The overall aim of the project Imagine Europe is to give a voice to youngsters in redefining the mission and identity of Europe. The original mission of the European Union is a peace mission and looking back on a period of more than 50 years of peace in (Western) Europe, one can say that Europe’s peace mission is succeeding. By creating a free European economic area former World War opponents became trading partners and border-crossing issues are dealt more and more on European level.
More than fifty years after the Treaty of Rome, Europe – and the world – have changed. The threats and challenges of 50 years ago are not the same as the current issues we have to deal with in 2008. The free economic interaction in Europe is now embedded in a larger global scale and however it might have prevented us from World War three, it did not develop without side effects. Poverty, ecological issues, migration, ... challenge us to rethink the role and identity of Europe. How can we redefine Europe’s peace mission in the light of these challenges? In fact, Imagine Europe wants to stimulate the youngsters to think about the future of the European Union: about how we can create a European Union with more soul and more attention to the needs of the European citizens.
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