How do political identities shape preferences for social solidarity? Political theorists such as Miller and Walzer argue that political identities influence individuals’ willingness to share risks and resources with fellow members of the political community. However, to date, there has been no empirical investigation into the validity of this argument within the context of the European Union. To address this puzzle, this paper analyzes whether core normative conceptions of European identity related to the economic, political and cultural understandings of the union, influence citizens’ preferences for solidaristic policies at the supranational level. The empirical strategy is based on a survey experiment conducted in Spain and Germany in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Furthermore, to verify the generalizability of the experiment, we analyze a cross-sectional representative survey conducted in 2016 across thirteen European countries. The paper finds that different normative framings of EU identity influence citizens’ attitudes towards solidarity policies within the European Union. Specifically, in the case of support for member states facing financial crises, the influence of EU community framing appears to be less significant. In contrast, our findings indicate that perceiving the EU as a cultural union increases support for EU unemployment benefits.