Ivan (25), Russia
Photo: private
“To study people’s memories is one way to overcome and destroy historical myths and misunderstandings between people. While working on this project we will confront different traditions and aspects of remembrance. It will help me to understand "ways of remembering" and to avoid a "narrow view" of European history."
Ivan (25), Russia
New Competition Round in Spain
"My family throughout history" is the topic of the new competition round in Spain. Please have a look at their website!
Welcome to EUSTORY
The History Network for Young Europeans
Young Europeans dissatisfied with performance of Foreign Policy Makers!
An overwhelming majority of young Europeans feel uninformed about how decisions on EU foreign policy are made. The Europe & Me online magazine conducted a survey among more than 6,500 young Europeans to investigate their views on EU foreign policy. Representatives of the Young Europeans will make a difference at this year’s “Berliner Forum Außenpolitik” (Berlin Foreign Policy Forum), an influential gathering on European foreign policy organised by the Körber Foundation in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office which will take place in Berlin on November 29th. Two thirds of the participants agreed with the statement above and feel uninformed, despite the fact that most are interested in the topic and inform themselves regularly about it. Partly, young Europeans believe that EU foreign policy is a complex topic (26%). However, most state that politicians are inaccessible (38%) or that the media simply does not explain the topic well enough (39%). The young generation thus sees a lot of work to be done on the side of state actors: Over 70% of respondents believe that a more unified EU foreign policy would benefit their country, and a majority is not satisfied with their country’s actions for achieving this goal. Regarding the issues EU foreign policy should address in the future, more than one quarter of the respondents (25.2%) would like to see the EU invest in long-term development of the Southern hemisphere. Even more participants (26.8%) want EU foreign policy to focus on dealing with humanitarian crises. Accordingly, a large majority also believes that the EU has the responsibility to intervene in such crises. However, not even a quarter of the young Europeans are content with the European Union’s response to the Libya crisis, and most (39.7%) believe the management was left to the member states. Asking the participants where the EU should invest to build positive relations in the future -several options could be selected- showed clear priorities among the respondents: Middle East (61.6%), followed by China (56.4%) and USA (39.7%). Over the past two months, the transnational online magazine Europe & Me mobilized over 6.500 Europeans under 35 to fill out the survey about EU foreign policy. Europe & Me worked together with the Körber Foundation to select seven representatives from across Europe to prepare the questionnaire of the survey and promote it among young Europeans. Respondents from over 23 European countries chose to make their voice heard through the survey and demonstrated that young Europeans are indeed interested in EU foreign policy.
"Do you speak European?"
The online magazine Europe & Me , including a lot of EUSTORY alumni, spent the last three years writing about their daily experiences of Europe. Now, they were inviting young Europeans to join them for a week-long workshop, where 31 young Europeans were investigating what Europe means to us. Which books should every European read? Is there such a thing as "European English"? How do young Europeans plan their future? These are some of the questions tehy were asking - and werecreating some multimedia answers such as videos, photos and a European Dictionary. The "Do you speak European?" workshop took place in Berlin, a city which has been shaped by Europe's turbulent past. It run from the 15th to the 22nd of December. This project is financed with support from the European Union through the program YOUTH IN ACTION. The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the national agency JUGEND für Europa and they cannot be held responsible for them.
The EUSTORY Youth Academies in 2011
"Brussels: City of Minorities?", organised by BELvue, Democracy and History, Brussels and financed by the King Baudouin Foundation, Belgium.and "Neglected Victims – the Fate of Soviet Prisoners of WW II", organised and financed by the Körber Foundation, Germany . In cooperation with the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
43 prize winners from EUSTORY competitions in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Ukraine participated in the two seminars EUSTORY offered in 2011. This year the students had the chance to discover how is it to be part of an ethnic minority living in Brussels or to find more about the historie(s) and the fate of Soviet prisoners of WWII (POWs).
Even though both seminars had different topics and approaches, the core of both was the same: working with biographies. Both seminars were accompanied by excursions and talks to experts.
Please read more about the interview with Lev Alexandrejvich here!
FutureLab Europe – The Council of Young European Citizens launched its website!
A project of the European Alliance for Democratic Citizenship: the Körber Foundation, King Baudouin Foundation, Compagnia die San Paolo, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Institusjonen Fritt Ord, Svenska Kultur Fonden, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda. Operated by the European Policy Centre.
FutureLab Europe is a project of the European Alliance for Democratic Citizenship, affiliated to the Network of European Foundations and initiated by the Körber Foundation. It is operated by the European Policy Centre. Now the new website was launched. 25 young Europeans - amongst them EUSTORY alumni - already met in Brussels earlier this year for the first one week forum within the programme FutureLab Europe. FutureLab Europe, the Council of Young European Citizens, is a programme for bright, ambitious young European professionals aged 20 to 30 who want to play an active part in shaping the future direction of Europe. Through FutureLab Europe they achieve insights into European decision-making, discuss topical issues with European and national policy-makers and other stakeholders, and develop their own distinctive vision for the development of the European project. The annual FutureLab Europe forum enables the participants to deepen their knowledge and skills in connection with underlying patterns of European identity as well as with concrete issues relevant in the process of European policy making. During the programme, participants got insights into the structure and proceedings of European institutions, met and discussed with top officials from the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament, leaders of NGOs and other organisations.
Link Tip: The Learning Museum
The Learning Museum (LEM) is a Europe wide network which aims to establish a permanent space for museums and adult educators to act in a learning society and in a knowledge based Europe. To keep up with change, however, museums are not only expected to be learning places, but learning organisations themselves: learning from the communities, from the public, from their stakeholders, and also from other agencies, with whom they have to build alliances to accomplish the ambitious objectives set by policies at national and European level and meet the challenges of the future decades. LEM aims to create a permanent network of museums and cultural heritage organisations, to insure that they can play an active role with regard to lifelong learning and to raise awareness among decision makers at national and European level. It will do so through this dedicated and dynamic website, international conferences and meetings, the publication and dissemination of thematic reports, the piloting of a mobility scheme for museum educators within the partner countries to support peer learning and the exchange of knowledge at European level.
