The first in an occasional series of quotes worth pondering at greater length while in search of a European identity:

“Peace, solidarity and cooperation are only conceivable among peoples and nations who know who they are… If I don’t know who I am, who I want to be, what I want to achieve, where I begin and where I end, then my relations with the people around me and the world at large will inevitably be tense, suspicious and burdened by an inferiority complex that may go hidden behind puffed-up bravura.”

(Vaclav Havel, quoted in Geert Mak, In Europe: Travels through the twentieth century, p.48)