European ... and Loving It!

    

   We must admit that in these days most of us would deem the entire world as our home. Well, or at least on a smaller scale, the entire Europe. Borders seem to have vanished, at least mentally, and most of us have a far bigger curiosity and willingness to discover the "other". Today is an important day for the European Union - exactly 64 years ago, on the 9th of May 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman presented his proposal to create a structured Europe. Since then, the European Union has grown into 28 member states, and most probably it will not stop here.

  Many of us have controversial feelings about the EU, whether this cohesion is good or bad - politically, economically and even culturally. Many people say that they were better off without their country being in the EU.  And, truth be told, there are still various discrepancies and disadvantages from the economic and political points of view.

  But what about the cultural aspect of being European? If there is one factor that brings conciliation where others fail, that is culture. We have  different regions, countries, languages, traditions, all brought together and enhanced by the freedom of movement of the population. Thanks to the EU legislation, travelling and even settling in another country has become easier than ever before. However, is that not a threat to a nation's, or even an individual's cultural identity? I would say it is not, because by these intercultural interactions becoming more frequent and more intense, every one of us would feel more propense to promote and defend their own cultural identity, whilst at the same time being open to learn about the other. 

   What does it mean for myself personally? When Romania joined the European Union I was already a young adult who had already had foreign experiences, and who had been "suffering" the previous restrictions that were applied to non-EU countries: the hassle of obtaining a visa, higher university fees, limiting employment policies, and so forth. Now all these restrictions have disappeared, and what were they replaced by? An even more intense whirlwind of travel and discovery after 2007. I arrived to places I had never visited before, and met people of all European nationalities (both EU and non-EU, to be specific). And I discovered that, to a larger or smaller extent, there are always at least a couple of details about out cultures that are similar and that bring us together. And, come to think of it, even Romania is at a cross-roads between various countries and cultures. I couldn't say exactly how much of our culture and traditions is 100% ours, but we are definitely "a bit of all", and I am sure the feeling is the same in other countries too. Our language is latin, our religion is orthodox, our cuisine is a mix of balcanic, Eastern-European and Austro-Hungarian, and as far as our traditions are concerned... we could go on for ever. 

    So maybe, in the end, we are all fundamentally European, history has made us all interract at some point, in more or less friendly ways. We all learnt from each other, but we have always kept something unique to our own country and culture. All I can say is... Happy Europe Day! Happy Birthday Europe, and let us co-exist and keep discovering each other for many, many generations to come!