We are Europe! Manifesto for the re-establishment of the EU from below

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Under the motto “ We are Europe! Manifesto for the re-establishment of the EU from below ”, the sociologist Ulrich Beck and the MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit called in 2012 for the creation of a Voluntary European Year .

Objectives

The invitation to participate is aimed at all citizens in all training and professional fields, regardless of age. However, the manifesto particularly points out the meaning and necessity of such an offer for young people, since one in four Europeans under 25 is currently unemployed. From this grows the demand for social justice and "the anger over a policy that saves banks with huge sums of money, but gambled away the future of the youth."

The European Commission , European Parliament , national governments and parliaments are called upon to “create a Europe of active citizens” and to create the financial and legal conditions for a “Voluntary European Year” (cf. Voluntary Social Year ). The European economy is called upon to do its part. A counter-model had to be created for the previously “predominant Europe of elites and technocrats”. "The point is to democratize the national democracies in a European way and in this way to re-establish Europe."

When designing the “Voluntary European Year”, it is intended that citizens in countries other than their home countries become transnationally active in problem areas such as climate change, environmental destruction, refugee flows, racism and right-wing radicalism, for which the individual nation state no longer offers a solution. Art, literature and theaters should also be available as “stages for Europe”. The manifesto closes with the statement: "There is no better way than active cooperation among citizens to fill Europe with life and laughter."

The manifesto has so far been published in 15 European countries. Talks have started with Commission President José Manuel Barroso and his Education Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou on the introduction of a “European Voluntary Year for ALL”.

Signatory

The manifesto can be signed by all supporters of the initiative, including online. The spectrum of the first signatories of this manifesto is described as an “astonishing coalition” in the commentary from ZEIT of May 3, 2012, which printed the call in full. These first signatories include politicians such as Jacques Delors , Joschka Fischer , Helmut Schmidt , Javier Solana , Klaus Töpfer and Richard von Weizsäcker as well as writers and publicists such as Alfred Grosser , Jürgen Habermas , Navid Kermani , Imre Kertész , Herta Müller and Klaus Wagenbach .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Here as quoted below from We are Europe. Manifesto for the re-establishment of the EU from below. In: Zeit Online , June 12, 2012, accessed on January 11, 2018.
  2. ↑ Alexander Cammann, An earthly idea: How the manifesto came about , www.zeit.de , May 3, 2012, p. 45.