First, the same religious beliefs. Unified Christian culture has become the ideological basis of contemporary European identity and integration.

Second, * * * the same values. The French Revolution clarified and spread the idea of civil rights, gradually formed the basic connotation of freedom and democracy, and initiated the modern revolution, which was a model of democratization in western European countries later.

Third, the same institutional norms. After World War II, almost all countries in Western Europe established parliamentary democracy. The principles of democracy and legal system, such as constitutionalism, separation of powers, universal suffrage, representative system, judicial independence and supremacy of law, determine the legal construction and institutional setup of European integration and become the universal norms of people's daily behavior.

To some extent, European countries have similar or similar cultural traditions and history. It is under the impetus of this same or similar culture that European countries finally realize that unity is the right choice for common interests after long-term development and ups and downs. Therefore, when discussing the relationship between European culture and European integration, some scholars believe that European integration has a profound cultural mechanism, and the cultural basis of European integration is the similarity, homology and identity of European national cultures. In the sense of European national traditional culture, European integration is actually the result of the recognition of Greek culture, Roman law and Christian ethical culture.

1, ancient Greek and Roman civilization

The first step towards modern civilization in Europe began with ancient Greek culture. The ancient Greeks became the source and foundation of European culture with their achievements in philosophy, mathematics, natural science and polis. Due to the strong influence of ancient Greek culture, even today's European elites often "say what is Greece" when talking about their own culture. As for Greek culture, as some scholars have pointed out, loving truth and reason is the core of Greek culture. Therefore, European culture does not develop freely along the main line of this stable spiritual core, and eventually becomes one of the basic elements of European national cultural identity.

In fact, although most of the culture, art and technology in the late Roman civilization were not as good as those in Greek civilization, Roman civilization had a great influence on the political, economic and cultural development of Europe. The concepts of representative system and citizenship in Europe can be traced back to Roman times. Roman law, in particular, is not only the first written law known so far, but also the basic concept source of modern European law. In fact, the emergence of any law is rooted in the actual situation of national development and evolution in this country. Therefore, some scholars believe that European integration, from the perspective of traditional culture, actually has rich fruits of today's Roman law tradition. It can be said that without the national genes and cultural recognition of Roman law, the integration of Europe may be difficult to achieve and may go through a longer and more arduous course.

Samuel huntington, a famous American professor, also believes that the West has gained many heritages from classical civilization, including Greek philosophy and rationalism, Roman law, Latin and Christianity. Islamic civilization and Orthodox civilization have also inherited classical civilization, but in any respect, their degree is far less than that of the West.

At the end of 1980s, with the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, some Central and Eastern European countries began to align themselves with Western Europe and applied to join the European family. In the qualification examination of Central and Eastern European countries, Western Europe believes that the inheritance of ancient Greek and Roman civilization and the cultural identity of modern western democratic systems and ideas developed on this basis are the specific conditions for those countries wishing to join the European Union. Therefore, in order to join the EU as soon as possible, many Central and Eastern European countries have made political transition according to the model of establishing modern democratic system proposed by the EU, so as to achieve some consistency with Western Europe in political civilization. Among them, Poland, Hungary and Austria, which joined the EU earlier, were more successful in the transition.

2. Christian culture

In the eyes of Europeans, Christ is the savior of all mankind and the embodiment of equality. The basic ethics of Christianity is "everyone is equal before God". This belief has been deeply dissolved in the blood of all ethnic groups in Europe for thousands of years. Some scholars have pointed out that although religion has been the cause of turmoil, conflicts and wars for many times in European history, the "religious integration" led by Christianity is much earlier than today's European integration. Christianity has been expanding outward since the Roman emperor Constantine declared its legal status in 3 13. It not only spreads all over Europe, but also becomes the main spiritual pillar and representative culture of Europeans.

In fact, throughout the history of Europe, Europeans used Christianity not only as a tool for plunder and slavery, but also as a tool to awaken the weak to resist the strong and promote reconciliation between the winners and losers. Christianity puts forward that "everyone is equal before God". Whether rural or urban, poor or rich, official or folk, no matter which country or nationality, they are all bathed in the same Christian cultural atmosphere. Some scholars point out that this atmosphere (Christian culture) is even regularly reflected in mass on rest days and prayers at the table. It is with this strong religious belief and culture that Europe has always had a centripetal force. European integration is developed in this cultural identity.

3. Language homogeneity

Although European countries generally have their own national languages, the national languages of mainstream European countries generally belong to Norman (Latin), Germanic and Slavic languages in Indo-European languages. Many scholars believe that the homology of European national languages is not only reflected in the fact that all languages are converted into written languages through letters, but more importantly, the influence and integration between them. They pointed out that Germanic English was greatly influenced by Norman Latin and French during its formation, and many words have been preserved to this day. Dutch and Flemish (Belgium), both Germanic languages, have the same written language, but their spoken languages belong to different dialects. Therefore, this homology is more obvious in the national languages of Slavic family. What's more, in the history of Europe, with the expansion of the Roman Empire, there has been a trend of Latinization of national languages. In fact, since modern times, French has been popular in the upper class in Europe, but with the strength of Britain, English has gradually become a more common language in Europe and even the world. It is precisely because of the homology of European national languages that it greatly facilitates the study and communication between European ethnic groups and provides a solid foundation and premise for the development of European integration.

Some scholars have pointed out that Europe has the same cultural identity, and these cultural identities with obvious regional identity can be called regional cultural identity. It is this regional cultural identity that constitutes the basic premise of European integration and makes it deepen and expand continuously.