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Does Europe include Turkey, Americanization and Africanization?

Natalia Forrest - 10/26/2005

What does it mean to be a European? The European Union itself is grappling with this question for six months of debate, and finally this December a special conference on European values will be held in the Netherlands. But how relevant is this discussion for the EU? While the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende "thinks that it is high time to confront questions such as 'what does it mean to be a European' in a serious way… there is a great danger that the lack of legitimacy of the EU will eventually lead to unpleasant situations, such as the disintegration of the EU"( Beunderman: 2004), recently an article in the Economist argued that, "With many more members and increasingly diverging interests, a one-size Europe may no longer fit all."(Economist: 2004)

But this important question will continue to be in focus over the acceptance of Turkey. While much of the discussion may be over issues of trade and refugees, at its core is a fundamental question - is Turkey really a European nation?

A logical argument, you might say: with a population of almost half a billion people who have distinct languages, cultures and histories, not to mention national economic, security and development interests, perhaps the EU really has spread itself too thinly. You can always get countries to work together for a shared economic goal, yet you are not going to get them to set aside cultural differences lightly. Or are you? For every argument that the EU is only an economic tool of the bean-counters in Brussels, there is someone like Nick Butler arguing, "Cultural Europe, driven by television and technology, is already more unified than Economic Europe." (Butler: 1996) Even if this second statement is true, what is 'Cultural Europe'?

European culture isn't Asian: An obvious one you would think. And yet, where does this place Russia? While not a member of the EU (yet) Russia shares much of Europe's common heritage in regards to art, literature, even language (prior to the Communist revolution, French used to be accepted as the lingua franca of the Russian court and intellectuals). Moscow and St. Petersburg could be considered 'European' cities. And yet Russia stretches across the Asian continent to the Pacific. There is also the case of Turkey. While Talleyrand may have claimed that "Europe stops at the Pyrenees" (quoted in Kurth: 1993, p. 225) most Europeans believe that the definition of Europe may have stretched a little further. So does it stretch to a country that has borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria? To a country with a language that is closely related to Mongolian and Korean, and has only been written in Latin text since the early 20th century? If so, where should the line be drawn - where does Europe stop and Asia begin?

European culture isn't African: Unlike Asia, there is a body of water separating Europe and Africa. None of the countries applying for membership of the EU could conceivably be called 'African'. Yet there is an element of the EU population that is African - official figures indicate that in Europe, "out of a total of 11 million foreigners (not counting people from the European Union), 3 million are from Africa. The African continent is thus the primary region of origin of immigrants present in the European Union." (Institut de recherché pour le développement: 1997) Among West Africans in Europe more than 60% are young adults aged 20 to 39. (Ibid) While Africa may not be considered a major force in shaping European culture today, the demographics of a young African population amongst an aging 'European' one means that there is a good chance that European culture will come to reflect more and more the rising number of Africans residing there.

European culture isn't American: This one is probably the most contentious. Despite the best efforts of the Academie Francais, 'Americanisms' manage to slip into the French language, just as they do into all European languages. English continues to dominate the EU, and this is not exclusively due to the power of Great Britain - the domination of American culture has meant that the language of the US is becoming the global lingua franca despite the best efforts of some. While the languages of all EU member states are regarded as equal, "English is the language which is most widely "spoken" in the EU. While it is the mother tongue for 16% of the European population, a further 31% of the EU citizens speak it well enough to hold a conversation." (EUROPA: 2004) This will probably aid them at the local cinema: "of the films watched in cinemas across Europe, 70% of them are from the US, 20% are from the country they are watched in, and only 10% are from other European countries." (BBC News: 2004) This is along with television, print and music from the United States beaming in to homes throughout Europe.

But even this is highly contentious, as many people will disagree with at least some of the above statements. This brings into focus how ill-defined the idea of what the European culture is - if you can't definitely say what isn't 'Cultural Europe,' then you have nothing to define it against. As former French prime minister Michel Rocard recently argued, 'the Europe of institutions was built without any reference to a particular vision of society…. There was no agreement on the intention or the need to adopt such a vision, nor on what it could have meant, not at the beginning of the integration process and not today' (Rocard: 2004) The EU has continued to operate as though its cultural identity is a given, only now deciding to convene to discuss this important part of its make-up. The economists may have brought about an organization that unites Europe in a common economic bloc, but perhaps the idea of a homogenous 'Europe' is bound to fail. Yet this is not necessarily a bad thing, as a Europe that is flexible about its identity has the fluidity to be whatever is required as times change.