcher at the SWG research institute in Italy. He was part of the European Values Study Central team and assisted in the publication of the 5th EVS wave and of the longitudinal edition of the study. He took part in the SSHOC project cooperating in the construction of the multilingual ontology for religions.

Pierre Bréchon is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Sciences Po Grenoble (France), which he directed from 2002 to 2005, and he is a researcher at the PACTE social science laboratory (CNRS, Sciences Po Grenoble, University Grenoble-Alps). He works on the sociology of values and opinion, electoral and political behaviour, religious attitudes in France and Europe. With Frédéric Gonthier, he co-edited European Values. Trends and Divides Over Thirty Years (Brill, 2017). He is the National Programme Director of EVS for France and is a member of the EVS Theory Group.

Michael J. Breen is the former Dean of Arts at Mary Immaculate College (2008-2021) and currently Adjunct Professor in Sociology at the University of Limerick. He holds undergraduate degrees from University College Dublin and the University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. He completed his M.S. and PhD at Syracuse University. He is Chair of the European Social Survey ERIC, a landmark project on the ESF Research Roadmap. Professor Breen is the National Programme Director for Ireland of the European Values Study and former Chair of the Governing Authority of the EVS.

Andries van den Broek is a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), and is a part-time folk punk musician. His fields of interest are high and low culture, the supposed generations and the balance between public and private responsibilities in pursuing the good life.

Paul Dekker is a Professor of Civil Society Studies at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University, and is semi-retired. His fields of interest are public opinion, social and political participation, and societal discontent. He is editor of Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies (Springer).

Caroline Dewilde is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. Her main research interests concern the dynamics of inequality and poverty at different levels of analysis, from the individual life course to the welfare state, from a cross-national perspective. She has published widely in a range of (inter)national journals and books across the social sciences. In 2011, Caroline received an ERC Starting Grant. In the HOWCOME-project, the interplay during recent decades between trends in economic and social inequalities and changing housing regimes (housing markets, housing policies, housing wealth) was analysed. Her latest work focuses on post-crisis trends in (housing) wealth.

Javier Elzo Imaz is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Deusto where he taught and researched for 30 years. Since 1985, with the determined support of EVS cofounders Jan Kerkhof and Ruud de Moor, he introduced EVS studies in Deusto, first applied to youth studies, then to the entire population, both in the Basque Country and throughout Spain, as well as in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. He is the former National Programme Director for Spain of the European Values Study (2000-2006) and he has participated in all EVS studies in Spain since 1985.

Anastassios Emvalotis is a Professor in the field of “Methodology of Research in Educational Sciences” at the Department of Primary Education of University of Ioannina. His research interests are focused on topics related to: development and application of methods and techniques for educational research, use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in educational research, micro-sociological approaches to everyday school life, relationship between science, technology and society. He participates in international, European and national projects. He has published research papers in magazines, books and conference proceedings.

Yilmaz Esmer is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul. He has been closely associated with the European Values Study and the World Values Surveys since 1990, and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of WVS. He is also a member of the TRU research team based at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). His research interests include comparative values, political culture, democratisation, social change, voting behaviour and survey methodology. Most recently, he has completed a collaborative research project with Harvard University’s T. F. Chan School of Public Health on the impact of family planning programs in Istanbul.

Georgy Fotev is a Professor Emeritus at the New Bulgarian University. He is the author of many books and articles in the field of sociology. Among his main books are: Values  vs. Disorder, The Other Ethnos, Spheres of Values, European Values in Today’s Bulgarian Society (editor), European Values: The New Constellation (editor), Human Uncertainty, Meaning and Understanding, Sociology as Rigorous Science and others. He is the head of the Centre for the Study of European Values  at the New Bulgarian University and is the National Programme Director for the EVS.

Morten Frederiksen is a Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Aalborg University. Morten does comparative research on values and culture in the context of welfare, social policy and social work. Currently he is heading the research project ‘ Just Worlds ’, which investigate cultural notions of social justice in China, USA and Scandinavia. Morten has published extensively on these topics in journal such as Current Sociology , British Journal of Sociology , VOLUNTAS , and Public Management Review . Morten is National Programme Director of the European Values Study in Denmark.

Aikaterini Gari is a Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). She has been appointed National Programme Director for Greece of the European Value Study (2002-today) and Correspondence Member for Greece of the European Council for High Ability (2002-today). She has been elected member of the Executive Council (2014-2018) of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) and Director of the Laboratory for Creativity Development of the NKUA (2017- today). She has published more than 60 papers in peer reviewed journals, books and congress proceedings in the topics of values and attitudes, social axioms, community well-being, contemporary families, children and adolescents of high ability and the gifted identification at school.

John Gelissen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. His research field is sociology and social science research methods. He specializes in the sociological and methodological study of (cross-national) differences in public opinion and behaviour in welfare, environmental issues, leisure, and quality of life.

Erwin Gielens is a PhD student at the Sociology department of Tilburg University. His research project investigates the public legitimacy of Universal Basic Income policy, using a mixed-methods approach. His broader research interests cover the legitimacy and development of the welfare state. Before becoming a junior colleague of Loek at the Department of Sociology, Erwin was a student in the Bachelor of Sociology and the Research Master Social and Behavioural Sciences at Tilburg University.

Peter Gundelach is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. He has studied social movement in contemporary and historical perspectives, and most recently analysed the Danish refugee solidarity movement as well as a conservative religious movement. From 1997 to 2015, Peter was the Danish National Programme Director in the European Values Studies. Peter has published several articles, monographs and edited volumes on values changes and in particular on national identities. In cooperation with other colleagues, he also has published on young people consumption of alcohol and on attitudes to climate change. Further, Peter has published a number of articles, textbooks and edited volumes on survey methodology.

Katya Ivanova is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. Her research interests are in the field of family sociology, focusing on understanding what changing patterns in demographic behaviours (partnership formation/dissolution, fertility transitions) mean for social cohesion, individual well-being, and general perceptions of the meaning of family. She is an Associate Editor of European Societies and on the editorial board of Journal of Marriage and Family . Her work has been published in American Sociological Review , Journal of Marriage and Family and European Sociological Review .

Gudbjorg Andrea Jonsdottir is Director of the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland. Prior to that she was Research Director with Gallup in Iceland. Her main research areas are methodology and public opinion, in particular context and order effects in social surveys, wording of questions, mode effects and response rate. She is the National Programme Director of the EVS in Iceland and a member of the Executive Committee of EVS.

Dominique Joye is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Lausanne and has a strong interest in research on inequalities, social networks, and social resources, while underlining the strong relation between data production and data analysis. Past director of the Swiss data archive (1999-2006) and still collaborating with Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS), he was involved by representing Switzerland in international surveys like the European Social Survey (National Coordinator from 2002 to 2008), the European Value Survey (Swiss National Programme Director in 2007) and International Social Survey Programme (Swiss delegate since 2000). Elected at a time in the methodological board of these three international programs, he was chairing the Methodological Committee of the ISSP.

Dénes Kiss is a Lecturer at the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj, with research activity in the field of sociology of religion, rural sociology and sociology of the non-governmental sector. In the field of sociology of religion his research focuses on the dynamics of the Romanian religious landscape, paying special attention to the emergence of new religious communities, and the religious characteristics of ethnic minorities. He is author of the book “ That’s all we have”. Religion and Churches in the PostcommunistTransylvania , published in Hungarian. Between 2019-2021 he was research director of the Institute of Religious Studies in Cluj.

Vera Lomazzi is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the Department of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Bergamo. She is Secretary of the Executive Committee of the European Values Study and board member of the European Survey Research Association. Her substantive research mainly focuses on social change and the cross-cultural study of gender equality. She has a specific interest in the quality of the instruments adopted by large cross-sectional survey programs and on their measurement equivalence. Her work has been published in highly ranked journals such as Social Science Research , Survey Research Methods , Cross-cultural Research , European Sociological Review , and Quality & Quantity .

Ruud Luijkx is the Chair of the Executive Committee and the Methodology Group of the European Values Study; Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University; Visiting Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Research at Trento University; Associate Member of Nuffield College in Oxford; member of the steering committee of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of European Values at Tilburg University. His research interests are social inequality and mobility, and the methodology of survey research. He published among others in the American Journal of Sociology , the European Sociological Review , European Societies , Political Psychology , Socio-Economic Review , Social Science Research , and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility .

Ross Macmillan is Chair in Sociology and Head of Department at the University of Limerick. His research interests include the social-psychological consequences, the role of values in macro-sociology, the impact of female political empowerment on population health, and the socio-political consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. Recent publications appear in Social Forces , Demography , Longitudinal and Life Course Studies , and Population Studies .

Angelica M. Maineri is Data Manager at the Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovation (ODISSEI) hosted at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She spent five years as assistant of the Methodology Group of the European Values Study and member of the EVS Operational and Planning Group for the EVS 2017 survey, while pursuing a PhD at the Sociology Department at Tilburg University.

