A few months ago, an expert on the European Union told me that one of the issues that had to be part of the agenda ahead of the upcoming elections to the EU Parliament should be to explain fruitfully to citizens that the EU is more than the sum of 27 states. “We have to make citizens understand that we are ‘Europeans’”, he said.

It was necessary to communicate that idea because the surge of nationalist parties implies a setback in the integration process, a return to the idea that the EU is a cooperation between states rather than a supranational organisation.

However, a week ahead of the elections, the concept of ‘European citizenship’, now more than 40 years old, is still difficult to grasp for most. And no wonder. While being European is not just about being part of a country on the continent, neither does voting in European elections mean voting for national political parties in an international parliament. And yet this is how political campaigns to the EU Parliament are framed at the moment. It’s then comprehensible that 91% of Europeans consider themselves attached to their countries, but only 58% do so with respect to Europe as a concept.

Meanwhile, the recent recognition of the Palestinian state by Norway, Ireland and Spain has also shone a spotlight on the positions taken by other European countries.

And, on a lighter note, it’s spring and the birds are singing in the hope of finding a mate. A team of researchers has studied that the type of songs that certain bird species sing is determined not only by their social context but also by their genes. Thus, a song of a bird born in Stockholm but of Dutch origin would still have traces of its Dutch ancestors, even if its melody resembled that of its Swedish contemporaries.