It is early days to hail an end to the rise of nationalism in Europe, yet it is encouraging to see how many politicians and media commentators on the continental mainland currently bask in the warm sun of the new French President Macron’s pro-European stance.

Macron’s glow is inevitable: he is young, he seems to have stemmed a problematic tide, he breathes some fresh air into the concept of Europe. Even some established stalwarts of the European cause feel disturbed by the burst of ideas he has, and that is a good sign.

However, the current strength of Macron’s energy lies in part beyond himself and his ideas. He can build on an emotional and even economic groundswell of support for the EU which needed a release, which he provides.

While it is popular to paint the story of the EU as one of longer decline, it is worth reminding that the current criticism is just a little over a decade old. Until the mid 2000s the European Union remained on the ascendant as a political vision. It was the EU constitution treaty’s rejection in France and the Netherlands in 2005 which revealed the popular concerns about the strengthening of a neoliberal economic model for Europe, the concomitant fears of departure from models of social solidarity, inequality between members, and their different bargaining power in the institutions, the criticism of the closed and elitist nature of the process of developing the constitution, and the general lack of accessibility of the European political processes for ordinary citizens.

Yet after the Treaty of Lisbon of 2007 broadly realised most of the core concepts of the earlier constitution treaty, the incentive for the EU to address these popular misgivings fell away. It is down to obliviousness and neglect by the EU leadership in Brussels as well as in the member governments that the same issues, compounded by global dynamics which matured in approximately the same decade, feature strongly in the current partisan debates about the future of Europe.

However, at the same time that impassivity reigned with regard to legitimate citizens’ concerns and opportunities for democratic engagement were clearly lost, a good number of EU members persevered in practice with the idea of a Europe united around core values of political, economic, social and cultural integration. Throughout the different stages of EU growth through accession, many governments, older and newer members, promoted the EU as a pillar of their citizens’ access to prosperity. This has not panned out for every country alike, but very few countries would want to return to free market conditions of global competition, closed borders, tariff barriers or even individual responsibility to ensure a competitive and credible currency.

And it is this groundswell of buy-in to the EU that the 27 remaining members can now build on together. In France Macron’s freshly positive attitude to Europe reminded French voters, and many others of the heart of the project: peace, prosperity, rights and freedoms for at present 508 million people in 28 countries (and after BREXIT still around 443 million in 27 nations) in what used to be a divided continent. This vision is shared by most people in the EU, and positively also very much in the larger countries such as Germany.

The debates around the framework for the BREXIT negotiations now show how many of the fundamental values of the EU and principles of operating in fact have strong support amongst the majority of its members.

Rebuilding the public support for Europe, and making it a positive notion not to be ashamed of, has found some champions again. It will be important for them and anyone of the same convictions not to miss the moment, and press ‘play’ now.