Bart Meuleman is a Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO) at KU Leuven. His research focuses on cross-national comparisons of value and attitude patterns, such as ethnic prejudice, egalitarianism, and support for the welfare state. He is Belgian National Coordinator for the European Social Survey and member of the Methodology Group of the European Values Study.

Konstantin Minoski holds a PhD in Sociological Sciences and is a Full Professor at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, at the Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Sociology. He is teaching courses on undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral studies in the fields of sociology of ethnic groups, sociological theories, and sociology of sports. His research interest is focused on interethnic relations, ethnic distance, ethnopolitical mobilisation, social changes in Macedonian society, youth sport and leisure, etc. His research results are presented, as author or co-author, on many national and international conferences, and symposia, and published in the conference proceedings, or scientific journals. He is a member of Macedonian national EVS team.

Christof Van Mol is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Tilburg University. He teaches general sociological courses as well as specialized courses on international migration. His research mainly focuses on international migration, the internationalisation of higher education, and research methodologies. He published widely on these issues in journals like Higher Education , the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , Population, Space and Place , and Social Science Computer Review . His work has received several academic awards, including the 2016 Best Book Award in Sociology of Migration of the International Sociological Association and the 2020 ASHE CIHE Award for Significant Research on International Higher Education.

Guy Moors is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Tilburg University. He holds a PhD from the Free University of Brussels. His publications are in the field of social demography, survey methodology, cross-cultural comparative research, applied latent class analysis, and research on attitudes and values.

Ruud Muffels is an economist and a Professor Emeritus of labour market and social security. He held a chair at the Department of Sociology and at Tranzo, the scientific centre for care and welbeing at Tilburg University where he is a guest professor. He is also a research fellow at IZA in Bonn and a Visiting Professor at the University of Leuven. His research focuses on issues such as income inequality, work careers, subjective well-being, labour market institutions and welfare states’ performance. He is currently working on a reissue of the 1999 Real Worlds -book and on a volume on Basic and Participation Income .

Quita Muis is a PhD researcher at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University, connected to the European Values Study and the university’s Impact Programme. For her dissertation, she investigates polarisation, particularly between educational groups. Her broader research interest includes (changes in) public opinion, polarisation, and identity.

Wim van Oorschot is a Professor Emeritus of Social Policy at KU Leuven. His main research interest regards popular welfare attitudes as the cultural context of welfare provision in European countries. For more than 20 years he has been a close colleague of Loek at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. He cooperated with him in developing the ‘solidarity items’ of the European Values Study and in analysing people’s perceptions of the causes of poverty.

Penny Panagiotopoulou is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Education and Social Work at the University of Patras, where she has been since 2009. She received her PhD degree in psychology with an emphasis on cross cultural perspective of the self from the University of Athens. Her research interests lie in the broad areas of values, well-being, norms and meta-norms. Much of her work has been on social identity, social axioms, self-perception, social beliefs, and social knowledge of primary education students. She has publications in peer reviewed journals and chapter contributions in scientific books.

Antoanela Petkovska is a Full Professor at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, at the Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Sociology. Her professional interests include sociology of culture, sociology of art, sociology of youth, cultural anthropology, intercultural communication, gender and society, and European civilisation. Her major books and publications are: Sociology of Macedonian Fine Arts , Sociological Aspects of Monumental Art in Macedonia after the Liberation , Essays in Sociology of Culture , The social function of art in contemporary Macedonian society , Some Tendencies of Contemporary Cultural Politics in the Republic of Macedonia , Innovation in the Humanistic and in the Social Sciences , and more. She is a member and the actual National Programme Director of EVS Macedonia.

Ioana Pop is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. She has an interdisciplinary theoretical focus, combining a comparative perspective with a life course perspective, as well as quantitative and qualitative methodology. Her research interests regard the social causes of disease, with a particular interest in mental health and wellbeing. She is currently working on topics such as detraditionalisation and mental health and mental health care utilisation, the crisis of meaning in cross-country perspective, as well as the psychedelic renaissance.

Mihajlo Popovski is a Full Professor in Social Psychology at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology. The focus of his scientific interest regard several social-psychological phenomena, including attitudes, values, ethnic stereotypes, attributions, prosocial behaviour, conflicts and post-traumatic stress. He has presented the results of the research of these phenomena in many papers, prepared independently or in co-authorship and published in scientific journals and collections of domestic and international scientific-professional gatherings. He is member of Macedonia national EVS research team since 2006.

Alice Ramos holds a PhD in Sociology and is a Research Fellow at the University of Lisbon. Her research interests include social values, prejudice and discrimination, attitudes towards immigration and the methodology of cross-national studies. She is National Coordinator of the European Social Survey-ERIC, Project Director and Vice-chair of the Methodological Group of the European Values Study, Principal Investigator of CLAVE – The development of values on children and early adolescents (project funded by the Science National Foundation) and Representative of Portugal in the ESS-SUSTAIN-2 (H2020-INFRADEV-2019-2). She coordinates the line of Data Production of the infrastructure PASSDA (Production and Archive of Social Science Data).

Tim Reeskens is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University, and he succeeded Loek Halman as the National Programme Director of the European Values Study Netherlands. Tim holds the Jean Monnet Chair on Identities and Cohesion in a Changing European Union, and he coordinates the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of European Values at Tilburg University. Together with Loek Halman, Inge Sieben and Marga van Zundert, he published the Atlas of European Values: Change and Continuity in Turbulent Times (Open Press TiU). His research appeared in European Sociological Review , European Societies , Journal of European Social Policy , and others.

Ole Preben Riis is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology of Religion at University of Agder (Norway), and on general sociology at Aalborg University (Denmark). He is a participant in several international survey studies, including the European Values Study and Religious and Moral Pluralism. His list of publications includes findings from the European Values Study, textbooks on sociology, practical methods, and mixed methods. Ole Riis is presently attached to the SocMap group at Aalborg University, which focuses on the social impact of locations.

Femke Roosma is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. Her research focusses on (the legitimacy of ) social policies and welfare states. She studies multiple dimensions of support for the welfare state, with a focus on perceived abuse and underuse of welfare, support for welfare obligations and sanctioning and tax attitudes. Her studies also focus on (support for) Universal Basic Income. In addition, she conducts research in the related field of deservingness theory, which aims to answer the question which social target groups are seen as deserving of benefits, and for what reasons.

Gergely Rosta is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest. His main field of research is sociology of religion, especially religious change in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as youth and religion. He is co-author with Detlef Pollack of the monograph Religion and Modernity published in 2017 by Oxford University Press. Gergely is the Hungarian National Programme Director of the European Values Study and board member of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR).

Inga Run Saemundsdottir is a project manager at the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland. Her main research areas are environmental issues and health and wellbeing.

Inge Sieben is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Tilburg University. Her research interests are comparative research on religion, morality and family values, and social stratification research, particularly inequalities in educational opportunities. She is co-author of the Atlas of European Values and coordinator of the Erasmus+ KA201 project EVALUE, in which EVS data are used to develop teaching materials for secondary education. She published her work in Work, Employment and Society , European Sociological Review , Acta Sociologica , and European Societies .

Maria Silvestre Cabrera is a Professor in the Social and Human Sciences Faculty of University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain). Maria is the Principle Researcher of DeustoSocialValues Research Team that represents Spain in the EVS. She is the former National Programme Director for Spain of the European Values Study (2006-2020). She was Dean of the Political Science and Sociology Faculty (2004-2009), President of the Basque Association of Sociology (AVSP) and Vice-President of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES). Maria was the Director of the Basque Institute of Woman - Emakunde of the Basque Government (2009-2012). Currently, Maria coordinates the H2020 Project Gearing-Roles .

Ingrid Storm is a Birmingham Fellow in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Birmingham. Her main research interests are in religious change and the impact of religion on social behaviour. She currently works on a large EU-funded project on inequality and youth radicalisation, and previously completed a three-year British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship researching the relationship between financial insecurity and religion in Europe. Ingrid has a PhD from the University of Manchester, an MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics from the University of Manchester and an MA in Anthropology from Binghamton University (USA).

Ilo Trajkovski is a Full professor at Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Sociology, Skopje. He is teaching and publishing in the areas of sociology of politics, citizenship, civil society, human rights and contemporary sociological theory. As a visiting professor and researcher, he has done study visits to sociological institutions in the USA (ASU in Tempe and the New School for Social Research in New York), the UK (LSE), Bulgaria (St. Clement of Ohrid University), Poland (Jagiellonian University), and France (Université de Strasbourg). He was the first National Programme Director of EVS Macedonia, and member of the national research team since 2006.

Gudny Bergthora Tryggvadottir is a project manager at the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland. Her main research areas are related to welfare and health, evaluation of intervention programmes in nursing, and assessment of public services to people with disabilities.

Jorge Vala holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Louvain (1984). He was a senior researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS)/ULisboa, institution where he is currently Emeritus Researcher. His research focus on socio-cognitive processes. His present projects articulate these processes with the study of racism and prejudice, migration issues, political attitudes and social justice. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Psychology and the National Coordinator for the ESS, the EVS, and the ISSP. He was also Director of the Portuguese Infrastructure PASSDA. He served as Director of the ICS-UIisboa. Jorge Vala received the J.P. Codol Award from the European Association of Social Psychology.

