I went grocery shopping and accidentally understood the EU

Long ago or at least, long enough ago that I still checked every label twice, I walked into my local supermarket with a very basic but important mission: buy enough food to survive the week without resorting to eating frozen peas for dinner. 

But as I stood in the checkout line, staring at the back of a stranger’s head, I realised that my grocery list was a political manifesto, which seemed like a lot to ask of my milk and bread. It turns out, feeling “at home” in Europe isn’t really about knowing the Wi-Fi password or a childhood bedroom. It’s about being able to buy a weirdly specific kind of butter. Here is how my errands turned into a three-item guide to understanding how 450 million people share a fridge. 

Item: 1 – 250 grams of Aged Gouda 🧀

The Maastricht Treaty, The Netherlands 

I was standing in the dairy aisle, debating the structural integrity of a Gouda, when I realized that I didn’t have to exchange money or do a mentally exhausting currency conversion to understand the price (maths and I are not currently on speaking terms). This small convenience is brought to you by the 1992 Maastricht treaty. 

Signed in the Provincial Government Building in Limburg, this treaty is the reason the euro and the very practical idea of “EU Citizenship” exists. It means that you’re allowed to live, work, study and argue about the weather in any EU country.

Naturally, I started wondering whether this was just my own typical dairy-aisle observations or whether this feeling is shared by people who work with the Maastricht Treaty every day. So I asked someone from Studio Europa Maastricht what their favourite kind of gouda was. 

Valentino Vondenhoff pointed out that the most underestimated consequence of the Maastricht Treaty is how much it expanded European cooperation beyond the economy. Before Maastricht, integration largely focused on markets. After 1992, member states agreed to work together in areas like migration, security and the fight against cross-border crime. This cooperation later led to the founding of Europol. 

When I asked which part of the Treaty Europeans rely on the most without realising it, his answer was simpler: the euro. The money in our pockets and the price of the cheese. 

Valentino also addressed one of the most common misconceptions about the EU: that “everything is decided in Brussels. In fact, Maastricht introduced the subsidiarity principle, meaning decisions must be taken at the most local effective level. The EU can only intervene when member states, regions, or local authorities cannot deal with an issue effectively themselves.

For younger generations, all of this can sometimes feel abstract precisely because it has always been there. That’s why Studio Europa focuses on bringing the treaty back into current conversations, through debates, educational material and formats that make Europe accessible to all generations.

And as for the Gouda, his answer was Manchego. European integration, it turns out, does not require culinary loyalty. 

Item: 2 – A fresh crusty loaf of bread 🍞

Schengen, Luxembourg 

If there’s one thing that unites Europeans, it might just be their love for bread. When you walk into a grocery store bread is almost always the first aisle you see. You can forget dessert, debate snacks and promise yourself to eat more vegetables next week. But bread is bread. 

In the past millennium, way before I was alive and when people still travelled on horseback (1992), this bread would probably have been a logistical nightmare. Imagine a baker in Germany pulling a tray of rolls out of the oven to sell them to the village two kilometers away in Luxembourg, those rolls would need to wait at a checkpoint, show their “crustport” (this is my best dad joke) and probably go stale. 

This is where the tiny village of Schengen changed my breakfast forever. Located at the “border triangle” where Luxembourg, France and Germany meet, Schengen is the place where, in 1985, five countries decided that there should be no borders for pastries and people. Today “Schengen” is the reason why we can travel from one country to another without stopping. It’s why bread can be baked in one place, bought in another and eaten somewhere in between.

When I spoke to the team at the Centre Européen Schengen, they described Schengen in three words: freedom, flexibility and connection. For people who live in border regions, it is the very core of togetherness. Many cross borders every day for work, school, shopping or family. For them, Schengen is what makes that life possible. Without it, commutes would stretch into traffic jams and trade, tourism and cross-border cooperation would be affected.

Ironically, the point of Schengen is that you’re not supposed to notice it. Its success is visible for some in their daily lives while for others, it becomes noticeable when travelling by boarding a plane without internal border checks.

Visitors to Schengen itself are often surprised by how small the village is (5,163 people in 2025) and how meaningful it has become. For those who grew up with internal border controls, being there can be emotional. Over time, Schengen has turned into a symbol of freedom, peace and the possibility of living across borders. 

The biggest misconception, Kim Dumont told me, is the idea that borders are where problems begin and end. During the Covid lockdowns, when internal border controls returned almost overnight, it became clear how quickly people project fear onto borders. 

“When people call for borders to close, they are often not talking about borders at all, but about a desire for security and control in an increasingly interconnected world”.

Today, Schengen is no longer something Europeans assume will always be there. Its fragility has become part of how it is understood, through debate, criticism and defence. But despite the tensions, Schenghen remains one of Europe’s most tangible achievements. You can literally taste it in a load of bread that never had to stop at a border. 

Item: 3 – Free-Range Eggs 🥚

Strasbourg, France

I looked at the quality stamp on my eggs and thought of Strasbourg. While I worry about burning my omelette, someone else has already worried about everything that came before it: the safety of the food, the welfare of the hen and the rights of the person who drove to the shop.

If the Gouda is about the money in my pocket and the bread is about the freedom to move, the eggs are about the standards that keep Europeans safe. 

Since 1949, Strasbourg has acted as the “European capital” of human rights and reconciliation. It’s the home of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, institutions born in the aftermath of World War II to ensure that democracy would never again be taken for granted. 

In Strasbourg, people like Louise Weiss believed that Europe should be understood by its citizens. This belief lives on today in the Lieu d’Europe. Through exhibitions, debates and workshops, it explains how rights, standards and rules affect the daily lives of EU citizens. 

Today, that includes the European Court of Human Rights. It’s a comforting, if slightly heavy, thought to have while grocery shopping that if your fundamental rights are ever violated, there is a building in Strasbourg where you can seek justice. 

The Checkout Line

As the cashier scanned my items, I realized that my shopping bag was much heavier than it looked. My Gouda was a reminder that I am a citizen of a shared political space with rights that follow me wherever I am in the EU. My bread was freedom of movement, made so ordinary that I barely notice it. My eggs were the shared standards that protect people long before anything goes wrong.

These European Heritage Label sites are the government buildings, villages and meeting halls where decisions were made that continue to affect the most ordinary moments of our lives. They explain why buying food feels simple, why crossing borders feels normal and why we benefit from common legal standards.

So the next time you’re standing in the grocery store, staring at a carton of eggs or a block of cheese, take a second to look at the labels. You’re participating in one of the most ambitious and successful experiments ever attempted, one that lets you live your life without having to think about the rights behind it.

About Studio Europa Maastricht

To make the Maastricht Treaty accessible across generations, Studio Europa Maastricht develops educational material for different age groups. For children aged 8–12, My Big Activity Book about Europe introduces the EU through puzzles, activities and fun facts. For older audiences, the magazine For and Against Europe explores current European debates in historical perspective and is designed to fit high-school curricula.

About Centre Européen Schengen 

The Centre Européen Schengen is located in the village where the Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985. Through its museum, exhibitions and educational programmes, it explains the history and impact of open borders in Europe. The centre focuses on how freedom of movement shapes everyday life, particularly for people living in border regions and encourages public reflection on one of Europe’s most tangible achievements.

About Lieu d’Europe

Established in 2014, Lieu d’Europe is Strasbourg’s centre for European civic education. Through interactive exhibitions, debates and cultural events, it explains the history of European integration and Strasbourg’s role within it, making European values and institutions accessible to visitors of all ages.