About 40 people joined the “Conversations about a Greater Europe” in Vienna on June 3rd, 2014. The event was organized by Youth UPF in cooperation with ACUNS. ”Identity. Boarders. Peace.” where the three themes the gathering tackled.
Katarzyna Winiecka, artist and activist with the Transnational Forum on Refugee and Migrant Struggles, gave an overview on the development of the movement and her involvement and brought up the issue of non-citizenship, people living in Europe but facing severe limitations in their civil rights and freedoms.
Carina Autengruber, European Youth Delegate of the Austrian National Youth Council stressed the importance of the European Union and young people being actively involved in it for the future of the continent. She emphasized that “Europe is a historic event, that we are part of” and that “youth is part of the solution, not of a problem that needs to be solved by others.”
Lukas Wank, the Founder of Shabka expressed his concerns that European democracies are dissolving due to the strong entanglement of economy, EU politics and the capital market. He invoked the necessity of a “counter democracy” and “push from the public.” He stressed that Europe should be a “conflict project”, meaning a space of public debate.
After partly concerned partly hopeful inputs on Europe and the EU, the following questions were discussed in a World Café Style: How European am I? How am I European? What is not European? Where does Europe end? (How)Does the EU contribute to peace?
