What options for a Nordic identity do we have?

With the British backing off from a referendum on the EU constitution people around Europe, from north to south and east to west, ask themselves what dimension of their sense of European identity can provide the supportive base for the shared constitution. A constitution for a continent is not a political or administrative producte. It should be anchored in the depth of the minds and touch the innermost feelings of what we are and what it means to be European. It is also a necessary vision for the future - about how we want to see the world develop and how we feel we want to help it evolve. Not only the directions and dimensions needs to be addressed and manifested by cultural symbols - as we see today in Sweden and Norway. Carl Bildt gives you the details behind today's celebration in his comments "June 6 and Sweden" at http://bildt.blogspot.com . And Björn Lindahl presents - in Svenska Dagbladet June 7 - an important analysis of the economic synergy that both countries can enjoy by a closer exchange. The article also covers the role of the Swedish Wallenberg family in financing major infrastructure investments at a time when Norway had to recover from deep problems.

The point is that you can cut the cake in two ways: there is the north-south dimension but also the 'transversal' east-west dimension, an alikeness in latitude and perhaps mentality - if due to history and climate alike I leave it to you to decide. And that it would be useful and give a more sustainable result to keep much more of these delineations on the cultureal map in mind when drawing the constitution for Europe. The jerk reflex that ministers fear most is notheing but a natural reaction against a premature proposal and a development driven by agendas beyond peoples' sense of all too hastily constructed and too grandious identity. A constitution must be a solution to problems so specific and concrete that they are felt as a reality in the tiniest corners of citizens' kitchen. This is why grand visions are dangerous if not really supported by the powerful emotions that a sense of identity can provoke.