At a time when the European Union’s future is dominated by uncertainties, the role of the citizens in supporting this ambitious project and securing its continuity seems to become more important than ever before. The fact that today’s teenagers are coming of age at a time when the EU is facing one of its most severe crisis is not without consequences since adolescence is considered a decisive period for the developing of a (supra)national identity. Thus, the present emipirical study addresses a segment of the young population – 11 and 12-grade students – which is often left out of surveys which generally focus on university students when trying to establish the views or profile of the European youth. The paper aims to deterimine the degree of identification with the European Union of Romanian teenagers and their image of this political entity. From the large body of literature on European identity, the study focuses on the national-European dichotomy supporting the theory of multiple identities according to which national and European identity are not oposing concepts since people can hold more than one identity which, pending on circumstances, vary in saliency. Moreover, the paper tackles three different approaches on European identity: cultural identity – which refers mostly to the European continent and is based on the exlusion on non-Europeans – civic identity – which refers to citizenhip norms and constitutional order – and instrumental identity – which rests on the pragmantic costs-benefits analysis. Resorting to a quantitative research methode, the paper presents the findings of a survey carried out in six Romanian high schools and targeted at 11 and 12-grade students. The findings reveal if the teenagers see themselves as Europeans, their degree of attachment to the European project and the values associated to it.
