Some aspects of national identity and the contemporary integration processes

Article deals with some of the issues concerning national identity and ongo ing integration processes in Europe. The conceptions of both the nation and the nation-state are examined from the point of their historical contexts and contemporary events and changes. It is being argued that the nation sta tes in Europe are far from being mere myths or redundant structures since t hey successfully face the integration challenges and still fulfil many impo rtant functions. Author enlists all main currents of European integration (political field, economic co-operation, regional co-operation and civic contacts). Greater a ttention is paid to the idea of the Europe of regions. As the data from soc iological researches indicate, the European public is not much in favour of further strengthening of regions' influence and further divisions of natio n states. As the important (if not the most important) stream of integration is consi dered to be the across border civic co-operation, i.e. establishment and ma intenance of informal civic relationships. Aspects that might positively or negatively influence these relationships are demonstrated on an example of the across border co-operation on Czech-German border. The core of the acr oss border co-operation and the creation of the across border community is made by approximately only 5% of local inhabitants, who maintain relationsh ips on the "personal level". The rest of the inhabitants have only occasion al and incidental contacts with their foreign neighbours. Article points at some ambivalent tendencies and contradictory phenomena in the processes of European integration.