I don't understand why you would compare "having a shared set of values" and "bitching about contribution and payback". Yes, the feeling of "being a European" has gotten weaker every year, especially since the financial crisis, but this is not what I was talking about.

The shared attachement to democracy, peace, to solidarity versus exacerbated nationalism, refusing death penalty, of some version of social democracy in the broad sense of the term, is much stronger than what divides us.