Results of discussion reported by Hermann Kayser / Cité scolaire internationale – France

Introductory remarks:

This topic will be dealing with a most delicate topic at a most crucial moment in European development. Indeed, at the moment, when this workshop will take place in oct 2005, most of the European countries will have stated about the ratification of the European constitution. We might not exclude the possibility that the European constitution will be refused by one serveral of the European members, either by referendum or by parliament. So this topic does not only concern in a very direct way all participants being European citizens, but it concerns also one of the fundamental apsects of NEOS itself.

Discussion is initiated by the exposure of several statements and questions:

Especially among young people, but also among adults there is a growing indifference toward politics. Many people opt out or even deny that European politicians are really interested in the needs of European citizens.

o       Who actually needs the European constitution?

o       In which areas of life is the European constitution useful for the European citizens?

o       In which areas of life do we really need international rules?

o       Which contents of this constitution do really touch the daily reality of European citizens? 

o       How can the European constitution benefit international co-operation between schools and teachers?

o       What background knowledge do students need (at the age of 12, 16, 19) to become capable of mature judgement in European affairs?

STEP 1:

The consideration of the European constitution’s content must follow strictly the student’s point of view, their interests and their visions of the future European construction.

Question to open the debate:

The debate might deal a certain amount of questions to clarify and informations to gather:

a)    Which are the fundamental visions of young people?

b)    Does young people are concerned by the European constitution and if so, are they concerned in the same way and by what? – Do young people are afraid of a future Europe?

c)     What about fundamental values contained in the constitution?

d)    What does European citizenship mean? - Would you agree that the convergence of values creates European citizenship

Working task during the workshop:

In this first approach to the content of the European constitution, it is necessary to identify which kind of concrete values are precisely contained in the constitution.

Main points that might emerge from the debate:

·        The European constitution is the basis of future Europe.

·        The constitution implies a certain ethic and political vision of Europe that European nations should agree on.

·        Young people’s vision differs in quite a way from European constitutional concerns, the constitution does not fulfil their needs, interests and expectations totally. Certain values of young people are not contained in the constitution.

STEP 2:

a)   It is important that students understand that this is not a hypothetical question.

Many young people don’t know much about the European constitution. It is necessary to help students to better understand it. They require better insights in the constitution’s content, the need of knowledge of information and understanding of the constitution is manifest.

They need to answer the question:

Is there indeed any possibility to modify the constitution ?

Mainly, students need to understand that the European constitution is in fact a Treaty for a European Constitution, which means it is just one step to the further construction of Europe: Europe is a process, a permanent construction which is not finished by the adoption the “Constitution”.

In consequence, we propose:

Preliminary working task before the starting of the student workshop

to treat in NEOS- Schools for teacher an students together:

Find all elements and identify all parts in the content that are necessary to understand what is the essence of this Constitution and what does “constitution” means!

(This should concern all the participants in the workshop, even all scholars – teacher and pupils-  in NEOS member schools in general!)

b)  Understanding the need of specific competences to modify a constitution, means to understand the need of learning basic democratic processes in order to become an actor of the further construction of Europe. Where do young people can learn and practice democratic procedures?

STEP 3:

Upcoming points might be (hopefully):

a) Increased learning of foreign languages and cultures lead to better understanding in Europe.

b) Every school should have a “European platform” (kind of ‘Piazza Europa’) to coordinate “european learning” (what ever that may be).

c) Increased participation or organisation of models of democratic institutions (Model of European Parliament, Model of United Nations etc)

d) Increase occasion to learn all competences leading to a better understanding and living with european neighbours.

e) Creation of school-projects linking democratic learning and knowledge about political institutions and history of european countries.

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Hopefully, it seems to be possible to deal and perhaps to answer within this workshop a large amount of the questions mentioned in the introductory remarks.