1.Karadeniz ve Balkan Ekonomik ve Politik Araştırmalar Sempozyumu

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Knowledge For Synchronization and Durability
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genuinely derives from Europeans or are they up-high institutionally generated and implemented according to
political goals?
The core values of European Union, stated at the very beginning of the Treaty of Lisbon as in the Charter of
Fundamental Rights are: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and the respect for human
rights ).
Lisbon Treaty, entered into force on the first of December 2009 is the legal base for European values promotion.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights enumerates all present recognized rights of Europeans. European model bases
on common rights and values as are believed to create a sense of identity to the European family for its citizens.
The main directions are enriched with more specific ones like social justice and protection, the fight against social
exclusion and discrimination. EU states the will to promote humanist and progressive values and to guarantee
the benefits of global context for individuals. It also recognize that people needs cannot be solely satisfied through
market mechanisms nor singular national actions. In this regard EU model appears as the assertion of majority’s
values: rich cultural heritage, human rights, social solidarity, freedom of enterprise, equitable distribution, clean
environment, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, and a harmonious blend of traditions with modernity.
These values promotion and, why not saying, implementation, together with traditional peace and well-being of
the European Union’s members appear to be the main goals for economical and social oriented policies.
3. What European Behavior Means?
In order to perceive and subsequent evaluate and analyze individual opinion’s a Euro barometer and research on
European values was conducted since 1973. The European Barometer 69
archives/eb/eb69/eb69_values_en.pdf) and 79
ue_en.pdf) surveys and The European Atlas ) provide an insight into
the values and attitudes of today’s 500 million Europeans.
Surveying the closeness of Member States in terms of values supports the statement a relative majority of Europe-
ans continue to think that, in terms of shared values, EU Member States are close to each other but somehow the
positive opinion on sharing common values figures declined since the EB69 survey in 2008. The feeling of sharing
common values is most pronounced in Eastern Countries and far less widespread in Portugal, France or Spain.
Regarding the cultural and values resemblance comparing to other continents, Europeans believe that it is much
easier to see what Europeans have in common in terms of values. As for the values that count the most and which
are best embodied by the European Union, Europeans first mention human rights (43%) and respect for human
life (43%), followed by peace (40%), democracy (28%), individual freedom (23%) and the rule of law (21%). These
are followed by equality (20%,), solidarity (15%) and tolerance (15%), ahead of self-fulfillment (11%), respect for
other cultures (9%) and religion (5%). An important aspect is that personal values are generally consistent with
those that people believe that best represent the European Union: peace, human rights and democracy.
The best representation for the idea of happiness in Europeans testimonies is health (75%), love (41%) and work
(40%), followed by money (32%), friendship (28%) and peace. The main researched areas were European’s per-
spectives on family, work, society and economics, politics and religion.
The Family concept changed over recent generation, from the traditional nuclear family consisting of a married
mother and father with one to a couple of children to a wide range of options in what regards societal cell: indi-
viduals with or without offspring, married or unmarried couples, different or same sex, with or without children.
Marriage rates declined while the number of divorces increased, the co-habitation as the option for not having
children has been widely accepted, same-sex marriage and low fertility rates downsized the average household
within European Union to 2.4 people. The diving force behind these changes appears to be the cultural back-
ground of individualization. As reported in the Atlas of European Values ( 2011, p.35): “ Values oriented toward
autonomy, privacy, self-actualization and personal happiness have become more important and oust values that
point at collective goals”.