David Voas is a Professor at University College London, where he led the UCL Social Research Institute until 2020. He is a demographer and sociologist of religion. David was the European Values Study National Programme Director for Great Britain from 2008 to 2020 and served on the EVS Executive Committee for most of that period. He is co-director of British Religion in Numbers ( www.brin.ac.uk ) and a member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Sociology and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion .

Bogdan Voicu is a Research Professor at the Romanian Academy (Research Institute for Quality of Life) and a Professor of Sociology at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. He is part of the Romanian Group for studying Social Values (RomanianValues.ro) and President of the Romanian Quantitative Studies Association. Bogdan’s main area of research is social change at both the individual- and the macro-level, with a current focus on how international migration changes social values, behaviours of civic participation, and life satisfaction.

Susanne Wallman Lundåsen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Centre for Local Government Studies at Linköping University. Susanne has been the National Programme Director for EVS Sweden during 2009-2020. Her research focuses on social trust, civic engagement and volunteering. Her research has appeared in journals such as Governance , Local Government Studies ., Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly , and others.

Christof Wolf is President of GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, and Professor of Sociology at Mannheim University. His substance-related research interests include aspects of social stratification, social determinants of health, and social networks. His methodological research focusses mainly on survey methods. He was responsible for the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS, from 2008 to 2015), he was member of the national coordination team for the German part of the European Social Survey (2015 to 2019), and member of the Executive Committee of the European Values Study (2010 to 2020). He has been member of the German team of the International Social Survey Programme (since 2008) and has served as ISSP’s Secretary (2015 to 2021).

European Values Series

The main purpose of the European Values Series is to publish scholarly work on European values. The Series is a leading platform for the comparative study of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes, and opinions. It primarily publishes values research that seeks to uncover patterns and trends in important life domains, such as politics, religion and morale, family and gender, migration, work, welfare etc., and that adopts a comparative perspective on values such as cross-national comparisons, a longitudinal perspective, comparisons across social groups. The Series is grounded in work from the social sciences, although contributions from other disciplines such as philosophy and history are welcome as well. In this way, the Series hopes to contribute to the academic and public debate on European values. To facilitate this, the European Values Series is published open access at Open Press Tiu, Tilburg University.

Inge Sieben (Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, the Netherlands)

Vera Lomazzi (Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of  Bergamo, Italy)

Editorial Board

Morten Frederiksen (Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg Universitet, Denmark)

Frédéric Gonthier (Sciences Po Grenoble, School of Political Studies, Grenoble Alpes University, France)

Michael Ochsner (FORS, University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Gergely Rosta (Institute of Sociology, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary)

Natalia Soboleva (independent researcher)

Aims and values

The aims of the European Union within its borders are:

• promote peace, its values and the well-being of its citizens
• offer freedom, security and justice without internal borders, while also taking appropriate measures at its external borders to regulate asylum and immigration and prevent and combat crime
• establish an internal market
• achieve sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability and a highly competitive market economy with full employment and social progress
• protect and improve the quality of the environment
• promote scientific and technological progress
• combat social exclusion and discrimination
• promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, and protection of the rights of the child
• enhance economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity among EU countries
• respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity
• establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro

The aims of the EU within the wider world are:

• uphold and promote its values and interests
• contribute to peace and security and the sustainable development of the Earth
• contribute to solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights
• strict observance of international law

The EU’s aims are laid out in article 3 of the Lisbon Treaty .

The European Union is founded on the following values:

Human dignity Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected, protected and constitutes the real basis of fundamental rights.

Freedom Freedom of movement gives citizens the right to move and reside freely within the Union. Individual freedoms such as respect for private life, freedom of thought, religion, assembly, expression and information are protected by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Democracy The functioning of the EU is founded on representative democracy. A European citizen automatically enjoys political rights. Every adult EU citizen has the right to stand as a candidate and to vote in elections to the European Parliament. EU citizens have the right to stand as a candidate and to vote in their country of residence, or in their country of origin.

Equality Equality is about equal rights for all citizens before the law. The principle of equality between women and men underpins all European policies and is the basis for European integration. It applies in all areas. The principle of equal pay for equal work became part of the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

Rule of law The EU is based on the rule of law. Everything the EU does is founded on treaties, voluntarily and democratically agreed by its EU countries. Law and justice are upheld by an independent judiciary. The EU countries gave final jurisdiction to the European Court of Justice - its judgments have to be respected by all.

Human rights Human rights are protected by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. These cover the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, the right to the protection of your personal data, and the right to get access to justice.

The EU’s values are laid out in article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights .

In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

Further information

Founding agreements

Achievements

Actions by topic

Share this page

Welcome to the European Values Study

Where is europe heading.

This is one of the central questions in the European Values Study (EVS) - a transnational empirical long-term study on the ideas and values of Europeans. The surveys have been conducted in a nine-year cycle since 1981 and offer insights into the European population's beliefs, perceptions, preferences, attitudes, values and opinions. The research project was initiated in the late 1970s by the European Value System Study Group (EVSSG). Since then, a well-established network of social and political scientists has developed, striving for a high degree of standardisation in the collection and processing of data. Currently, the EVS Foundation is responsible for the study. Data processing and documentation are carried out in close cooperation between the EVS teams at Tilburg University and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

Further information on the history and organisation of the EVS can be found on the  EVS website .

What makes the EVS unique? The EVS is the most comprehensive research project on human values in Europe. The EVS trend file 1981-2017 was created to facilitate time series analysis. For comparisons at the international level, this file can easily be combined with the trend file of the World Values Surveys 1981-2022. The resulting Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2022 include surveys conducted in 118 countries/regions.

Who are the EVS data suitable for? The European Values Study is aimed at international researchers and students of social and political sciences who want to take a closer look at the development of values in the European area since the beginning of the 1980s and take them into account in their research.

Temporal and geographical scope From 1981 to 2017, five survey waves were conducted in the respective EVS member countries, mainly European countries. The number of participating countries varies from wave to wave. In the EVS 2017, 37 countries participated. Here is an overview of the participating countries in the respective EVS waves.

Topics The European Values Study focuses on family, work, religion, politics, and society. The Common EVS/WVS Dictionary - EVS Trend provides a thematic overview of all variables used in the five EVS waves. In addition, the GESIS Search Variable Catalog contains documentation at the variable level and enables a search for variables and questions and their comparability.

Direct access to EVS data

EVS data and documentation can be downloaded free of charge from the GESIS Data Catalog.

To EVS data

Online search in the EVS bibliography

Publications using EVS data can be found in the EVS bibliography, which is accessible via GESIS-Search or can be donwloaded as PDF or BibTeX file from the EVS webpage.

To EVS bibliography

• Joint EVS/WVS Dataset 2017-2022 and Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2022
• Final Data Releases from the EVS/WVS Collaboration
• Joint EVS/WVS Dataset 2017-2022, EVS Trend File 1981-2017, and Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2022

This section provides an overview of the different EVS waves and the participating countries.

Data & Documentation

Detailed information on the individual EVS waves, the trend file, and the Joint EVS/WVS data sets can be found here.

In Dialog with the EVS

Addresses and contact persons for your questions and comments on the European Values Study

• EVS Website  provides information on the EVS research project, and on history and methods of the EVS surveys.
• EVS Bibliography  contains links to publications based on EVS data.
• Atlas of European Values  unlocks the results of EVS surveys for the general public; presents values, beliefs, attitudes, and opinions through graphs, charts, and maps.
• The  interactive website  'Atlas of European Values' facilitates courses for secondary education and supports a better understanding of European values.

Atlas of European Values 2022

Understanding European values through data visualisation

On Europe Day (9 May 2022), the first copy of the third edition of the Atlas of European Values , titled ‘ The Atlas of European Values: Change and Continuity in Turbulent Times ’, was presented in the House of the Dutch Provinces in Brussels, Belgium. This publication was presented by the report’s authors and Tilburg University ’s rector magnificus Wim van de Donk to Robert de Groot, the representatives of the Netherlands to the European Union. 

A key feature of the European Value Atlas is the interactive map , charts and graphs. These visuals use data to illustrate topics such as migration, democracy, sustainability, welfare, identity and solidarity in an attractive way. This includes tracking different perspectives and values of EU citizens across the Member States, and how these views and standards have shifted over time. Moreover, in the interactive map, citizens’ values can be filtered e.g. through variables such as gender, education, age, or income (see below).

                                                                              Atlas of European Values interactive map

By using data to create interactive visuals in the report, readers can better understand how Europe and European values have shifted over the years. For more information and to explore the interactive map, read the full report . The report is published under an open license at Open Press Tilburg University.

For more news and events, follow us on  Twitter ,   Facebook and  LinkedIn , or subscribe to  our newsletter .

Text of this article

Images in this article.

