Providing civic education classes and put the emphasis on “education from kindergarten to give the feeling of belonging” to the European Union: this is one of the 60 ideas proposed by the European Movement for the 60th anniversary of the Congress of the Hague.

During Saturday’s plenary session in the Hague’s Nieuwe Kerk, in presence of the Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, representatives of the European institutions got acquainted with the 20 ideas, chosen by the three workshops. The workshop “Political Europe” focussed on the necessity to fight climate change, and to give the European Union one and only voice on the international stage, especially in the UN, and in the framework of a vivified European democracy, make sure that the rights of the citizens are respected. For the “Economic and Social Europe”, the participants have decided to focus their attention on well being rather than on economic growth; they have also pleaded for women to play in greater role in the economy so that it would become more innovative. Many participants, concerned by migratory fluxes have asked the countries of origin to be helped in order to contain the number of people willing to emigrate. As for the “Education and Cultural Europe”, the emphasis was put on the necessity to give more Europe to pupils, in order to create a feeling of belonging to a European dimension at an early age. Some have also asked for the creation of a European heritage label; and for Europe not to be absent from TV programmes any longer, local networks playing an important role in this matter.

“We can imagine the future only when we are aware of all what has been done” said the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, at the beginning of the political debate lead by the president of the European Movement, Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament and also former journalist. “We would like to thank those who, sixty years ago, have launched the concept and the ideas which have enabled us to achieve unity today” said Janez Jansa, the Slovenian Prime Minister. This comment gave the opportunity to the president of the European Council to remind us that, at the time of the founding Congress, Europe was divided by the “iron curtain”. José Manuel Barrosso had at heart to remind us that he had been a member of the European Movement for several years, and he quoted one of the main protagonists of the Congress of 1948, the Swiss thinker Denis de Rougemont for whom Europe should be “pluralist rather than unitary”. The president of the Commission added that it should also have a “plural rather than uniform identity”. President Barrasso said he was “optimistic” for the future as “there is no other region in the world where there is so much transnational cooperation”, in the framework of a “community of values” not only reduced to the market.

The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Lluis Maria de Puig, reminded us that his organisation was the child of the Congress of The Hague, and that he was now participating to “the anniversary of a dream which became reality”.the president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Dimitris Dimitriadis, invited Europeans to get to work because Europe won’t be able to remain its status of an oasis in the current world crisis. He also thinks that representatives of the business world should be allowed to siege in the institutions in order to give the European Union a breath of fresh air. Luc van den Brande, the President of the Committee of Regions, has pleaded for Europe to be a shared responsibility for all levels of power, local regional, national and European on an equal level, instead of a pyramid like share of power which is not the best to govern fairly.