Le mode de vie Européen dans l'ombre de la covid-19: Perspectives Hongroises

Abstract

Have we ever considered living our lives relatively simultaneously in all parts of Europe? We start and end our days roughly at the same time, as there is only a three-hour time lag between the westernmost and easternmost points of Europe. Do we have anything else in common in our everyday lives? Is there a common European way of life? If so, what exactly does that mean? What does Europeanness mean? Does it have a common content, a concept that can be called uniform? What does the term European identity mean? Is it the same as the European way of life?
Our study revolves around the topic of European identity, European values, and lifestyles, which was presented in the “Promoting our way of Life” portfolio in December 2019 by Ursu-la von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. Vice-President Margaritis Schinas is responsible for the portfolio, together with other four key policies. Our study presents the concept and implementation of the European way of life in the shadow of the fight against the new type of coronavirus that arrived in Europe at the dawn of 2020, including Member States’ restrictive measures affecting our ways of life.
The European Union is unique among international organisations: it can be seen as a sui gen-eris entity rather than a classical international organisation. Its uniqueness is that it forms a unit from the outside, but an extremely heterogeneous community from the inside. From the inside, we perceive and amplify the differences between nations much better for the EU than we do for our similarities. If we were to ask a person from a third country, it is unlikely that he would mention the sharp differences between individual European nations. The foundation of our unity is based in part on our common historical traditions, in part on the millennial uni-fying role and determinant of the Christian religion, and in part on respect for democracy.
The political position between states has never been genuinely unified. The differing views were organically related to the form and extent of cooperation and the states involved. Pro-posals have also been made several times to move towards a federal Europe, but there has never been a political-social consensus for that concept. Regarding the degree of cooperation, there are many examples of differentiated integration in certain areas. It is no coincidence that the concepts related to two- or multi-speed Europe − which have been present in reality for more than thirty years, − have also entered the political-legal-social public consciousness. Just as there was no uniform vision of the degree of cooperation in European integration, so we can name only mandatory and additional conceptual elements regarding Europeanness and European identity. In the following, we present the concepts of European identity and a common European way of life.