Purpose: To stress the existential crisis of European integration and the need to shape the European citizen, who forms the foundations of unification, which can no longer be based only on economic conditions. Methods: Analyse the contradictions in the integration method adopted so far by member states and the fallacious solutions proposed by national-populist movements. Findings: An education system is needed that is aimed at shaping, alongside the citizens of its own nation-state, the cosmopolitan citizens of a united Europe, who are convinced that to preserve peace, democracy and well-being the continent must be unified.