At first sight the concept of a “European nationalism” would seem to be meaningless. At the very least it evokes either an empty abstraction or an impossible dilemma. Nationalism, after all, is tied to the nation (and vice versa), and although Europe is composed of nation-states, the European Union is presented as being an antinational construction, a-national at best, sometimes even as supranational. During the 1950s, the European founding fathers presented the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and then the European Economic Community (EEC) precisely as a means to suppress the oppressive and warlike nationalism that had plunged Europe into two internecine wars in less than a century. This theme created a confusion between nationalism and the idea of the nation, between nationalism and state sovereignty.

Today, however, European unification is no longer considered to be a step forward, nor for many people even a real necessity. The debate over the Maastricht Treaty has made things worse. On one side, the supporters of the treaty have turned most mentions of the national idea into diabolical references to a dark historical past, since these were the main arguments employed by the treaty's opponents. “Consolidating European unification is a modern way of limiting the damaging propensity of nations to become nationalist” was a recurring motto proclaimed in the name of a so-called European identity.