The Research and Studies Centre on Europe

• The Foundation

Publications

The Schuman Letter

Le centre de recherches et d'études sur l'Europe

• Robert Schuman
• How we work
• Our organization
• Schuman Papers and Interviews
• The European Elections Monitor
• Politics and Democracy
• Economic Integration
• Europe and Societies
• Enlargement and neighbourhood
• The European Union in the World

European News

• The Latest Newsletter
• All Newsletters
• All News Briefs
• Subscribe to the Newsletter
• Country Profiles
• In the Media
• Pension systems in the European Union
• Women's Europe
• Map of the European Recovery Plans

> Schuman Papers and Interviews > Schuman Papers n°466 : Europe and the identity challenge: who are "we"?

Democracy and citizenship

Thierry Chopin

Available versions :

Europe and the identity challenge: who are "we"?

PDF | 282 ko In English

European identity: an "intermediary" identity between the national and the global

Geographic identity that is difficult to grasp.

The term "European" involves geographic, historic and cultural factors that contribute, to varying degrees, in forging a European identity based on shared historical links, ideas and values - but without this cancelling out of course our national identities.

Europe is surrounded by seas in the North, the West and the South, but there is no obvious geographical limit to the European project in the East. Moreover, all projects for unification and perpetual peace from the 18th century on (Abbé de Saint Pierre, Kant) were part of a cosmopolitical rationale. Europe's geographical identity is understood in broad terms: the Organisation for Security and Peace in Europe (OSCE) includes 57 countries from Vancouver to Vladivostok; the Council of Europe has 47 members, including Russia and Turkey. Moreover, the continued enlargement of the European Union looks more like a process of indefinite extension than the definition of a territorial framework, which is vital however for the development of a collective identity.

In this regard it seems that we should stress the absence of the word "territory" from the Union's founding legal texts and from its primary law [4] . Territory is mainly associated with the States comprising the Union only. Unlike "territory", "area" is extremely present in Europe's primary and secondary law: in the Preamble of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and in the Union's objectives there is mention of the establishment of "an area of freedom, security and justice without any internal borders", as well as the construction of an "internal market (...) comprising an area without internal borders (...)". Moreover, beyond the territories of the States that are European Union members, this seems to be typified by areas which have specific functions: money, free-trade, security, justice etc. This juxtaposition, even interlacing, of functional areas leads to differentiated types of integration which then lead to a segmented, geometrically variable area: the internal market (28 Member States, 27 after the Brexit); the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU 19 members); the Schengen Area (22 Member States and 4 associate States - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) etc. Not only does differentiation like this create a degree of legal complexity but it also leads to a problem of legibility and in turn, one of political legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens. Lastly, the European Union is typified by an "area of rights" which refers to the values [5] that have been at the heart of the Union's enlargement process and the extension of the European area. In spite of the fact that the treaties mention the European nature of the candidate States wishing to join, article 49 of the TEU simply specifies that "any European State which respects the values referred to in Article 2 and is committed to promoting them may apply to become a member of the Union." The dynamic of enlargement has relied on the dissemination of democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as Western democratic, constitutional practices fostered by the membership conditions set in the treaties.

A "Europe" of values ?

The Union is founded on a community of values set down in the treaties: the respect of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and the respect of Human Rights. These values are shared by the Member States in a society typified by pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between men and women [6] . Naturally the Member States have specific national identities and histories and this "Europe of Values" does not mean that borders have been abolished. Moreover, a series of surveys undertaken since 1981 in Europe (European Values Surveys) has led to the distinction of four circles within the "Europe of Values", matching collective preferences that are more or less pronounced around which groups of States converge [7] . Finally it is clear that the nation is still the vital framework of political reference for most Europeans [8] .

It now seems possible to speak of a core of European values that bring together part of Europe and comprise the base of a joint political identity [9] , and this, in spite of the specific nature of this value or another linked to the political and national culture of one country or another. The case of secularity and religious freedom is an example of this. Naturally, as far as Europe is concerned the nature of relations between Church and the State is variable from one Member State to another. France is the only Member State to have included secularity in its Constitution; in this manner it is the only original model in that the other States have not introduced the separation of the Churches and the State as strictly as this. The UK is not a secular country because it has an official religion (the Queen is the head of the Anglican Church). The Orthodox Church enjoys a specific status within the Greek Constitution; etc. And yet, European societies distinguish themselves by a high degree of secularisation (possibly Ireland and Poland apart) and stand out from other Western countries, like the USA, which is a secular country (assertion of the separation of the Church and the State) but which acknowledges the significant place that religion occupies in the public sphere. This difference in terms of secularisation undoubtedly helps us take on board the differences in how the media addressed the attacks in Paris in January 2015 and the caricatures on the European continent and in the Anglo-Saxon world (or to be more precise in at least a part of it) [10] . This analysis could be extended by highlighting the differences in collective preference between Europeans and Americans, for example, in terms of their relationship with violence and arms; moreover the upkeep of the death penalty in certain American States also helps us distinguish the two sides of the Atlantic within the Western world [11] . In spite of this specific feature of European identity in terms of values, it remains that the latter often seem too abstract to provide an adequate response in terms of founding a particular identity, understood in the sense of a feeling of belonging to a group with which it members can identify, as being the "same" - the etymology of identity is "idem".

Common cultural identity and national plurality

After Greek and then Roman Antiquity, Europe became an objective historic reality which "arose when the Roman Empire collapsed" (Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre) around a certain number of elements such as the Church, and feudalism - the Court, the town, religious orders, universities (Bologna, Prague, Oxford and Paris) - which provide a unity to European culture. But at the same time, there is a duality at the heart of European identity, between the existence of a common culture and the political fragmentation that goes with it [12] . This duality can be found in each stage of the European spirit's development process [13] . On the one hand there is the factor of community that provides Europe with its unifying framework: Renaissance and Reform, the scientific revolution, the Baroque Crescent, from Rome to Prague, classical art, the Republic of Letters and then the Enlightenment etc. It is in this sense that Europe is "a nation comprising several" (Montesquieu). On the other hand, there is the factor of "particularity" with the creation of nations in France and England, the national revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the Italian and German unifications, etc. This national plurality led to competition which formed the core of European dynamic as soon as Charlemagne's empire was divided, with each king wanting to be the "emperor of his own kingdom." Europe invested a political model, that of the Nation State, which substituted that of the city (for which Athens provided the model) and of the Empire (embodied by Rome). This competition took various shapes: from emulation to the foundation of European dynamism to rivalry and conflict, which explains the tragedy of the wars throughout Europe's history.

It is possibly in this link between these two elements (cultural unity and national particularities) that we find part of the answer that the European Union might use to settle the issue of identity in the present globalised world: "The identity of Europe is necessarily of an intermediate nature: it must accept economically and from a human point of view, to be both part of a globalised whole and comprise Nation-States that retain their discrete identities. Europe's specific vocation dictates its identity and vice-versa. This identity involves finding a middle road between the global and the local, between dilution and self-withdrawal, to avoid, as much as possible, a brutal confrontation between world interdependence and blind, xenophobic, sterile isolation" [14] .

Responding to the identity deficit: what is to be done ?

Identity, history and borders.

Beyond public policy that should be developed in terms of the learning of languages (as written by Timothy Garton Ash: "the heart of the democratic problem in Europe, it is not Brussels, it's Babel" [15] ) and mobility [16] responding to Europe's identity deficit first involves a strategy that aims to provide its citizens with points of reference in time and space [17] .

Indeed it means implementing the teaching of true European history. This does not mean "replacing national narratives, which remain vital in the education of young people" but they have to be complemented with a "specifically European narrative in which the young Europeans will learn that every national historical phenomenon was also and primarily European; "Europeans should learn about shared places of memory and heroes - without obscuring the things that have torn Europe apart, and the crimes, since we can build nothing good on a lie, even by omission. But by showing how, based on a shared memory of past ills, a joint will to build a better future can emerge. This is not a bad definition of a true policy for European identity." [18] Then the issue of borders is central and is raised with particular acuity. Some States feel that their security is threatened on their borders (the Baltic countries and in the East by Russia in particular) and doubt the Union's ability to protect them, which is leading to more national military spending (in Poland) or a strengthened integration strategy (the Baltic countries with the adoption of the euro, seen as a guarantee of greater solidarity). The question is vital: if Russia undertook an aggressive, expansionist policy as in Ukraine against a Member State, what would the Union do? This would be the true test for the borders and European identity. Are we ready to engage means and take the risk of losing human lives to protect our collective borders?

