Cèlia Estruch | In recent years, a debate around the legitimacy of the European Union (EU) has gained relevance. Therefore, EU leaders have intensified the promotion of a European identity, as it is thought to be a necessary condition to guarantee the future viability of the common project. In this regard, several empirical studies have purported that young people are key actors in the prolongation of the EU integration process in the coming decades. Therefore, the objective of this article is to inspect the attachment and EU attitudes of the young European cohort, as well as to conduct a cohort comparison to discover whether there is a correlation between age and support towards the EU. The analysis, based on the data provided by the 91 Eurobarometer of 2019, empirically demonstrates the impact of different contextual and individual factors on the European identity of youngsters. Last of all, the statistical study reveals that young people’s attachment to the EU depends on the strength of their national identity, the participation in an Erasmus exchange, the benefit of European free mobility and their own country’s economic context.
