According to Philip Giurlando, a European Union expert at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario:

There is a … weak or absent sense of solidarity, whereas among other European nations and the original architects of the European project — the intellectuals that is — it wasn’t meant to be this glorified trade zone. It was meant to become a state.

When the economic times were good in most of the European countries, there was pride in the idea of a common European state. Now, at the same time as the economy has taken a massive downturn, there are opinion polls suggesting 60 to 70 per cent of the inhabitants of different European countries regret the move to the European Union and feel that there is no such phenomenon that can be called a European feeling let alone identity. Thus we strongly feel that it is high time to actively resist any feeling of anti-European attitude, any scepticism and resentment among European member states. For these reasons we have to raise awareness of the need for a new and heightened sense of togetherness, a shared identity rooted in our memories, our values and fears regarding the present, and our hopes and collective decisions for the future, a future of more than one nation only.

Young people who are provided with the opportunity of a first-hand and very tangible impression of their European fellow students are given the chance of meeting, working with and interacting with young people from all over Europe. They are more likely to develop a better understanding and appreciation of each other. This will be the best of all bases for all sorts of troubleshooting in their later professional lives – even if it comes to a “debt crisis” such as the one we are facing at the very moment. In this way a natural feeling of solidarity can be ensured and any form of prejudice can much more easily be overcome among teachers and students alike.

Ourproject objectives are trifold:

• Concerning the process of working together on a European basis and methodical approaches:

Students will get familiar with diverse methods of research such as the setting up of questionnaires, carrying out and analysing of surveys and documenting the different results, taking photos (activity: “Pictures of an Exhibition”; Team building exercises; ) and communicating and comparing these results with partnership students. For one this will contribute to their ability to work more and more independently,for another this will stimulate and improve their media literacy.
The planned “Symposium” is meant to increase our students´ability to “debate” difficult issues by learning and applying problem solving and target oriented discussion techniques. In this way they will experience the “debate” as a parliamentary form of solving problems and will be enabled to approach such issues in a well-structured and organised manner leading to an improved awareness concerning their role in European history. They will also learn that it is essential to commit oneself to issues – personal, political or social notwithstanding.
Furthermore, the debate will improve their ability to communicate convincingly in English.

• Concerning our “coming of age as Europeans” approach : (students)

With first getting to know each other activities (Dance) and later on the sporting competition our students will perform team building activities in order to establish a partnership-oriented feeling of trust, solidarity and reliability.
Hopefully this will result in a productive form of co-operation with the individual European counterpart and finally create and intensify a European feeling of togetherness and belonging – the major target in our Comenius School Partnership.

• Concerning the lessons beyond the classroom aspect (teachers)

The teachers will get a wider perspective as to the possibilities of learning beyond the classroom and experience that learning by doing retains lessons for a lifetime. By helping to organize more daily life oriented tasks they will experience a lot about themselves, other people, different cultures, and the world around you while making important contributions to our society. Their constant exchange of ideas with other European teachers about approaches how to help students  organize the different activities will lead to a better understanding.
The “Europedia” represents our students´ devoted, critical and efficient work over a period of two years.