Abstract

In this paper I’ll try to understand what the notion of European identity, especially means during the period after 1945, considering Europe’s political splitting in Western and Eastern Europe. The final purpose is to give an answer to the following question: in what extent can one speak of a European identity considering the premises and conditions that allowed East European former communist countries to enter the European Community? In order to give an answer to the question I’ve decided to start with Milan Kundera’s text “The tragedy of Central Europe” where he supports the idea that Europe “ cannot be defined and determined by political frontiers , but by the great common situations , the same common tradition. . The outlooks I’ll consider are the political, the historical and the cultural ones. Culturally speaking things look different. If the unity of today’s Europe can be justified by common rules that have to be obeyed and implemented, what is going to happen to the cultural identity?