Beyond the aspect of security, the question of the borders introduces the aspect of identity: that which links the nations within the Union together is also what distinguishes them on the outside, and the distinction between "a within" and "from without" is constitutive of a sense s of identity. The question of the borders is therefore linked to that of the Union's political and geopolitical identity and involves a multinational collective whole [19] . Of course we have to reassert the geopolitical contribution made by the various enlargements to European integration in terms of pacification, reconciliation, and the stabilisation of the continent [20] , and this in spite of worrying developments in Central Europe. Yet, we have to acknowledge that unlike the previous enlargements, those since 2004 have gone together with questions, not just of a political-institutional and socio-economic nature, but especially of identity which have risen up in several national public opinions (in France and the Netherlands, but also in Germany and Austria). Beyond the economic (fears of social and tax dumping amplified by the crisis) and political reasons (feeling of a loss of influence), the question of identity is linked to the geopolitical divide caused by the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the one hand this identity crisis originates in the feeling of an apparently indefinite extension that typified a limitless Europe which although vital, has not managed to take the issue of territory seriously (limits of security, definition of a community as a framework for belonging and identification) [21] . On the other hand there is the geopolitical split that was introduced with the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 years ago, which has brought to light a unique factor: the contact with the periphery of the European continent, where it seems that work of clarification, albeit temporary, is required regarding the territorial limits of the European Union [22] .

In this kind of context it is essential to start thinking politically about the Union's limits. This vital question has been avoided for too long on the pretext that it was an issue that divided Europeans (notably regarding which status to offer Turkey and Ukraine) [23] . By not asking this question it means that we are not responding to the discomfort of public opinion on this issue, a discomfort that it contributing to a weakening in support for European integration.

"We" defending against threats

The founding principles of our regimes of freedom have to be revived and reasserted as a matter of extreme urgency as the recent attacks in various countries of Europe have so tragically reminded us. Indeed, whilst we have felt that we rediscovered freedom (of speech, the press, of thought) as a powerful vehicle for social links after the attacks in January 2015 in Paris, many citizens feel threatened in terms of their individual freedom and notably their security. The challenges made to European internal and external security may be a factor to use to strengthen the feeling of belonging to a common whole.

Although European integration has freed the European States of a rationale of permanent power struggles, it is not enough to free them of external constraints. At the same time other regional entities do not have the same problem: in spite of the relativization of their power the USA relies on an extremely strong patriotism, the defence of their world leadership and well identified interests; China relies on a balance found in Confucian tradition, the Communist State and mercantilist strategy. In other words the USA and China have a system of values and an understanding of the world, patriotism, at the heart of an identity which enables united, resolute action, as well as an awareness of their collective interests, which does not seem to be the case with the Union and its Member States.

Why is there this asymmetry? Because for Europe "the most decisive aspect is undoubtedly of vital essence: it is internal dynamism, its ability to adapt without betrayal to innovate and yet consenting to openness, to discuss and cooperate with the other without losing its identity (...). What is lacking is on the one hand vital impetus, self-confidence, ambition, and on the other, awareness of its unity. If elsewhere people get passionate, Europeans are not very passionate, not about their joint project in all events; passions exist within the nations, but they often tend to be defensive or negative. It is a European ambition that has to be created or revived. But this in turn cannot come from a State, it must be open both to the nations that comprise Europe and to the world which surrounds it and from which it cannot isolate itself" [24] . In other words it means reviving European pride and confidence, starting with reasserting the principles that form the heart of what they are.

But as Luuk van Middelar rightly said "historically Europe has only been half prepared for a task like this. The Founders pursued two goals at the same time. Was the unification of Europe a project of peace or project of power? (...) As part of a project of peace Europe is "an eminently moral act" supported by the desire for reconciliation and by idealism. As a project of power European integration is a political act based on conviction and involving the redefinition of the participants own interests. In the first case national citizens must become stateless citizens of the world (or depoliticised consumers); in the second instance, they must become committed Europeans and even be proud of their identities. In other words the project of peace demands the sacrifice of national identities to the benefit of universal values, whilst the project of power demands the development of a European identity" [25] .

Although they belong to different national traditions and histories the EU Member States share values, principles and interests as the core of their identity, which distinguishes them from other countries and regions of the world, whether this involves China and Russia, but also the USA. It is because the European Union will constantly show that it implements decisions and policies in line with these principles that it will be able to persuade its citizens more convincingly of its use and its legitimacy in facing the challenges of the present world.

Publishing Director : Pascale Joannin

On the same theme

Review of the 9th Legislature of the European...

What to take away from the European law on...

A "Commissioner responsible for defence issues"...

European agriculture and Ukrainian agriculture...

To go further

Elise Bernard

23 July 2024

Thaima Samman

16 July 2024

Luigi Gianniti

9 July 2024

Agriculture

Jean-Jacques Hervé

2 July 2024

The Letter Schuman

European news of the week

Unique in its genre, with its 200,000 subscribers and its editions in 6 languages ​​(French, English, German, Spanish, Polish and Ukrainian), it has brought to you, for 15 years, a summary of European news, more needed now than ever

Versions :  

European values, the key for the geopolitical success

Research paper by asier areitio.

The EU can play the leading actor on the geopolitical scene, as long as it focuses its strategy on the defense of its values and the promotion of them internationally.

The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the European Union shows more strength on the geopolitical panorama when it works in favor of its values and the defense of them. This paper also analyses the role that new technologies have played on the geopolitical decisions of the EU and how some topics that have not been relevant for geopolitics can become new lines for the Union's strategy.

About the author

Asier Areitio

Asier Areitio , current president of the YDE, has a bachelor in business administration and a bachelor in laws on the UPV/EHU. He is committed to the European politics and has taken part in many movements in favor of the integration and federalism of the EU. Nowadays he works in a public-private hedge fund focused on the investment for the creation of technological or innovative start ups on the territory of Biscay.

#softpower #values #democracy #trade #geopolitics #integration #europe

• Infra4NextGen

Data and Documentation

Overview of the datasets

During recent decades, Europe was exposed to remarkable dynamics of simultaneously growing together and falling apart: the traffic of goods, services, and labor between states and regions, within and outside Europe, increased. The European Union was enlarged as a geographical, political, and social unit, and cultural barriers seem to be declining. At the same time, European societies have been challenged by consequential crises: the banking and financial crisis, the economic crisis, and the recession, with the austerity measures imposed, and the refugee crises. How these societal changes are affecting human values?

With the addition of the fifth wave, conducted between 2017 and 2020, the EVS is a unique source of trend data for the last four decades, allowing scholars to investigate the most urgent research questions concerning the values domain of religiosity and morality, politics, family and gender roles, national and European identity, environment, solidarity, and social cohesion.

Many of the questions have been surveyed since earlier waves. This allows the analysis of changes over time in key dimensions of the EVS. Furthermore, a large number of questions are included in the World Values Survey (WVS) surveys from 1981 to 2021, enabling worldwide analyses.

The collaboration with the WVS and the engagement in the SERISS project are crucial aspects of the development of the fifth wave of EVS, together with the strengthening of the methodology standards and practices implemented.

The figure below describes the data products currently available for the EVS as well as the additional datasets resulting from the collaboration with the WVS. For methodological information on each data product, as well as access to the data and documentation, please see the website links on the right site.

The range of possible research questions is very wide and can include any of the topics covered by the EVS. Data users can either use the current EVS 2017 dataset alone or in conjunction with previous EVS waves. They can either look at a specific country alone or in comparison with other European countries (EVS) or even worldwide ( WVS ).

EU values - Topics - All articles

Press freedom: the european parliament in support of journalists.

Press freedom is under pressure in the EU and across the world. Find out how the European Parliament supports the work of journalists.

Breaches of EU values: how the EU can act (infographic)

The EU has tools to protect its values and budget when there is a risk of a breach from a member state. Find out how these mechanisms work.

MEPs call for action against abuse of spyware (interview)

MEPs have raised concerns about the abuse of Pegasus and other spyware and called for action.

MEP Kalniete: We need to protect our democracies against hostile countries

Ahead of the European elections in 2024, the EU must strengthen its electoral instruments against malign interests, says MEP Sandra Kalniete.

Rule of law: new mechanism aims to protect EU budget and values

The EU has adopted rules which make it possible to stop payments from the EU budget to member states that do not respect the rule of law.

Death penalty in Europe and the rest of the world: key facts

Parliament strongly opposes capital punishment and pushes for its worldwide abolition. Find out more in our infographics.

Quiz: how much do you know about human rights in the EU?

Respect for human rights is key to the EU. How much do you know about them? Find out in our quiz!

European Charter of Fundamental Rights: five things you need to know

The 10th anniversary of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights was marked on 1 December. Here are five facts you should know about it:

The EU values

The EU values are common to the EU countries in a society in which inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination prevail. These values are an integral part of our European way of life:

Human dignity

Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected, protected and constitutes the real basis of fundamental rights.

Freedom of movement gives citizens the right to move and reside freely within the Union. Individual freedoms such as respect for private life, freedom of thought, religion, assembly, expression and information are protected by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The functioning of the EU is founded on representative democracy. Being a European citizen also means enjoying political rights. Every adult EU citizen has the right to stand as a candidate and to vote in elections to the European Parliament. EU citizens have the right to stand as candidate and to vote in their country of residence, or in their country of origin.

Equality is about equal rights for all citizens before the law. The principle of equality between women and men underpins all European policies and is the basis for European integration. It applies in all areas. The principle of equal pay for equal work became part of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Although inequalities still exist, the EU has made significant progress.

Rule of law

The EU is based on the rule of law. Everything the EU does is founded on treaties, voluntarily and democratically agreed by its EU countries. Law and justice are upheld by an independent judiciary. The EU countries gave final jurisdiction to the European Court of Justice which judgements have to be respected by all.

