The euro and Europe's blurring borders
On 1 January 2002 the experience of travelling in Europe changed completely.
The introduction of euro notes and coins, following the withdrawal of EU internal border controls, removed one of the key sensations of crossing from one country to another.
If you set off from Hamburg, Calais, Malaga, or Brindisi you can now drive for days without necessarily ever finding out how many countries you have passed through.
You pay in euros - and you can leave your passport buried in your luggage.
Europe's unity, or at least the EU's, is now almost as obvious as its diversity.
Click to see what European identity means to people in Berlin, Brussels, Warsaw and London
In pictures
How does this affect the way people think about Europe?
Opinion polls conducted for the EU in 2002 found about 60% of people in euroland agreeing that by using euros "we feel a bit more European than before".
Other polls show that when people are asked what the EU means to them personally, the euro is one of the most common answers.
"If your money talks Europe that has immense symbolic value," says Professor Thomas Risse of the Free University in Berlin.
"You cannot have European identity in the abstract, you need something concrete that people can see in their lives."
The existing markers of Europe as a civic or political entity (rather than a historical/cultural one) are the flag, and the currency.
Read the rest of the article on the BBC website (link above).
On 1 January 2002 the experience of travelling in Europe changed completely.
The introduction of euro notes and coins, following the withdrawal of EU internal border controls, removed one of the key sensations of crossing from one country to another.
If you set off from Hamburg, Calais, Malaga, or Brindisi you can now drive for days without necessarily ever finding out how many countries you have passed through.
You pay in euros - and you can leave your passport buried in your luggage.
Europe's unity, or at least the EU's, is now almost as obvious as its diversity.
Click to see what European identity means to people in Berlin, Brussels, Warsaw and London
In pictures
How does this affect the way people think about Europe?
Opinion polls conducted for the EU in 2002 found about 60% of people in euroland agreeing that by using euros "we feel a bit more European than before".
Other polls show that when people are asked what the EU means to them personally, the euro is one of the most common answers.
"If your money talks Europe that has immense symbolic value," says Professor Thomas Risse of the Free University in Berlin.
"You cannot have European identity in the abstract, you need something concrete that people can see in their lives."
The existing markers of Europe as a civic or political entity (rather than a historical/cultural one) are the flag, and the currency.
Read the rest of the article on the BBC website (link above).