GENERATION EU (GenEU): The development of European identity and implications for social cohesion and peace

2026-07-22

Youth in Europe may be the first generation of native EU citizens in their country; their support for and identification with Europe are essential for peace on the continent. Identity formation is an essential development task across the lifespan; yet in middle childhood and early adolescence, there is low identity complexity. Therefore, it is essential to understand how children and adolescents develop and identify with superordinate categories (e.g. being European), and the impact of those identities on individual (e.g. well-being, civic engagement) and societal outcomes (e.g. social cohesion, peace). GENERATION EU (GenEU) has three aims. First, GenEU will explore the development and predictors of European identity within and between countries, regions, and social groups, alongside changes over time. Second, GenEU will investigate the impact of European identity – on individual children and adolescents, as well as on society as whole. Third, a paradox of inclusion is often excluding others. GenEU will trace the potential unintended negative consequences or backlash effects of European identity. To assess causal processes and change over time, the GenEU combines field experiments, qualitative archives, a longitudinal survey, historical cross-national surveys, and large-scale quantitative text analysis. Case selection not only enables understanding changes and processes across developmental periods (WP2 childhood; WP3 adolescence), but also across cohorts and generations using historical data (WP3 22 years, WP4 80 years). Essential for robust inference, research designs have strategic variability (e.g. EU generation; violent conflict or not). Finally, tackling the research challenge (i.e. what is European identity and how does it work?), GenEU will generate a new comprehensive model and interdisciplinary data and tools. These have implications for European social cohesion and peace, as well as for other global regional identities (e.g. African Union, ASEAN).

Ireland

2026-03-01