Human rights

Human rights are protected by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. These cover the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, the right to the protection of your personal data, and or the right to get access to justice.

• +39 095 7463250

SEARCHING FOR THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY

• December 16, 2021

Share this post:

Does a European identity exist?

Nowadays, it seems difficult to perceive a genuine European identity among European citizens. The reason is simple, but the roots are complex: it lacks that relationship of fidelity and reciprocity indispensable for the classic concept of “one people”.

The concept of the ‘European people’ can’t have the same meaning used for the national context, because the European identity can’t take into consideration just common principles and traditions among the European States.

In order to understand what does it mean to be a European citizen , it is therefore necessary to create a sense of belonging and to recognise a set of values that are identifying Europe, which is not considered as a simple union of States but as an organisation that has its own cultural identity.

And it is this common identity that we will deal with shortly. Let’s first take a quick tour of the history of Europe, to focus then on the definition of European identity and its main issues.

A brief history of Europe IDENTITY

In order to understand where the European identity originates, we need to take a few steps backwards, until the second post-war period. In the aftermath of World War 2, it arose the need to create a bond between the European countries and their peoples in order to put an end to political and economic rivalries.

In those years, Winston Churchill, who considered Europe as the cradle of culture, arts, philosophy and science, began to hypothesise the creation of the “United States of Europe” in order to live in peace, security and freedom.

Under these principles, in 1949 ten countries, including Italy, allied themselves to found the first European organisation: the Council of Europe . This organisation, which now has 47 States, has many objectives, including the promotion of the European identity and the defense of human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law.

In 1952 the ECSC, the European Coal and Steel Community, was founded with the aim of bringing together in a common market the coal and steel industries (both of which strategically important for the Economy of Europe at the time) by placing them under the control of a supranational authority.

In 1957 the Treaties of Rome established the EEC (European Economic Community) and in the Maastricht Treaty, in 1992, the Communities were accompanied by a broader system, that of the Union, which incorporated all the other organisations and which ended up replacing them.

It is from these developments that the European Union has developed as we know it, and it is from these developments that the rights and duties of European citizens have emerged more clearly.

Europe today: member states and applicant countries

In June 2016, the UK held a referendum on whether or not to leave the European Union. The result of the referendum was positive: 51.9% of the British population voted to leave the EU. After a procedure that did not come without difficulties, the UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020.

The Post- Brexit European Union represents a political and economic union of 27 states:

• Czech Republic
• Netherlands

Among the applicant Countries which aim to become member of the EU there are:

• North Macedonia

EUROPEAN IDENTITY DEFINITION

European identity is defined by two key layers: Europe as a cultural community of shared values (cultural identity); Europe as a political community of shared democratic practices (political identity). EU values are such as human dignity, freedom of movement, democracy, equality, rule of law, human rights.

The institutional organisation of the European Union reflects the values upon which it was founded. Europe is an organisation that wavers between a federation of states (such as the United States of America) and an intergovernmental organisation (such as the United Nations).

Unlike federations, the concept of ‘member’ is emphasized in Europe. The relations between the Member States and the EU are governed by treaties requiring a unanimous ratification. 

While it is true, in addition to some necessary cases, that the Member States delegate part of their sovereignty, it is also true that all Member States are given weight and that unanimity between states can block Europe.

The transfer of sovereignty is therefore in favour of building common balances for which each Member State competes, together, to determine the rules. The current framework allowed to guarantee seventy years of unconditional peace on a continent that had always lived in war.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

The construction of a united Europe is based on ideals and objectives that are also recognised and shared by the Member States. Precisely because of the values in which the European Union is founded, the EU has a humanist vision and a social model shared by the vast majority of its citizens. 

These fundamental values include the achievement of lasting peace, unity, equality, freedom, security and solidarity. The Union is explicitly founded on the principles of freedom and democracy.

The European identity is therefore based on this set of values and principles, shared by all those who are part of the EU and defended by institutions such as European Commission, that aims to identify possible violations of these principles by the Member States and to preserve the rule of law.

The sharing of values, principles, rights and duties should help to unite all European citizens in a feeling of brotherhood and to promote reflection on the concept of European identity.

The attention that the European Union has always shown with regard to human rights issues has made Europe a continent where freedom and democracy become very important. In this respect, it is important to stress that the death penalty, which is still provided in many States, has been abolished in all the countries of the European Union.

THE EU AND THE RULE OF LAW

Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union establishes the rule of law as one of the fundamental values of the Union. It is also the ‘conditio sine qua non’ for the protection of all the other fundamental values of the Union, starting with fundamental rights and democracy. Respect for the rule of law is fundamental to the functioning of the Union and the European Commission is charged with preserving it. Here are the actions to defend the rule of law

• through the effective application of EU law;
• A properly functioning internal market;
• maintaining a favourable environment for investment;
• mutual trust.

The rule of law also provides for effective judicial protection, which presupposes the autonomy, quality and efficiency of national judicial systems.

EUROPE AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION

Multiculturalism has been one of the key factors of the European identity since the beginning of its history. The coexistence of more cultures, languages and traditions characterises Europe and enriches its history.

European cultures do not just coexist: in the European regulatory framework, the prohibition of discrimination and the principle of equal treatment have great importance. One of the main manifestations of respect for the cultural identities of European nations is, for example, the right of every EU citizen to address and receive answers from the European institutions in his or her own language.

Multiculturalism is a model of integration based on the recognition of not only individual rights, but also those of each group and community that lives in a country. Equal treatment and the prohibition of discrimination require a strategy of social integration that involves each Member State.

One of them is the EU Youth Strategy, a package of actions aimed at strengthening the engagement of young EU citizens in active participation in democracy and society.

The EU Youth Strategy aims in particular to:

• make full use of the possibilities offered by youth work and youth centres as a tool for integration;
• encouraging a transversal approach to address exclusion in areas such as education, employment and social integration;
• supporting intercultural awareness and combating prejudice;
• supporting information and education of young people about their rights;
• addressing homelessness, housing in general and poverty;
• facilitating access to quality services, such as transport, digital integration, health and social services;
• promoting specific care facilities for young families.

e-Medine, a non-profit organisation promoting European citizenship, is involved in several European projects with the aim of enhancing social integration in Europe. Among them, the non-profit is involved in the ‘EUROTHON’ project, which aims to broaden the knowledge of European ideals and increase the involvement of young people in the democratic process of the Union through an innovative learning programme that adopts an integration-oriented, student-centred and action-oriented approach.

WHY IS EUROPEAN IDENTITY IMPORTANT?

For many, Europe is the cradle of culture, a land of opportunity and a civilised country in which democracy and respect for human rights reign today, a society in which inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination prevail.

Our identity depends on what we have been and on what we want to become together.

The awareness to be part of the ‘European people’ eliminates the risk of conflicts between the governments and citizens of the different Member States. As history teaches us, segregating and conflicting logic leads to wars and crises, and we have a tragic memory of this.

Being European and understanding the importance of one’s identity is essential to live the “European citizenship” with greater awareness, which goes far beyond the national context, as it does not refer to the relationship between the citizen and the sovereign authority (State), but identifies with the sense of belonging to a community, the European one, united by human principles and values. Values that, unfortunately, are not yet shared in all those parts of the world divided by wars and conflicts.

Let us not forget that the past nourishes the present and the future, and that memory is the essential compass for a forming and developing identity. We must be aware, however, that memory alone is not enough to form a (collective and political) European identity and that we need to mobilise our energies to overcome the constraints of the past and turn the European continent into the great motherland of future generations of European citizens.

Please fill in the form below if you are looking for a partner for European identity projects. Our team will get back to you shortly.

NGOs in Italy and Europe: 3 common features. List of non-governmental organisations dealing with European issues

Active citizenship 2.0: what it’s and how to participate in change, digital citizenship education: what it is and why it is important to promote it in the web 3.0 era, social inclusion and intercultural dynamics: discover the most relevant eu actions and programmes, how to get double citizenship in eu: requirements, guide and examples, discovering european democracy: institutions, characteristics and challenges.

Official partner:

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

• European Public Opinion Three Decades After the Fall of Communism
• 2. Democratic values

Table of Contents

• 1. Political and economic changes since the fall of communism
• 3. Democratic satisfaction
• 4. The European Union
• 5. National conditions
• 6. Minority groups
• 7. Gender equality
• 8. Political parties
• Acknowledgments
• Methodology
• Appendix A: Classifying European populist parties
• Appendix B: Governing party categorization

Across Europe, there is relative agreement about which political institutions and rights are most important to have. When presented with nine different factors that people may or may not see as important to their country, majorities in every country polled – in most cases, large majorities – say each one of the nine factors is at least somewhat  important.

When it comes to what people deem to be very important, though, certain factors stand out. Across every country surveyed, having a judicial system that treats everyone equally is always named as one of the two most important facets. In most countries, women having the same rights as men is also one of the top two things people consider “very important” for their country to have.

But, while the relative ranking of the preferred factors varies little across the European continent, Western Europeans generally are more likely to see each factor as very important for their country than are Central and Eastern Europeans. And, by and large, Americans stand out for the relative import they place on most of these elements of democracy – even compared with Western Europeans. Russians stand out in the opposite direction, often being the least likely of all countries surveyed to say each factor is very important for their country.

Generally, people with higher levels of education are more likely than those with less education to say almost all of these factors are very important for their country. In contrast, younger and older people largely agree on the relative importance of most of these elements, as do men and women.

Fair judiciary seen as more important than regular elections

When it comes to two institutional factors that many would consider crucially important to democracy – a fair judiciary and free, regular elections – publics largely prioritize the former. More than six-in-ten in every country surveyed say a fair judiciary is very important for their country. This opinion ranges from 63% in Russia to 95% who say the same in Greece and Hungary.

In contrast, while majorities in most countries say honest elections being held regularly with a choice of at least two political parties is very important for their country, outside of Hungary it is not one of the top two issues in any country surveyed.

Among the countries asked this question in 2015 or 2016 and 2019, the perceived importance of regular elections has decreased in some but risen in others. Fewer now say regular elections are very important in Russia (down 17 percentage points since 2015), Italy (-14 points), Ukraine (‑7) and Germany (‑6), while more cite them as very important in both Hungary (+8 points since 2016) and France (+12 since 2015).

Most say it is very important that opposition parties, civil society can operate freely

In many countries surveyed, majorities say opposition parties operating freely in their country is critical. But people in Central and Eastern Europe are somewhat less likely to say it is very important for opposition parties to operate unencumbered. For example, roughly half or fewer in Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania say this facet of democracy is crucial. In Russia and Ukraine, this tenet is even less revered; only 36% and 23%, respectively, see opposition parties operating freely to be very important for their country.

Many also see human rights organizations operating without government interference as very important. Western Europeans appear to prize civil society’s ability to act freely at somewhat higher rates than Central and Eastern Europeans (medians of 66% and 56%, respectively). But there is a great deal of variation across these EU member states, ranging from a high of 72% in Spain and France to a low of 35% in Italy. Russians (31%) are the least likely to say civil society groups operating freely is “very” important among all of the countries surveyed.

Equal rights for women are prized; less so religious freedoms

Women having the same rights as men is seen as one of the most important elements for a country across most of the countries surveyed. In fact, in Sweden (96%), the Netherlands (92%), the UK (92%), Germany (90%) and Italy (74%) it is the one facet of democracy of nine tested in the survey that garners the most people saying it is “very important” for their country. While generally seen as somewhat less important across Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Russia and Ukraine, at least half or more still say gender equality is very important in every country surveyed.

Fewer people say it is very important for people to be able to practice their religion freely. This varies widely across Europe, however, with around three-quarters or more in Greece, the UK and Germany saying free religious practice is very important, compared with only around half saying the same in Sweden, France and the Czech Republic. Russia and the U.S. again stand out at opposite ends of the spectrum, with Americans being most likely to say it is very important for people to be able to practice their religion freely (86%) and Russians being the least likely (42%).

In most countries that were also asked this question in 2015, opinions are relatively unchanged. The notable exceptions are Russia and Italy, where the percentage saying it is very important fell 18 and 14 points, respectively. Over the same period, Britons grew more likely to say religious freedoms are very important.

In each of the countries surveyed, those who say religion is very important to them are also more likely to say it is very important for people to be able to practice religion freely.

Most see freedom of expression – especially free speech – as crucial

People’s right to say what they want without state or government censorship is a key issue for many across the continent. With the exception of Russia, around six-in-ten or more in all nations polled say it is very important that people can speak freely – including more than eight-in-ten in Greece, Hungary, Germany, France and Sweden. In most countries, more people say it is very important that people can speak without government censorship than say the same of the media reporting news or people using the internet without censorship – even though all three are generally seen to be important. In France, Hungary and the UK, freedom of speech has increased as a key value since 2015 or 2016 when the question was last asked (up 16, 13 and 11 percentage points, respectively).

The ability for the media to report the news without state or government interference is also very important for many of the publics polled. In Greece, the U.S., Spain, the UK, Poland and Ukraine, publics rate media censorship as most crucial to avoid of the three censorship types asked about. And, outside of Russia, majorities in every country say press freedom is very important.

The relative importance of this issue, though, has shifted somewhat among the countries that were also asked this in 2015 and 2016. In the UK and France, the shifts have been dramatic: In each country, the percentage saying it is very important that the media can report freely has increased 19 points. In the U.S. and Poland, there has been a double-digit increase in people saying that this is crucial (+13 and +10 points, respectively). But in Russia (-8 points), Italy (-8) and Germany (-6), fewer now say censorship-free reporting is very important for their country.

Only in the Netherlands does the ability to use the internet without state or government interference the type of censorship rank as most important for the public. But, in all but Russia, around half or more still say the ability to use the internet freely is very important. As with the other forms of censorship, Western Europeans are more likely than Central and Eastern Europeans to prioritize an open internet. The relative importance of this issue has risen in France (up 20 percentage points), the UK (+13 points), Hungary (+9) and Spain (+8) since these countries were last asked in 2015 and 2016, even while it has fallen in Italy (-9).

In most countries, internet users are much more likely than non-users to say it is very important that people can use the internet without censorship. For example, in Greece, 83% of internet users say it is very important that people can use the internet freely, compared with only around half (47%) of non-users. In general, non-users are less likely to offer an opinion on the importance of an unrestricted internet across most of the countries surveyed.

Notably, across most of the facets asked about in the survey, younger people diverge little from older people in their assessments of which institutions or freedoms are very important. But, when it comes to the freedom to use the internet without state or government censorship, younger people are much more likely than older people to say it is very important in almost every country surveyed. For example, in the Czech Republic, around three-quarters of those ages 18 to 34 say it is very important that people can use the internet without interference, compared with only around half of those ages 60 and older. In many of these same countries, older people are less likely to give a response than younger people.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivery Saturday mornings

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

• Trust, Facts & Democracy

72% of Americans say the U.S. used to be a good example of democracy, but isn’t anymore

Satisfaction with democracy has declined in recent years in high-income nations, more than 80% of americans believe elected officials don’t care what people like them think, support for democracy is strong in hong kong and taiwan, how people in 24 countries think democracy can improve, most popular, report materials.

• Summary of findings: (Czech | u010ceu0161tina)
• Summary of findings: (French | Français)
• Summary of findings: (German | Deutsch)
• Summary of findings: (Hungarian | Magyar)
• Summary of findings: (Italian | Italiano)
• Summary of findings: (Polish | Polski)
• Summary of findings: (Spanish | Español)
• Spring 2019 Survey Data

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

•  We're Hiring!
•  Help Center

European Values

• Most Cited Papers
• Most Downloaded Papers
• Newest Papers
• Valeurs Follow Following
• Etudes européennes Follow Following
• Normen en Waarden Follow Following
• Europa Follow Following
• Conflict of Values Follow Following
• Values Follow Following
• Values Education Follow Following
• European Union Follow Following
• European Studies Follow Following
• Democracy Follow Following

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• Academia.edu Journals
•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• EU Delegation to Ukraine
• The Support Group for Ukraine (SGUA)
• How we work?
• Facts and figures
• The EU’s response to the war in Ukraine
• Together We Act. Together We Are Europe
• ‘Together We Bring Light!’ campaign

Essay Contest: ‘10 years of Euromaidan: how European values determined the path of Ukraine’

• Together, we are resilient. Together we are Europe
• Together we create. Together we preserve.
• ‘Together, We Are Europe’ campaign
• Anti-trafficking in Times of War
• #VyshyvankaDay2022 digital flash mob
• UAnimals digital campaign
• Collaboration with Ukrainian illustrators
• European Green Deal
• Overcoming COVID-19 together
• Opportunities
• Press Releases
• Media Digest
• EU-UA Cooperation Newsletter
• Publications
• Cultural Mosaic

Marking the 10th anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity and the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the EU and Ukraine, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine announces an Essay Contest on the following topic:

‘10 years of Euromaidan: how European values determined the path of Ukraine’

• Rules and Procedures
• Award Ceremony

Who is eligible?

Any citizen of Ukraine aged 16-25 years old who wants to share reflections or experierences of the Revolution of Dignity events of 2013-2014 and its impact on Ukraine and its European future.

#TogetherWeAreEurope

How it works

The contest will be held in several stages:

• Official announcement and acceptance of entries kick-off – December 12, 2023
• Writing, submission, and acceptance of entries

All contestants are invited to write their essays, which must meet the requirements and defined criteria, as well as be submitted for review and evaluation before the established deadline.

Entry submission deadline – January 14, 2024

All entries must be sent via email to [email protected]

Subject lines and file names are required to match completely (example: Essay Contest_Maria Ivanenko »)

The essay should contain a title page, where the participant must indicate his/her name, surname, date of birth, city/town/village, contact phone number and email.

The copyright of the essays is retained by the authors.

