'The Creator of Europe, " Karel Capek wrote in the 1920s, "made her small and even split her up into little parts, so that our hearts could find joy not in size but in plurality." The Czech writer's conception may be fanciful, but it incorporates an important truth: if we cherish the idea of Europe it is not because the EU is a great power but because it is diverse and culturally rich, and because multiplicity is part of its essence.
A survey carried out for the European Year of Cultural Heritage (2019) found that 78 per cent of Irish people attributed a high value to the distinctiveness and diversity of European culture; yet simultaneously 55 per cent thought there was no such thing, only “global Western culture”. It is common enough for polls to throw up such contradictions. But does European culture really exist, in addition to national cultures?
The EU thinks so, but its Maastricht Treaty pledge to respect national diversity while fostering "the common cultural heritage" seems to foresee a possible conflict. Also, when speaking of this common heritage, Eurocrats often appear tongue-tied, with little more to offer than a list of names: Michelangelo, Cervantes, Beethoven, Voltaire, as if to say "here's one for Italy. Spain. Germany. France. "
As Europe, facing many challenges, seeks things to bind it together, it should not forget that its common cultural heritage could be an important asset
But in fact there is a European culture which is more than just an aggregate of national ones, a force that has operated since Christianity and Latin learning united the continent, through the Renaissance, which flourished in Tuscany and Flanders before spreading to Germany, France, Poland, Hungary and Scotland; through the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Modernism. A not untypical product of this cross-fertilisation took shape in 1787 when a Spanish story, adapted by a Jewish Italian and an Austrian, was triumphantly premiered by Bohemian musicians and Italian singers in Prague: Mozart's Don Giovanni.
As Europe, facing many challenges, seeks things to bind it together, it should not forget that its common cultural heritage could be an important asset.