Europeness-Info — Erasmus-Oficina

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

The students will explore the EU in four phases, each one focusing on a different basic principle of the European integration process: “Multilateral Cooperation”, “Democracy”, “Unity in Diversity” and “Sustainability”. At the heart of each phase, student delegations of all five partner schools will meet for an LTTA hosted by one of the partners, in which they examine together the background and relevance of the respective principle. At the end of each LTTA, the students will express their visions of the Europe they want to live in with respect to the principle concerned in an artistic performance or piece of art and in a manifesto to be published on the project website. The last LTTA, will take place in Brussels so that students can obtain first-hand knowledge of the European institutions and discuss their manifestos with EU representatives and politicians.

Methodologically, the project relies heavily on the medium film as the students use different film genres to present the historical background and relevance of the respective European principle for their home regions as preparatory task for the LTTAs. These films will be shown on the partners' joint Web-TV as the prime tool for the dissemination to the school communities. In addition the students will produce educational games on the EU and its institutional framework.

The students will thus acquire both profound knowledge of the EU and strong media and film production skills. Context: Sixty years after the Treaties of Rome, support for the EU and the European integration process is no longer a matter of course. The wartime and post-wartime generations for whom European cooperation and integration made naturally sense due to their life-time experiences are becoming a rapidly decreasing minority in European societies.

The project partners’ experience shows that today young people take the achievements of the European integration process for granted. Students commonly perceive their basic life experience of peace and prosperity in Europe and the freedoms the EU has brought about as a ‘natural state of affairs’ rather than the result of an enthusiastic political struggle, which is presently in great danger to be reversed and lost if not equally enthusiastically defended in the future. It is therefore important to introduce the vital importance of the European integration process and the important principles it is based on to young generations through civic education. It is thereby vital in view of the future of Europe that the new generations understand the European integration process as their own project which they can actively form and shape as European citizens.

Implementation: The project’s LTTAs are organized to make best use of the resources and backgrounds of the hosting partners’ institutions and regions. The first LTTA will be a teacher training event on film making in Portugal in order to tap the resource of the Portuguese partner’s media department for all the partners. The first student LTTA on European “Multilateral Cooperation” will be hosted by the German partner in Emden/East Frisia to explore the multiple examples of European cooperation along the German-Dutch border. The second student LTTA on the European principle of “Democracy” will be hosted by the Czech partner where the students will explore the transition from a socialist state to democracy with the example of the Velvet Revolution. The third LTTA on the European principle of “Unity in Diversity” will take place at the French partner school in Lannion/Brittany where the students can experience the very rich Breton culture and its struggle of preservation against a strong national culture. The fourth student LTTA on “Sustainability” will then be hosted in Iceland as this principle can be particularly well exemplified with this small island nation and its rich renewable energy resources. The final LTTA will be organized in the European ‘capital’ of Brussels. By enabling the students to present their manifestos on Europe directly to EU representatives and politicians and to discuss with them their visions and concerns, this LTTA will enormously enhance the project’s civic education target to induce in the students a sense of active European citizenship. The project materials (student manifestos, films, educational materials) will be disseminated to the general public through the project website. The partners’ joint web-TV system with screens in public spaces at all partner institutions will be a very powerful dissemination tool for the partners’ school communities

Participant Schools

LTTAS and Manifestos

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT