{"id":330731,"date":"2018-03-20T18:46:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T17:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdev.flars.net\/the-joy-of-being-european\/"},"modified":"2018-03-20T18:46:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T17:46:25","slug":"the-joy-of-being-european","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/the-joy-of-being-european\/","title":{"rendered":"The joy of being European"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young people don\u2019t seem to be very interested in the future of Europe. What do you think?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t think this is true. Many of them are interested but they are not visible.\u00a0 Only the ones who don\u2019t want Europe to be united are visible.\u00a0 They want to divide us, and they want each country just to look after its own interests.\u00a0 They are the ones who are more active than those who see Europe as united.\u00a0 This has to be the big change for all of us, that we become pro-Europe, for a united Europe.<\/p>\n

How do you see Europe in the context of world politics today?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Europe has to show a good example of democracy, unity and mutual cooperation.\u00a0 It needs to show that democracy provides a better way of living.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cEurope Day\u201d on the 9th of May. What does this date mean to you?\u00a0 How would you like Europeans to celebrate it?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

It\u2019s an important date for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s a day when everyone should celebrate fact that we live in peace, at least in most of Europe.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that everyone will be out celebrating in the squares.\u00a0 Everyone will celebrate in their own way but we should all experience the joy of being a citizen of Europe.<\/p>\n

If you were President of the European Commission (that is, if you had a position of influence and responsibility), what would be the main items on your agenda for safeguarding and even promoting unity among the people of Europe? <\/strong><\/h6>\n

Firstly, I would tell everyone that, as members of the European Union, we are all equal before the law and have the same rights.\u00a0 Yet in recent years people from certain countries belonging to the European Union have only been able to see the differences \u2013 the West as developed and the East as lagging behind.\u00a0 On my agenda I would write: tell the citizens of the EU that we are all equally important and that we all matter.<\/p>\n

Does Europe have a future? What contribution do you see churches, movements and the Christian community making, for example, to the future of Europe?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Europe has a great future!\u00a0 Europe is really important for the world and should be an example.\u00a0 It should show that we are united (this is the more difficult part), and it should show that it is capable of welcoming everyone.\u00a0 It\u2019s up to the Churches and Movements to show everyone we are not \u201chypocrites\u201d, people who say one thing and do another.\u00a0 We have to be open to others and welcome them.\u00a0 This applies not only to immigrants from countries outside the EU, but also to those within the EU.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t distinguish between people from Eastern and Western EU.<\/p>\n

What do you think of current populist tendencies? It would surely be better to travel together but how \u2026 ?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

This is one of the most difficult questions at the moment.\u00a0 In the last few years we have seen political parties being elected in almost every European Union country (and further afield) who have succeeded in spreading populist propoganda.\u00a0 This is what happened in Slovakia and it wasn\u2019t just a political party.\u00a0 At the end of February 2018 a journalist and his fiancee were assassinated.\u00a0 He was only 27 years old and had been writing an article exposing a link between the government (various populist parties) and the mafia.\u00a0 As a result, many Slovakians decided to march together, to protest and show that they no longer want these populists.\u00a0 They marched together, peacefully, without violence.\u00a0 They were afraid but without hatred.\u00a0 This is an example of \u201chow\u201d to walk together, being united not only as members of the European Union but as European citizens.<\/p>\n

Tomas Angelovic, Slovakia, 27 years old; studies political science; also completed a course of study at Sophia University in Loppiano (Italy). <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young people don\u2019t seem to be very interested in the future of Europe. What do you think? I don\u2019t think this is true. Many of them are interested but they are not visible.\u00a0 Only the ones who don\u2019t want Europe to be united are visible.\u00a0 They want to divide us, and they want each country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":14975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"United Europe: Future in Young Hands","_seopress_titles_desc":"Explore Europe's future united by democracy. Celebrate Europe Day and embrace unity over division for a peaceful, thriving EU.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2400,2435,3136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-europe-day","category-experiences-reflections-and-interviews","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}