Talking about EU: European identity and the Publication Office of the European Union

In this paper we tackle the concept of European identity and the way in which it is communicated by the Publication Office of the European Union. We downloaded the publications of the Publication Office labelled with ‘European Identity’, and we analysed them through Topic Modelling, eliciting six topics that constitute those documents. We analysed these topics against the different dimensions of European Identity, as described by literature: the civic component of the European identity is partly represented by a topic dealing with the rule of law and National and European identities. The cultural dimension of the European identity characterises analysed documents to a wider extent, as three topics deal with common history, heritage, and culture. In particular, a topic connecting European identity with common cultural values and education is the more used in our sample of documents, and the one which is characterising more and more these documents over time. We argue that this trend signals a particular emphasis by the European Union in identifying European Identity with shared cultural values that can be taught.