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03-12-04 Seminar report no 2  |
Dear Seminar-participants,
We thank you all for your contributions to the web seminar (November 15th-21st) and we hope that the following report, which sums up the different types of contributions we have received during the seminar-week. We hope that that the summary will result in a lot of final comments from you for the last week of the seminar (December 6th-12th) so do not hesitate to share your comments on the purpose, the principles, the content and the methods of European citizenship education and the First European Community College (FECC) and send them to seminar@acc.eu.org
1) Once again a lot of organizations have kindly sent us their logos and expressed their support of the project. We appreciate this gesture - thank you. We have placed the logos on the website as a symbol of support and within the revised description (see under).
2) A sum up of the contributions:
• Tomas Balco has sent a comment to the quotation from an interview on the core of Europe, the core of Europeanness made by the ACC. The person quoted suggests among other things that citizenship education should explain what impact the 20th Centuries Wars have had on the political integration of the EU. A topic of discussion should be who can and who cannot be a member of the EU – the membership of the EU should only be granted to the countries that regret and admit the sins they have committed in the past. Mr Balco disagree in some of the points made in the quotation by saying that Europe it is not only the 20th Centuries Wars that have had an impact because Europe is full of violence, genocide and bad guys, which, according to Mr Balco, makes it difficult to draw the line for a beginning and an end. Mr Balco states that there probably would be very few members left of the EU if everyone who did something bad should be excluded but agrees with the quotation regarding the requirement of an apology for committed crimes.
In conclusion, Mr Balco states that it is humanity that unites the Europeans in spite race, ethnics, religion, nationally etc. The concluding remark of Mr Balco indicates that humanity should be a core element in citizenship education at the FECC.
• Mjellma Mehmeti from the ACC-board provided another quotation from an interview on the core of Europe, the core of Europeanness made by the ACC. In the quotation it is stated that Christendom is what unites the Europeans now and in the future. The person quoted suggests that the FECC should teach the students about their historical bonds between the Europeans and their comment heritage which is based on Christian values.
• The Chairperson of the ACC, John Petersen, contributed with an extract of the thesis of Lucie Čížková: “Learning for European Co-Citizenship – Danish Contribution to the Educational Aspect of Post-National Identity Formation in Europe” (Link to a complied version of the thesis), hoping that the extract and the thesis will serve as inspiration and underline the importance of the FECC. The thesis analyses the current debate about the concept of citizenship and identity with a special regard to the European integration.
• Eva Valvo from the ACC-board provided some links to articles on European Identity from the trans-European website Cafebabel, which she believes could be an inspiration to topics dealt with at the FECC.
• The Chairman of the ACC, John Petersen, presented a video-statement given by a group of participants from the Europe of Rights Community College in Reggello in September 2004. Mr Petersen believes that the thoughts from the participants on the European citizenship education could be very beneficial input for the FECC. The group of participants believes that the FECC should be a platform for building cultural understanding and mutual respect in order to build a European future.
• Vasyl Ukhman agreed with the statement made by the group of participants from the Europe of Rights Community College but believes that solidarity also should be a core element of the FECC.
• The Chairman of the ACC, John Petersen, presented another video-statement given by a second group of participants from the Europe of Rights Community College in Reggello in September 2004. In this statement the group of participants emphasizes that the definition for European borders is not connected to any religions or world wars. According to the group of participant the FECC should create a dialogue on the priority of human rights, multicultural society and the aim to have similar living standards in the member-states.
3) New uploads
We have uploaded a revised version of the project description based on the “basic papers” and the contributions. In particular we have added the network of new “sympathizers” and some of your/their comments. Please do check if the statements are correct.
The revised project-description is available from the webseminars site (http://www.acc.eu.org/SEEEMS/2702.asp) and/or downloadable right here:
http://seminars.acc.eu.org/Seminars/(1)%20First%20European%20Community%20College%20(FECC)%20-%20A%20proposal%20for%20European%20Citizenship%20Education/Description%20of%20the%20FECC%20project/First%20European%20Community%20College%2012.pdf
We are looking forward to read your final comments in the days December 6th-12th
Please send directly to seminar@acc.eu.org
Faithfully,
John Petersen and Helle Villekold
ACC International Programme Office
Falstersgade 44, st.
DK-8000 Aarhus C
www.acc.eu.org
office@acc.eu.org
+45 7363 0043
+45 2425 3068
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