Abstract The purpose of this article is to contribute to the scholarly and public debates on the often-invoked but undetermined European Union reconciliatory identity. First, it articulates an interpretative analysis of the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and civil society initiatives in post-World War II western Europe, which draws its conceptual framework from Paul Ricoeur and Hannah Arendt's hermeneutics. Second, it discusses whether the reconciliatory practices thus detected are still relevant for countries in conflict on the path to EU membership. Former EU Commission President Jacques Delors and Polish Member of the European Parliament Bronislaw Geremek affirm that this is the case for the Western Balkans. This article explores what this might mean in terms of policies and grass-roots initiatives between Kosovo and Serbia today.