The Europe & Me online magazine conducted a survey among more than 6,500 young Europeans to investigate their views on EU foreign policy. Representatives of the Young Europeans will make a difference at this year’s “Berliner Forum Außenpolitik” (Berlin Foreign Policy Forum), an influential gathering on European foreign policy organised by the Körber Foundation in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office which will take place in Berlin on November 29th. Two thirds of the participants agreed with the statement above and feel uninformed, despite the fact that most are interested in the topic and inform themselves regularly about it. Partly, young Europeans believe that EU foreign policy is a complex topic (26%). However, most state that politicians are inaccessible (38%) or that the media simply does not explain the topic well enough (39%). The young generation thus sees a lot of work to be done on the side of state actors: Over 70% of respondents believe that a more unified EU foreign policy would benefit their country, and a majority is not satisfied with their country’s actions for achieving this goal. Regarding the issues EU foreign policy should address in the future, more than one quarter of the respondents (25.2%) would like to see the EU invest in long-term development of the Southern hemisphere. Even more participants (26.8%) want EU foreign policy to focus on dealing with humanitarian crises. Accordingly, a large majority also believes that the EU has the responsibility to intervene in such crises. However, not even a quarter of the young Europeans are content with the European Union’s response to the Libya crisis, and most (39.7%) believe the management was left to the member states. Asking the participants where the EU should invest to build positive relations in the future -several options could be selected- showed clear priorities among the respondents: Middle East (61.6%), followed by China (56.4%) and USA (39.7%). Over the past two months, the transnational online magazine Europe & Me mobilized over 6.500 Europeans under 35 to fill out the survey about EU foreign policy. Europe & Me worked together with the Körber Foundation to select seven representatives from across Europe to prepare the questionnaire of the survey and promote it among young Europeans. Respondents from over 23 European countries chose to make their voice heard through the survey and demonstrated that young Europeans are indeed interested in EU foreign policy. The data collected  will be openly available athttp://goo.gl/BtbUa on the day of the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum, 29 November, at 9am.

We’re inviting you to our week-long workshop, where about 30 young Europeans will be investigating what Europe means to us. Which books should every European read? Is there such a thing as “European English”? How do young Europeans plan their future? These are some of the questions we’ll be asking – and we’ll be creating some multimedia answers such as videos, photos and a European Dictionary, all of which we are hoping to publish.

The “Do you speak European?” workshop will take place in Berlin, a city which has been shaped by Europe’s turbulent past. It will run from the 15th to the 22nd of December. To apply, you should:

- Be between 18 and 30

- Live in Poland, Spain, Romania, Turkey, Germany or the UK. (If you don’t live in one of these countries but you really want to attend the workshop, contact us. We might be able to make exceptions!)

All expenses will be covered, apart from a fee of 70 euros if you’re coming from Germany and the UK, or 35 euros from other eligible countries. The workshop is sponsored by the EU Youth in Action programme and the Allianz Cultural Foundation. It’s open to everyone, not just E&M people, so tell your friends…

Want to join us and discover your personal Europe? Go to www.europeandme.eu/workshop and apply now! Or contact us at application@europeandme.eu to find out more.

The deadline for applications is the 26th of September.

In cooperation with:

This project is financed with support from the European Union through the program YOUTH IN ACTION. The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the national agency JUGEND für Europa and they cannot be held responsible for them.

Our last day started very relaxed. We commented satisfactorily the interview with Lev Alexandrovich; the results and his answers. Also, we had a conference with a representative of  the Fond “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ), which tries to compensate people affected during WWII because of the Nazi oppression.

I liked it very much because on my point of view, it was very realistic, the representative was very clear about the lack of money and they are aware that in many cases, trying to compensate the suffering of a person who, for example spent four years in a concentration camp is derisory. Anyway, money is symbolic and the most important thing is the recognition of the fault by government and the companies which form the foundation.

Our last work was developing a project in order to find a way of compensation to war prisoners. We had very good ideas, but finally all of them are utopias. The government of the involved countries are the responsible for finding a compensation for this people.

After staying all together during the night writing letters to each other, we decided that it was time to show the typical dances of our countries. Anton began (despite not having boots, hair hat and sable) with Cossack dances. It was very funny!

We continue with dances from Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland… in our case we taught how to dance Pasodoble (easier than Flamenco). I have to say that Manolo Escobar, our most famous Pasodoble Singer, would be proud of everybody. Furthermore, Oliver and Caro are prepared to go to Spain and dance it!!!!

We were exhausted of dancing so some of watched a film, others continue writing letters to everybody, taking our last photos together and inviting everybody to our countries.

I would have continued there but my body was begging going to sleep.

Time to say goodbye:

Next morning was strange. Everybody knew that we were living our last moments together. After many hugs and farewells it was time to go. A bus was waiting for us, so short time after we were on the entry to the airport. We stared each other, said goodbye and hoping meeting again in our lives despite knowing that we live too far in different countries.

After delays and trains, I arrive to Spain at 18:00.

I have to thank the wonderful team we had. It has been an unforgettable experience. Tina, Frank, Pieter, thank you again. I hope see you again. You were very good with us, so we are very glad to had you as supervisors.

I recommend everybody going to a Eustory Academy. On this experience, I have met people (now friends) from over Europe, and also worked in a very interesting topic on a different way as usual in school. Thanks to this and other similar experiences, it has been the greatest summer in my life.

Thank you very much.

Jorge

Anton (Russia) would say: “Many people ask me: Anton, do you know anything about Domovoj?”In this case we didn’t know anything about Domovoj (who can change his faces, is made of chocolate bars and can reborn 10 times), but also we didn’t know anything about the interesting live and experiences of Lev Alexsandrovitch Netto, the prisoner of war.

It has been a very hard day for us and for Lev Alexsandrovitch. 6 hours of interview and it wasn’t enough time to ask him all the questions we had prepared. Kindly, he answered them being helped by an interpreter. It’s very difficult to sum up all that information but we got many unexpected answers.

At the beginning you can imagine some of them because maybe you could have seen something in a film for example, but I didn’t expected many answers, mainly about his time after the war in a Gulag and how was he treated by the Soviet Government (his country) in order to keep him in the camp like using torture (because they thought that he was a traitor). Something which impressed me was how people can change during a war and what he answered to the question “How did you feel about killing?”. It was “on that situation there are not social rules, you have to kill the enemy or he will kill you. Everything is like choreography, an orchestra”. Furthermore, it’s very disturbing when he tells how his friends were shot next to him and he stained of their blood and the difficult situations he lived before, during and after the war.

Anyways we have seen that Lev Alexsandrovitch is a very good person who doesn’t have any prejudices for people who took part on the war, and also, nowadays he only wants to leave in peace but at the same time, remember everybody that there were many POWs like him who weren’t recognized as soldiers who tried to defend his country but as a traitor, so we thank him for this unrepeatable opportunity to ask him about his life experiences and wish the best for him.

Now is time to go to bed, but remember: be careful whit Domovoj. He is staring at you during the night!

He was prisoner in a POWs camp between 1944 and 1945 because he was soldier of the Red Army, but after the end of the war he was taken to another one (a Goulag) because for Stalin, survival prisoners from war must have been traitors. Nowadays he is 86.

Lev came here some days ago in order to let us interview him about his experiences during WWII and also as a Soviet POW, so today, between “exhibitionists and streetlights” [energizing game] we have prepared the whole interview: questions, structure, and an also we have practiced it with a very special stuntwoman instead of Mr. Netto, Gabriele Woidelko, the Eustory director, who is visiting us for a couple of days.

Tomorrow is the day of the interview so we hope everything is correct. In addiction we thank this man for coming here and giving us the opportunity to deal with a “flesh and bond” person who lived first-hand the dark events of the past.

The problem is that we have 155 questions and a minimum of 3 minutes per question, and that is… a lot.  But don’t worry, in some months, you could buy the whole interview in 50 collectible DVDs in your nearest shop!

It has been a very interesting day today! After taking three trains, three buses (and a flight if it was necessary) we finally arrived to Sachsenhausen memorial.

(Well, before writing anything more, I have to say that some rumors have arrived here due to people say that Tina is exploiting us. That is NOT true. We only need some oxygen masks to survive)

After that subsection (the truth is that today we can’t complain about anything because they have given us free time) let explain today’s experience:

Enterin the concentration camp Sachsenhausen

We have been in a concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, close to Berlin.

The experience is rare because it was very interesting (I think that was one of the best experiences of the seminary) and a “history treasure” that we have to preserve in order to not making the same mistakes in the future, but at the same time it’s very depressant and sad. Anyways, thanks to our guide who was very didactical (he must be mentally exhausted because of talking every day about gas rooms, crematoriums, morgues, dead people and war crimes) we could know more about that topic and also about Soviets POWs who were murdered during the period 1941-1945. 

After that we only needed three trains more, a tram and a bus to arrive again to our second general quarter, the museum of Karlshorst.

After our lunch, James Bond’s girls, an elephant, a mixer and a couple of toasters came into play (if you don’t know what is it the best thing you can do,  come to a Eustory Youth Academy!). Then, work again.

We read and commented three Soviet POWs’ letter in order to get some conclusions about their feelings of Germans and Soviets. It was a surprise that they didn’t feel angry with German people because for them it was no matter of nationality but ideology.

At the end of the day: FREEDOM!!!

We have been buying some souvenirs and visiting the most famous places in Berlin, but now is time to eat our provisions from “Dunkin Donught” and go to sleep.

Tomorrow more again!

Today was really interesting day, full of impressions and new experience, quite unusual start for a week. Most of us woke up a bit tired, because of the talking almost until the midnight, but during the day everyone was full of energy and great ideas.

Today we went to Karlshorst, where we worked in groups and analyzed the exhibition in there. It was interesting to see something which was made by Germany and Soviet Union together.

In my opinion the most fascinating thing was that we visited Schóneweide memorial (forced labor camp). In there I felt a little bit strange. It was hard to really imagine that people were living there, fighting for their lives, starving and suffering from never-ending fears.

This day made to think deeper about POWs and life in WWII. It was a serious but nice day.

I am so happy that I can be here with all these young people from so different places of Europe. The atmosphere here is just great and I am totally enjoying that.

I have to apologize because yesterday it was impossible to write anything on the blog. We were completely exhausted!

After many days waking up very late, it’s not easy to get up at 7 o’clock in order to start with the work, but finally it wasn’t so bad! Thanks to “European Tina Games” (ETG) we knew better each other and some of our customs, so then, we were prepared to begin with the scheduled activities.

We were working very hard on our posters at home so, on the morning, after Frank explanations of the program (little difficult for him because of the church’s bells) everybody showed it and explained what our entry was about. All of them were very artistic, but what most impressed me were the different topic we had chosen and the entries’ “high quality”, all of them with a very good work of documentation, investigation, interviews, photos and many other unusual resources. It was very funny because we went out of the hotel, and sitting on the grass we tried to explain as well as possible our entry.

On the afternoon we went on a city tour in order to have a first contact with Berlin. Now we could “survive” on it if it was necessary (I don’t hope so!). For the moment I’m trying to adapt to different customs because the absence of the well-known Spanish “siesta” has terrible consequences.

On the evening, we worked with some disturbing photos of war prisoners. We “designed” many creative collages with them trying to explain our ideas and feelings about POWs treatment in camps. We notice the bad conditions of them, and how Geneva Conventions were not respected.

During these days we’ll work on it, trying to have a different and well founded idea about neclected victims of IIWW: war prisoners.

Our adventure ends here for today. Tomorrow will  be another day with many new things to do, so I’m going to sleep because I’m so tired that I’m going to fall asleep on the computer.

So I will leave here just a group picture from the Brandenburg gate and promise you a detailed report for tomorrow. And there is much to see, posters of competition entries, drawed associations  to the topic of Prisioners of war and collages with historical pictures. But more tomorrow!