Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-23-Speech-1-191"
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"en.20090323.23.1-191"2
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"Europe is the promised land for people from distant continents or the Balkans who wish to join Europe. At the same time, Europe is in many respects the symbol of disappointment, of boredom or of bureaucracy for those who are already inside the gate: EU citizens, whether opinion-shaping intellectuals or ordinary citizens.
When I received the report, I began to read it with great enthusiasm. I must say, my enthusiasm declined to some extent by the end, since I myself realised how many obstacles there are to engaging in active dialogue with citizens, and how far removed the bureaucratic machinery of the European Union is from the daily lives and wishes of its citizens. In any case, I realised thanks to the report that – perhaps unsurprisingly – the lower the educational level or status of our citizens, the less they understand integration and the more eurosceptical they are.
I think, therefore, and this is the most important part of my report, that beyond young people – who can easily be won over to the cause of European integration via educational means – we should primarily target those whom we have so far not been able to reach. This includes inhabitants of small villages, the working classes, pensioners, and generally those of more modest means and circumstances. We need to try somehow to communicate to them the idea of Europe and the values of European unity.
In my report I recommend that many more students be enabled to obtain an Erasmus scholarship than is currently the case; a separate proposal to this effect has been drawn up by the youth branch of the Hungarian Socialist Party. Only a small percent of Hungarian university students are able to take advantage of this student exchange programme, although it would be desirable for everyone who obtains a university degree to have spent at least half a year studying abroad.
My own idea was that there should be a unified, one-year common European curriculum in history teaching. Students should study the same European history in all 23 official languages and all 27 Member States for at least one year. The Commission did not lend much support to this proposal, and included a watered-down version of it in its text.
I suggested, based on the recommendation of Hungarian university teachers, that we create a European open university, in other words a sort of ‘Volkshochschule’, a popular community college. European citizens should be able to enrol anywhere in Europe, regardless of their school certificates or diplomas, for a relatively freely structured training programme that offers education in the history of the European Union and of its creation and workings.
It has long been the wish of Members of the European Parliament, their desire but one might also say their demand, that Euronews, which is funded – at least in part – by EU money, should broadcast programmes in each Member State’s official language. There is something absurd about the fact that Euronews broadcasts in Arabic or Russian but not in Hungarian or in some other Member States’ languages. I am sad to report, by the way, Commissioner – I presume that you are hearing this for the first time – that cable television packages in Budapest have dropped the English-language Euronews, and are offering a Chinese-language programme instead, for unfortunately there is more demand for Chinese television than for Euronews, given that the latter is not broadcast in Hungarian, whereas there is a considerable number of Chinese people living in our country now.
There was much debate, and I would like to inform the Commissioner, if he is present, that I would also have liked to recommend that European Union officials be able to communicate with the media more openly than has hitherto been the case. The problem, however, is that often there is no one who can competently explain the Commission's position, and therefore only the opinion of its opponents is heard.
Finally, as my time is up, my last sentence is that I recommended that local non-governmental organisations become involved in EU campaigns, for these are much better acquainted with local communities, and know the language in which they can reach their populations."@en1
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