This paper attempts to unpack the relationship between national/European identity and attitudes towards differentiation in two old member states, one relatively new member state and one candidate country (France, Germany, Czech Republic, Turkey) through a critical analysis of political discourses produced in these countries in response to four select instances of differentiation in the EU (fiscal compact, migration crisis, Brexit, PESCO). By employing primary research, the study finds that there is no single and monolithic national identity which produces a uniform attitude towards differentiated integration in member and candidate states, but rather that competing domestic national identity narratives produce differing attitudes within a state on differentiated integration. These national identity narratives can translate into starkly different policy positions concerning the policy area that is subject to differentiated integration, as well as being (re)produced/enacted through the policy positions adopted on instances of differentiation.
