"Being a European" by Timothy Garton Ash

From "TIME", special issue "Visions of Europe", winter 1998-1999, p. 106-107:

Ever since the term "Europeans" was first used, in the time of Charlemagne, its interpretation has been disputed. What does it mean to be a European today? For those on other continents, it may simply mean the people who live on this one. But there are an awful lot of people living here, from Norfolk farmers to Sicilian taxi drivers, who don't identify themselves as "Europeans."
There are also two more demanding senses of being "a European." First, there is someone who has a positive feeling of belonging to a wider historical, cultural and human community, as well as to his or her national, regional and local ones. Having traveled constantly in Europe for more than 20 years, I feel this very strongly. Europe, my Europe, is the old marketplace in Cracow, Berlin's Friedriclistrasse on a gray winter's evening, mad Naples and a Greek island.

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