Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-25-Speech-1-168"
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"en.20060925.18.1-168"2
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".
Never before have the topics of European identity, European values, European borders and European citizenship been discussed as broadly as they are today. Granted, we are not able to define these notions precisely, but this debate is a manifestation of how Europe has changed. Where previously Europe was engaged not only in discussing, but also in controlling the production of coal and steel so as to avert the risk of war, today the discussion is about Europe itself and the world around it. I believe that this is a positive shift.
Education about what Europe has been through and the environment in which it exists is very important for its own development and for the world of the 21st century in which Europe may – and must – play a more important and positive role than in the 20th century, when it was a source of tragedy, war, totalitarianism and other woes on a global scale.
Ignorance and indifference tend to be major sources of intolerance. They pave the way for propaganda and the manipulation of public opinion, as well as the opinions of individuals. I therefore believe that education about Europe’s past and present, and the cultures that we experience and live in, is an important precondition for a more peaceful and cohesive Europe that will continue to develop its legal system and views on values and culture. I believe that Europe will set about doing this in more peaceful and tolerant ways than when it was engaged in mutual annihilation.
I would like to thank Christopher Beazley again for this own-initiative report and to express the hope that this topic may become a subject of debate among the Member States, for it is they that are responsible for determining the subject matter and organisation of education, something that will not be regarded as superfluous but rather as a highly important complementary aspect of education here in the single legal, economic and cultural space of an enlarged Europe."@en1
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