In an article for the International Herald Tribune, Katrin Bennhold ties the development of a new European identity to the European university foreign exchange program, Erasmus, which has enabled 1.2 million university students to study abroad since 1987. Around one-third of Europeans between the ages of 21 and 35 claim they consider themselves “more European than German, French or Italian,” Bennhold writes, citing a Time magazine survey from 2001. Professor of Political Science Stefan Wolff, of the University of Bath, refers to them as the “Erasmus generation.”

With the birth of the European Union, many university students not only study outside their country of origin, but also elect to remain in their host country to work after graduation, according to Bennhold. Erasmus has grown from 3,000 grants in 1987 to a current 136,000 grants to study abroad per year. And as Bennhold points out, the impact subsidized exchange opportunities may have upon the newest members of the European Union is significant. Participation in Erasmus programs has increased by a third among the new Eastern European EU members since their admittance to the EU one year ago to a current 20,000 students. Wolff’s hopes for the future are high:

“For the first time in history, we’re seeing the seeds of a truly European identity … Give it 15, 20, or 25 years, and Europe will be run by leaders with a completely different socialization from those of today. I’m quite optimistic that in the future there will be less national wrangling, less Brussels-bashing, and more unity in EU policy making – even if that is hard to picture today.”