By submitting the entries for the contest, participants hereby consent that their personal data, quote, photos and/or videos provide by them and/or created by organisers, are allowed to be used for the following purposes:

• to be filed, processed and used in the internal documentation (e.g. project reports) and in the photo pools of ‘Communіcating EU to Ukrainians’ project and project partners (all given personal data);
• publication as a part of public relations work: on public internet, social media, flyers, brochures, mass media (the data like: the name and surname, date of birth , city/town/village , the position and compa­ny/orga­ni­sa­tion name, the quote, the photo/video and other if needed);
• forwarding to project partners for use in their public relations work (the data like: the name and surname, date of birth , city/town/village , the position and company/organisation name, the quote, the photo/video and other if needed).

Additional questions or clarifications requests may be addressed to Maryana Shiposh, Communication Campaign Manager, CEU4U Project at : [email protected] by January 7, 2024.

Technical review

All entries submitted before the set deadline will undergo a meticulous review process according to the specified technical requirements and criteria.

Requirements and criteria:

• Essays must be written in English only
• Contestants must write their essays with no guidance from others (no co-authorship allowed)
• Essays must be between 3500 – 4’000 characters (excluding spaces)
• Essays must be sent via email (required format – MS Word, font – Times New Roman, size – 14)
• Essays must not be previously published or otherwise made public prior to submission
• An essay must be the entirely original work by the individual contestant (plagiarism or abstracting other people’s opinions are not allowed, not the use of AI)
• Quotes are allowed but must be identified properly and not exceed 15% of the entire text; participants who use quotations should also add a link to the sources they used

Preliminary evaluation and shortlisting – January 15-28, 2024

All entries that have passed review will be submitted for preliminary evaluation and shortlisting by the ‘Communicating EU for Ukrainians’ (CEU4U) project team that provides communication support and implements communication campaigns to raise awareness among Ukrainians about the comprehensive support the European Union has been providing to Ukraine since the full-scale Russian war.

Evaluation criteria:

• relevance to the theme of the competition ( 1-10 points )
• general expertise and awareness of the events during and since Euromaidan 10 years ago ( 1-10 points )
• originality and style of one’s own ( 1-10 points )
• integrity, structure, and consistency ( 1-10 points )
• literacy ( 1-10 points )

Highest possible score per contestant from each member of the jury – 50 .

Please note that essays promoting violence, use hate speech, religious and ethnic enmity, containing political agitation, overting or coverting advertising of goods, services or organisations, promote bad habits (alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking) are not allowed into the competition and will be disqualified.

Based on the preliminary evaluation, 12 entries will be shortlisted.

Judging – January 29 – February 21, 2024

12 shortlisted entries will be submitted for judging by a jury of experts.

Judging criteria:

• relevance to the theme of the competition ( 1-5 points )
• general expertise and awareness of the events during and since Euromaidan 10 years ago ( 1-5 points )
• originality and style of one’s own ( 1-5 points )
• integrity, structure, and consistency ( 1-5 points )
• literacy ( 1-5 points )

Highest possible score per contestant from each member of the jury – 25 points.

Points received from the jury will be added up to identify the winners.

Based on judging, three contestants with highest scores will be the announced as the winners of the contest.

The jury has the right to propose additional nominations for participants who did not become winners, but whose works are considered valuable for their originality and/or other criteria.

The decisions of the organizers, the jury of the contest, including the results of voting (regardless of the methods of such voting), concerning the course of contest implementation and the determination of winners, etc., are final, not subject to appeal, clarification, cancellation, revision; all participants acknowledge, accept and agree to such decisions and warrant that they will refrain from questioning or challenging them in any way.

Awarding the winners – March 7, 2024

The winners will receive prizes, and their essays will be published in a special dedicated column of Ukrainska Pravda (prior consent will be requested from the winners for essay publication and photos).

The 12 shortlisted contestants will receive encouragement awards.

Additionally, all the contestants who have submitted their entries will receive gifts as keepsakes.

Closing provisions

In the event of a situation involving an ambiguous interpretation of these rules, any disputed issues and/or issues not regulated by these rules, the organizers reserve the right to resolve such issues themselves.

In case of force majeure circumstances, which make it impossible for the organizers to fulfill their obligations within the specified terms, new terms will be announced additionally on the website eu4ukraine.eu

On 7 March 2024, the EU Delegation to Ukraine hosted the Award Ceremony of the winners of the Essay Contest “10 years of Euromaidan: how European values determined the path of Ukraine”. The awards were delivered by the EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová.

142 works were submitted for the essay contest announced by the EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová to mark the 10th anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity and the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the EU and Ukraine. The authors of the essays are young Ukrainians aged 16 to 25. They shared their thoughts and visions of the development of the events during the 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity, their impact on Ukraine’s European and their personal future.

Following the preliminary evaluation by the Organising Committee, which made sure the essays met the announced technical criteria of the contest, 88 works were admitted to the contest, and 12 best essays were shortlisted and handed over for review to the jury, which consisted of the following members:

• Katarína Mathernová, EU Ambassador to Ukraine;
• Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine;
• Svitlana Zalishchuk, journalist, politician, public figure, human rights activist;
• Mustafa Nayyem, Head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, politician, public figure, journalist, one of the initiators of the Euromaidan;
• Ostap Stasiv, co-founder and head of the Open University of Maidan NGO, social entrepreneur, public figure;
• Dmytro Shulha, Director of the Europe and the World programme of the International Renaissance Foundation;
• Nataliia Khinotska, expert of the Roadmap for Engagement with the Civil Society in Ukraine II project;
• Roman Tychkivskiy, co-founder of the Open University of Maida and the Ukrainian Leadership Academy;
• Sevgil Musayeva, journalist, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.

On 21 February 2024, the jury completed their reviews of essays and determined the three winners of the Essay Contest “10 years of Euromaidan: how European values determined the path of Ukraine”.

The winners are:

• Shekurie Ramazanova (Bucha),
• Vladyslav Satsiuk (Kyiv),
• Yelyzaveta Khodorovska (Odesa).

What the papers say – August 29

The European Union takes much of the focus of Thursday’s front pages.

The Daily Mirror  and   The Independent both run with Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to hit reset on Brexit , with the Prime Minister meeting with German and French leaders to reforge ties with the EU.

The i reports EU leaders are eager to leverage Britain’s desire for a bolstered bond with the bloc, calling on the  Prime Minister to ease youth immigration rules in exchange.

Also in Brussels, the Financial Times reports the EU is to investigate Russian-owned encrypted texting service Telegram after concerns surfaced of falsified user data which may contravene the bloc’s digital regulations.

Moving onto immigration, The Guardian says a thinktank has claimed the then-Conservative-run Home Office “woefully understated” the cost of immigration to the British public during its time in office and has accused the Tories of a fiscal cover-up.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused the Prime Minister of “failing to act” on asylum seekers after more than 500 were intercepted crossing the English Channel on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Westminster, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail claim anti-motorist tax hikes could be on the way despite pre-election promises to the contrary.

The Times writes that Westminster has been warned that disaster would be “inevitable” if the Government chooses to release thousands of convicted criminals early to ease prison overcrowding.

The Sun splashes with a possible ban for both smokes and booze in beer gardens across the country.

Ryanair wants to impose alcohol restrictions on airline passengers after an uptick in alcohol-fuelled violence on planes, as per the front page of the Metro .

Lastly, the Daily Star runs with a tale on the lucky survival of a pilot and passenger after a glider crash-landed in the middle of a Gloucestershire motorway on Tuesday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Nicholas Kristof

Is Europe a Model for America? Or a Warning?

By Nicholas Kristof

Opinion Columnist

For liberals like me, Europe has often seemed a charmed place with sound lessons for America.

Europe softened the harshest edges of capitalism, provided safety nets and in important ways has exceeded the United States in well-being. European infants are less likely to die than those in America, childbirth is less dangerous in Europe than in the United States, and Europeans live longer.

Northern Europeans work less than Americans — only about 1,400 or 1,500 hours a year compared with 1,800 for Americans — and mostly enjoy universal health care, free or subsidized child care and solid public schools.

University education is often free or inexpensive. People place more value on abortion rights than gun rights, while avoiding ferocious so-called bathroom wars. If you flip burgers at a McDonald’s in Denmark , you’re paid more than $20 an hour, plus you enjoy six weeks of paid vacation, a year’s maternity leave and a pension plan. And a red Burgundy is almost as good as an Oregon pinot noir!

Yet it’s also only fair to point out that Europe is struggling today. The U.S. economy last year grew six times as fast as in the European Union, 2.5 percent to 0.4 percent .

The United States abounds with tech successes like Apple, Google and Meta, but there isn’t a single European company on one recent list of the world’s top 10 tech companies by market capitalization. One list of “unicorns” — start-ups worth more than $1 billion — shows that Africa’s smallest country, the Seychelles, has as many such firms (two) as Greece and almost as many as Italy or Belgium (three).

France offers almond croissants, luxury brands and an enviable way of life. But if it were a state, it would be one of the poorest per capita, on par with Arkansas.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .