YEPP approve resolution on European Identity
international |
eu |
opinion/analysis 
Monday April 05, 2004 16:39
by International Secretary - Young Fine Gael
Meeting earlier ths year in Dublin, YEPP voted to accept this resolution
Resolution on European Identity
Proposed by YFG (Ireland), Jong-cd&v (Belgium), CDJA (The Netherlands) and KRFU (Norway)
Accepted by the Youth of the European Peoples Party (YEPP) meeting in Dublin
Recognising
• That 40% of all European Union Citizens do not believe that they share in any form of European Identity (Eurobarometer 59 Spring 2003)
Believing
• That while this continues to be the case, the following aspiration of the draft EU constitution can not be considered to be entirely accurate, although we support its sentiment; “Convinced that, while remaining proud of their own national identities and history, the peoples of Europe are determined to transcend their ancient divisions and, united ever more closely, to forge a common identity”.
• That any form of European identity will not in any-way diminish regional or national identities, of which many citizens of Europe are justifiably proud.
Noting
• That culture is the principle component of national identity.
• That under both the Maastricht Treaty and the proposed draft Constitution, culture is a shared competency of the European Union.
• That a good understanding of Europe and the EU can only be developed through education.
Accepting
• That culture is the sum of the total of learned behaviour of a group of people that is generally considered to be the tradition of that people and is transmitted from generation to generation.
This conference believes that the European Union should take a greater and more active role in the promotion and development of a common European culture while at the same time celebrating the national and regional variations and diversity of culture.
In order to achieve this YEPP calls for the following steps to be taken:
• To create a European Theatre, consisting of an unlimited number of companies, whose duty it will be to tour Europe performing and promoting plays of cross-cultural and cross-national European value.
• That a European Museum of Arts and Literature be created.
• That a European Film Institute be created, to finance, develop, promote and support films of pan-European value. Also, the Institute should oversee an awards system, in order to acknowledge the contribution of filmmakers and actors to the European Film Industry.
• That the history of Europe and the development of the European Ideal and EU be taught as part of the education system in each member-state of the EU.
• That the European Union should provide greater financial, logistic and promotional support for the holding of pan-European sporting events at youth, amateur and professional levels.
• That every tenth year an Exhibition of the European Union be held. This will be an event celebrating all aspects of life within the European Union; it will contain exhibitions of the innovations, culture and art of the peoples of the European Union. Furthermore competitions should take place in the fields of Literature, Sports and Arts. We believe this event would help foster and develop common links between the peoples of the European Union and help awaken a European Identity.
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5What value is there in promoting a european identity? none that i can see
Shared European Heritage is a by-line for White, it means being proud of a colonial past and the subjugation of other peoples.
Funny that the blueshirts and their christian democrat law and order friends are keen to plug the gap as the external borders of the eu become more and more militarised and computerised.
The only progressive identity that should be aspired to is a human identity.
A splendid way of celebrating our superior race and culture. I trust that all non-Europeans within our borders will either be excluded these provisions by preventing them to from working for at least seven years or demonising and harassing them until they decide to blow up our trains.
What a load of cock.
How can you celebrate a 'culture' that has singlehandedly been responsible for the destruction of the world.
Europeans go fuck off and die.
What colonial pasts have Ireland, Estonia, Liathaunia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Luxemburg, Norway, Finland, Malta and Cprus got to be proud of?
Belgium has a pretty nasty colonial past in the Congo/Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi, one of the worst, in fact.
People in the other European places you mention benefit to some degree or other from the spoils of the European imperial conquests; the control of global capital and resources largely by European (as well as US) interests, neo-colonial capital ventures in the third world, unfair terms of trade and the subjugation of 3d world economies by European (and US) dominated institutions like the "World" Bank and the IMF. We are continuing to fuck them over in a fluffy christian democrat and "business sense" way, since the imperial armies and companies left (& sometimes didn't, like Lloyds of London, a major contributor to European economic power, using wealth made from the slave trade).
They also all benefit from the privileges of "whiteness" a supremacist ideology devised in colonial times which permeates all our societies, which justifies the pillaging of third world resources globally and the marginalisation of people of colur domestically.
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