Europe, theory and practice

The Netherlands and Belgium, two countries at the heart of Europe, both troubled in their ways in recent years: Increasing anti-Islam sentiments in the former, and a deep regional division between Wallonia and Flanders in the latter. Regional and national interests seem to dominate the political agenda. Nevertheless, talking to the young about Europe revealed a first impression: The most interesting thing about Europe, perhaps, is not any theoretical justification, but its very concrete advantages.

The first thing one is very annoyed about when crossing national borders: An instant message of your mobile provider at what costs you can make calls abroad. When we organised our project, it was not actually possible to find one affordable contract for Europe-wide mobile internet, despite all attempts of the European commission to reduce roaming costs. Communication-wise, getting to know Europe is going to be expensive for us.

On the third day of our journey, we were invited to the Dutch Parliament, the Tweede Kamer, by deputy Raymond Knops (CDA) and had a talk about Europe as a community of values, European peace, and so on – the things we heard in many conversations. More interestingly, we had a coffee with his twenty-something year old assistent afterwards, who suffered from a similar problem to ours: In his hometown near the Dutch-German border, he only receives German Vodafone: “Why is there no mobile company that establishes a European flat or something similar?” Even if many of us are able to understand theoretically that Europe has brought peace; even if we all know that there are common values; what we often end up talking about is how much we pay for making phone calls and withdrawing money abroad.

When we asked Polish MEP Rozá Thun (People’s Party) in Brussels what should count more for young people in Europe: Peace or lower roaming costs, she said: “All the concrete measures and advantages are an instrument for peace.” If Europe creates a framework facilitating e-commerce, for example, this means creating more of the peaceful exchanged that continuously increased in the last fifty years and must further increase. People will act for peace without noticing.

Indeed, approaching people with theoretical stuff in our interviews very often led nowhere. A very common reaction to our inquiry, even on university campuses: “Europe? Can’t really tell you about that, but I know someone who might be interesting for you.” Dutch people in Amsterdam or Rotterdam eventually told us about their problems with university fees or failed integration of immigrants; Belgians in Brussels or Antwerp explained why they thought that Flanders should demonstrate more or less solidarity with Wallonia. Concerning Europe, what was interesting for everyone, were the things mentioned above: roaming, travelling, Erasmus, and so on.

However, this does not mean that young people can be exempted of the necessity of thinking about the more dry subject of framing Europe. As MEP Libor Roucek (socialist group)  in Brussels pointed out in our interview: If people enjoy travelling around Europe without borders, they also have to understand that this means protecting the borders of Schengen. Yet, who knows FRONTEX? Concrete pleasures entail the nessity to regulate things on a wider scale. So, even if Europe is more about the practical things, European politics need to put accross better what challenges for policy-makers derive.

Eventually, however, the experiences we had made us very attracted by all the theoretical no-more-war talk as well: Apart from chatting about roaming costs and fuel prices across borders, the deputy’s assistant in the Tweede Kamer also showed us the old and impressive library with all the protocols of Parliament’s history. For the symbolism, they leave the shelf for the period of WWII empty, when Tweedekammer was out of session. As a German, you can’t help feeling a bit embarrassed and appreciate Europe in its dimension of peacefully living together.

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