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Chapter 10 addresses the problem of transnational solidarity, and argues that a European form is possible. Contrary to positions which assume that pre-political cultural identity precedes civic identity, Eberl argues that the process which generates solidarity moves in the opposite direction: civic identity is the result of democratic institutions. He shows that the exclusive transnational realisation of solidarity by European member states causes paradoxes. Transnational solidarity is ‘parasitic’ to national solidarity. Without loosening this dependence, European solidarity will always be trapped in the paradox of subsisting transnational mobility by national solidarity which constrains the emergence of European solidarity. What is needed is a supranational layer of social rights in the form of direct payments to individuals which will overcome the contradictory structure of EU citizens’ transnational mobility and state citizens’ national solidarity.

Chapter 7 analyses the role of shifting borders on communities and identities in Europe and the quest for republican EU citizenship and polity. In order to encapsulate the various roles as well as possible struggles and challenges that stem from the existence of competing identities during the new nation-state formations and/or changes to existing polity boundaries, the analysis reaches out for a more comprehensive study of citizenship regimes. This approach makes it possible to focus on various non-formal and formal areas of social life within which the issues of identity and inclusion/exclusion from a polity are prominent. Considering the building of European identity, Hlou_ek and Koska argue that it is most important to develop EU standards of legal protection concerning human rights’ issues which are not perceived as concurring with domestic standards and will not create conflict between popular perceptions regarding national state and EU roles.

Chapter 6 analyses the ambiguous relation between rights and citizenship in the EU on the potential of EU citizenship to transform consumer rights into consumer citizenship. He holds the relationship between citizenship and rights in general as ambiguous: any concept of citizenship rests on rights, whereas rights do not necessarily constitute citizenship. The European Community has shaped rights for quite a long time. The treaties constitute rights of free movement and citizenship; the European Court of Justice (ECJ) extracted fundamental rights from member states’ shared traditions; and, through directives, a range of statutory rights have been crafted, for instance consumer rights and worker rights as well as other economic and social rights. As the European market developed, the traditional way of informal policy-making and insider networks in the EU no longer worked. Thus, more formal and legalistic rules proved to be an equivalent that helped maintain the growing market sphere.

Chapter 4 addresses the common historical origins and the conflicting social logics of the ‘market’ and the ‘polis’. It relates these issues to the context of European cooperation and integration, critically reconstructing the founding history of the EU: the hope that integration of national markets into one single European market would produce shared material interests and, in turn, prevent any major future inter-state conflicts as the first half of the 20th century had seen. Some 60 years later European integration through the further internationalisation of markets has increased the choice for consumers, workers and investors. However, in the polis the influence of choice has been reduced. Liberalisation and privatisation policies have diminished the authority of political actors. It is concluded that a liberalisation policy carried to the extreme leaves no more room for a political domain, which would be a real ‘tragedy of the commons’.

Chapter 11 relates to the dispute about ‘more or less Europe’ and sets out to ‘justify Europe’. We need a European Union, a common market, a European public authority, a European democracy for reasons of social justice, Van Parijs argues; and we must be prepared to pressure, to protest and to march in the streets for that as we did in our respective nation states. He shows why the European Union suffers at the moment from criticism of a democracy deficit, and gives recommendations of how to transform the EU into a real demos-cracy. The problem for Europeans trying to mobilize across borders is that they do not share a common language. But the spread of English as a lingua franca supports the hope that they will be able to talk to each other, and that the EU is not bound to drift into ever-greater injustice.

Chapter 2 analyses the historical origins of local and national citizenship constructions, discussing their implications for EU citizenship. Relations between national and local as well as political and economic dimensions vary significantly between countries. This means that policies to develop an EU citizenship which uses an idealised national citizenship as its frame of reference will inevitably be at odds with the variety of citizenship traditions existing in many countries. At the same time, the pluriformity of Europe’s citizenship traditions also provides an opportunity. Instead of starting from scratch, therefore, by trying to develop a completely new centralised form of citizenship the EU would be better advised to acknowledge the national traditions of its Member States and aspire to a multilevel form of citizenship.

Chapter 8 addresses the question of whether or not EU citizenship can integrate multi-layered identities. EU citizenship has introduced much complexity with regard to who is an insider and who is an outsider. While the EU has tried to provide equal treatment to nationals who live in another member state, strict limitations have been enforced on third-country citizens who move to an EU country. This different treatment has resulted in different categories of citizens – a situation that is often difficult to manage. Cheneval and Ferr'n propose a comparison between several case studies and the European Union. It is argued that the varieties of multilevel citizenship can shed some light on possible developments for European citizenship which can help overcome some of the obstacles Europeans face nowadays when trying to exercise their rights.