From the 4 to the 17 of April, students of the 3d and the 4th years of the French philology department carried out their projects in the framework of Module 4 "National and European Identity" (Identité nationale et européenne).

The implementation of the module aimed to achieve a number of objectives:

These goals were achieved during the lecture and the project work on the following topics:

  1. National and European Identity in the EU Member States (Identité nationale et identité européenne dans les Etats-membres de l’UE).
    The project was carried out by the students of the 3d year (Theory and Practice of Translation) Anton Mezhov and Anna Voronova. After analyzing the results of polls called Eurobarometer, held annually by the European Commission, the students came to the conclusion that the legal framework and freedom of movement are the major elements of European identity. However, national identity is often dominant in the EU member countries.

  2. Is the language an essential element of identity? (Langue, élément indispensable de l’identité?).
    Two students of the 3d year Ulker Verdiyeva and Anastasia Kisel (Theory and Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching) searched for the answer to this question. They examined various points of view and theories treating the subject and analyzed the EU’s policy in the field of foreign languages teaching in the light of its role in fostering the European identity in the EU plurilingual space.

  3. Euroscepticism and independence movements in Europe (Euroscepticisme et mouvements indépendantistes en Europe).
    This theme was discussed in the presentation prepared by the 3rd year student Ksenia Romanenkova. She highlighted the aspects of the EU functioning which are mainly criticized by Eurosceptics, and considered the national identity as a basis for the desire of independence in some European countries. As a result, Ksenia came to the conclusion that the EU member countries are to intensify the work on fostering the European identity.

  4. The EU instruments used to foster the European identity (Instruments de l’UE pour constituer l’identité européenne).
    The work on the project was performed by the 3rd year students (Theory and Practice of Translation) Sophia Domareva and Christina Lukanova. They studied the main areas of implementation of the EU policy which contributes to fostering the European identity (economic, military, education) and reviewed the measures taken in this area.

In their feedback all the students expressed their motivation to further discover aspects of EU functioning. They pointed out some difficulties in selecting and synthesizing useful information from so many sources and in understanding texts with lots of specific terminology.