A History of European Integration as an Element of the EU Memory Policies
The article analyzes the forms and features of the use of the history of European integration in the EU memory policy. The author notes the difficulty of forming a collective historical memory at the European level, given the supranational nature of the European Union. With the beginning of integration processes in Western Europe, the governments of the participating countries made a number of attempts to create symbols of a united Europe, such as the common capital, the flag, the anthem, the Day of Europe’ celebration. At the same time, the author admits insufficient implementation of the symbols of European integration in the formation of collective identity until the late 1990s. An appeal to the history of European integration was observed in the crisis years mainly, such as the stagnation of the European economy against the background of the oil crises of the 1970s, the failure of the French and Netherlands referenda on the EU Constitution in 2005, etc. The author comes to the conclusion that the history of European integration, being one of the ways to reproduce collective identity, is inferior in its significance to such historical topics as the Second World War or the Holocaust.