Europe

This unit is for learning about European dimensions of citizenship, specifically:

• the United Kingdom’s relations in Europe
• opportunities to bring about social change in Europe
• wider issues of global interdependence and sustainable development.
  

Background

Europe is at the centre of most world maps in common use. Where and what is Europe today? And what should young people in the United Kingdom be learning about it? The following three activities provide linked sets of learning inputs on aspects of European citizenship.

European citizenship

Since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the term ‘European citizenship’ has been used to refer to people living in member states of the European Union. European citizens have a range of rights agreed by that treaty, including freedom of movement and the right to stand for the European Parliament. As the European Union expands its membership, more individual Europeans will become European citizens by this definition. In a looser sense, everyone living in Europe today might regard themselves as citizens of Europe. The apparent confusion is caused by using the core term ‘Europe’ with a variety of meanings.

Geographically, the European continent is the western area of the Eurasian landmass, traditionally divided at its eastern edge by the Urals Mountains, so there is a ‘European Russia’ and an ‘Asian Russia’. To the north is Iceland, at the edge of Europe; to the west is Portugal and offshore islands, and to the south, Mediterranean islands like Malta and Cyprus. Culturally, all these areas claim a common European heritage, speaking a closely related group of languages, sharing a history dominated by Christianity and believing in common values of democracy and tolerance – although European conflicts were the cause of two devastating world wars in the last century. The European Union is a way of rebuilding a Europe with shared values in order to avoid such conflicts in the future. The Union represents mainly the countries of Western Europe, although this is set to change with a major enlargement of the Union due by 2004. Therefore, the self-identity of Europeans is in a state of flexibility. As far as institutions go, there is a Council of Europe, formed in 1949, to work for democracy and shared values across the whole of Europe, and there are the institutions of the European Union, formed in 1956, to bring a larger measure of political, social and economic unity among its members.

For young people, being a citizen of Europe today can have an impact at several levels of identity. Being born, brought up or living in Europe means expecting a certain level of consumer comfort, education, health care and state welfare, which many countries beyond the frontiers of Europe do not have. It also means a cultural claim to belong to the traditions of Beethoven, Cervantes and Pushkin – to be an inheritor of people who have made a distinctive expressive mark on the world. To belong to a member state of the European Union means, in addition, to have benefits of sharing in a new trade partnership where people can move and work freely. This means many increased opportunities for students and school leavers to gain wider experiences than their parents had. It also means being part of the excitement of historical change, being in a new political unit shaping a new kind of shared community and representative structures. The teacher’s task is to help their students appreciate the significance of being part of this newly-forming Europe, feeling that they are young citizens with a role to play and whose contributions are valued. Teaching about Europe, through this case study and others, can help students to understand and express their ideas about what it means to be a European citizen today.

UK relations in Europe

A major thrust of learning about Europe within the United Kingdom (certainly within England) has up to now been a reflection of political debates about the extent to which ‘Britain’ is in ‘Europe’ or if the expression ‘Britain and Europe’ continues to have valid meaning.

By 2002, United Kingdom governments had stayed out of the first European Coal and Steel Community (formed in 1952) and European Economic Community (formed by the Treaty of Rome in 1957). They had applied unsuccessfully (in 1961 and 1967) to join the EEC and successfully in 1971, finally being accepted in 1973 with Denmark and the Republic of Ireland, expanding membership from six to nine states. Today the United Kingdom is an active partner in a newly named (since 1992) European Union of fifteen member states, due to expand by 2004 with up to ten or possibly thirteen new member states. However, the United Kingdom has not so far held a referendum on joining the euro zone for a shared European currency (in general use in twelve member states in 2002) and there continues to be repercussions in foreign policy about the extent to which the United Kingdom stands with its historic ally across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States, as against the extent to which it acts in concert with newer European allies. The ‘special relationship’ with the United States has caused tension between the United Kingdom and European allies, particularly on international issues where the military are involved. Learning specifically about the UK’s relations within the European Union and with other European states provides useful knowledge and understanding about the general implications of European citizenship for young people today and helps to develop awareness of the relationships that provide the context for many other global issues they may study.

A second area of learning about Europe concerns social change. Europeans have a long history of working for social change. Pioneer activist movements include anti-slavery groups during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (there are still anti-slavery organisations in the twenty-first century), and campaigners for women’s and children’s rights in the twentieth century. Many individuals like Elizabeth Fry in England and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in Switzerland became known as social activists; others joined groups and organisations to achieve a greater effect. By the start of the twenty-first century, Europeans had a strong inheritance of working for social change through awareness raising, campaigning and money making activities. Today there is a vibrant and wide-ranging non-government sector across Europe, working for social change in collaboration with governmental organisations.

The concepts they work on tend to be guided by the idea of shared European values. This idea can be traced back to classical times and the emergence of practical democracy in Greece. Subsequently, the Christian religion has made a large impact on the formation of European values and lifestyles – as indeed elsewhere in the world. An ongoing question can be, ‘Are there distinctively European values?’ The Council of Europe was formed after World War II to promote the values of human rights and democracy within Europe. Most European states have achieved membership of the Council (which is far bigger than the European Union, although it is often confused with it). In 1950 the Council created a Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, with a Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to give effect to the rights proclaimed for all Europeans. This gives more valid meanings to terms like ‘shared European values’ and opportunities for people and groups to share experiences of working for change across the continent.

A third important strand of learning about ‘the European dimension’ is to understand aspects of Europe’s current role in the world. The last century saw the ‘old Europe’ cause two world wars and finally give up its claims to empire. The ‘new Europeans’ are trying to promote fairer trading patterns and generous aid relationships with countries that are economically poorer. Initially, in the early days of the EEC, these tended to be particularly with former colonies of member states, so it could be said that ex-French colonies and, after the United Kingdom joined the Union in 1973, former British colonies received favourable treatment. The EU’s relations with the wider world tend to span the whole world – including a clearer focus on needs within Europe, as in conflict areas like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. It is also important, when learning about European views on sustainable development and fair trade, to make clear which ‘Europe’ is meant. The young European citizen learning to be a world citizen in a United Kingdom classroom sits within a number of widening circles – as a member of a local community in a part of Europe; as a member of a nation state which is a member of the present European Union (sometimes seen in the rest of the Union as reluctant), and also as a member of the whole of geographical Europe by association of shared cultures and histories. And yet, how many of these young people, if given opportunities to meet and share ideas with young people from other traditions of citizenship (for example African, American or Asian), would naturally introduce themselves by saying first ‘I am European’ in place of saying ‘I am British’, or ‘Scottish’, ‘Welsh’ or ‘Northern Irish’? Europe is still so diverse politically and socially, as well as culturally, that a new sense of being European in the world is still forming.

Useful websites

• www.citizen.org.uk/speakout – Speak Out! On European Citizenship
• www.europa.eu.int/ – European Union on-line
• www.europa.eu.int/euro – Introduction to the euro
• www.coe.int/portalT.asp – Council of Europe portal
• www.one-europe.ac.uk – Social change in Europe
• www.news.bbc.co.uk – Current events in Europe
• www.csreurope.org – Corporate social responsibility in Europe
• www.foeeurope.org – Europe and global environmental issues
• www.oneworld.org/eurostep – European non-government development organisations
• www.solidar.org – Migrant domestic labour in Europe