f Europe is to develop a bottom-up culture, it cannot afford to fall
back on predefined courses of action. The citizens of such a Europe will
want to go to other countries and get involved in transnational problem
areas in which national states are no longer able to offer appropriate
solutions – environmental degradation, climate change, mass movements of
refugees and migrants, and far-right radicalism. They will also want to
make use of European networks of art, literature and theater as stages
to promote the European cause. A new contract needs to be agreed between
the state, the EU, the political structures of civil society, the
market, social security and environmental sustainability.
What is good about Europe? What is the value of Europe to us? Which
model could and should be the basis for Europe in the 21st century?
These are open questions which urgently need to be addressed. For us in
“We are Europe” the answer is this: Europe is a laboratory of political
and social ideas without parallel anywhere else in the world. But what
constitutes European identity? You might say that Europeanness arises
out of dialog and dissent between the many different political cultures –
of the “Citoyen”, the “Citizen”, the "Staatsbuerger", the
“Burgermatschappij”, the “Ciudadano”, the “Obywatel”. But Europe is also
about irony; it is about being able to laugh about ourselves. There is
no better way to fill Europe with life and laughter than for ordinary
Europeans to come together to act on their own initiative.
Please support this initiative by signing it: http://manifest-europa.eu/
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