I want to talk about shaping the european consciousness, the process of how it slowly formed from the 1948 when Winston Churchill himself said that we need stronger and united Europe. Fast forward 70 years later, we are almost united as the people as Europeans. I want to talk about that how we young people shape the future of Europe, through our various efforts.
The treaty of Maastricht was a game changer for Europhiles. First it created the organisation that gave us the European Citizenship. Not fully complete, but enough to make us feel in Europe, like at home. Today young people don’t really think of each other as through glasses of their nationalities, but they rather see other human being.
Over 70 percent of the Dutch people see themselves are the European and Dutch. The correlation between being European and being proud of your own heritage at times is very tricky as typically is described in media as two opposing ideas, whereas in reality. These two concepts create the mold of young Europeans. Rarely these ideas come in conflict.
Since 2016 we could observe the growth of the European awareness and European identity especially among young people, who mostly contribute to the different pan-European movements, which in certain sense are going through a Renesas, in a way. Despite of the tide of nationalism.
The EU might be the bureaucratic and self-absorbed, with tons of flaws. But it gave us, the sense of belonging with each other. And in order to build better future for us and descendants, we should talk about that what unites us not what differences we may have. I want to address the challenge of talking about common values and how I went from a poor regular student to person person who thinks of himself as European.
