Europe is not a nation writ large nor a community built on a single language, a single memory or a single historical experience. Its distinctiveness lies precisely in having built a common political project out of different histories, at times wounded, contradictory and even in conflict with one another.
Perhaps the mistake has been to assume that a European identity can only emerge from what everyone shares in equal measure. Political identities are not built solely on points of overlap. They are also forged in the ability to recognise as one’s own what others contribute to the whole.
