Young, bright…unemployed?

Young, strong, smart, but without job. It is the radiography of thousands of young Europeans. The worst case is Spain where in some counties the unemployment rate is about or more than 50% of the active population. Solutions? The European Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee approved last week a packet of proposals in order to decrease the Youth unemployment.

Europe for all. A funny way to explain EU to all audience by videos.

Europe and the European Union for some people are concepts that translate to far, boring and unintelligible. I guess it is not a secret to say. However, in order to change such vision, the Spanish website of information about EU, Hablamos de Europa (we speak about Europe), has uploaded several videos in a YouTube Channel explaining Europe in a funny way.

European Studies? What is (will be) it?

I got inspired from a seminar we had, and two questions came to my mind. The first of them is what is European Studies, or the concept “European Studies” as we understand nowadays in our master students perspective and how has it changed in my own perspective during the last years. The second question I would like to answer is what can European Studies teach and what is the future of these studies.

Open Letter about Multiculturalism to Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy.

Dear Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy,

The last weeks I have read declarations from all of you, Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy, declaring that multiculturalism has failed. I speak as a Spaniard with Catalan culture living in Sweden, and who has traveled around Europe and the world during the last five years.

Cars green and green and green….

The European Commission has decided to be more green with the environment and to reduce CO2 emissions. The Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport is a key player in this aim. In fact, in the website is clearly written the next following statement:

“Clean and energy-efficient vehicles are essential if the European Union is to achieve its 2020 targets for improving energy efficiency, increasing the market share of renewable energy sources, and reducing CO2 emissions”.

The Tragedy of Central Europe

   Our group has chosen the text by Milan Kundera “The Tragedy of Central Europe”. The text was published in 1984, which makes it even more interesting to read from the time prospective that we have now. Almost 30 years passed since Kundera has published his text, but we think it still remains actual. If talking generally, authors argues that Central Europe was always the part of Western Europe – in a cultural way, but it disappeared from being identified as western, due to the cultural desolation. Kundera identify Central Europe not like a state, but as a culture. The “tragedy”, “kidnapping” in the article heading refers to the cultural approach that disappears nowadays in Europe. Author links European culture to the Central Europe using examples of famous artists, and since Central Europe was kidnapped – and no one noticed it, the whole unity of European culture gone as well. This is the problematic question that Kundera puts. 

Spain is different? Para bien, y para mal…

          Hace poco más de una semana tuve el placer y el privilegio de asistir a una clase en la universidad bastante especial y peculiar. El tema que se trataba era la memoria en la España post franquista. No tendría nada de peculiar si no fuera porque esa clase se dió en la Universidad de Lund (Suecia) por  Carsten Humlebaek, un profesor Danés que fue invitado para la ocasión. Para mí fue toda una grata sorpresa que alguien que en un primer momento y a simple vista no se podría identificar con la cultura Española, sabía tanto y era consciente de la sensibilidad y delicadeza del tema.

Euro in Tallinn

 

          Euro Apteek not only is one of the biggest pharmacies we came across in Tallinn, but it is centrally located, right next to their national monument celebrating first independence. Of course we couldn’t meet the owner of the pharmacy, but when asked why is the drug store named this way,the pharmacist on duty told us it’s just a catchy name to raise confidence and set a standard. Indeed it does. The EU is associated with some kind of regulations and control over the use of certain substances that drugs are made of. But do we really rely on this every time we buy a medicine? Or is it just a psychological effect the euro name has on our confidence and trust development? Either way, the customers were plenty and pretty satisfied. 

Catalan “embassies” around the world with political representation?

      When I was writing my paper for my Master course, I found some piece of news and blogs very interesting. They speak about the creation of  “Catalan embassies” around the world. I was so interested in this issue that I made a small research in regard to this issue. The Catalan government has created delegations is some countries of Europe, and in America. They are in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, United States and Argentina. It is curious how one delegation-embassy from the foreign affairs department of the Catalan Government is in….Madrid!

Cultural exchange in Europe: No more obstacles by visa obligations

In the article from The New Federalist, Lea Sarah argues that Non European students have troubles getting their VISA in order to study in Europe. In the case of European Studies it is much bigger problem. She is arguing that students coming from different parts of Europe, and out of Europe would create liberal exchange environment and it will create an interaction. She concludes that European Union should be more welcoming to the students out of Europe.

Our Comment——–

We believe you are right. We are Master students of European Studies in Lund University, and we have the same problem that you have mentioned in your article. We have some colleagues as well who had the same problem and some of them could only get a visa for one year for a two year masters program and we find this unfair especially in the case of European Studies. We believe that European Studies master programs will be much better if people with different backgrounds and who are from different parts of Europe could participate as well. This would bring diversity and a different point of view to the subjects in the masters and the students can share their experiences and their knowledge of Europe to their home countries. With that, the idea of Europe will be promoted as well and it will grow not only in the political point of view, also with the cultural and integration point of view. Also it would be really useful to have educated and qualified people outside of the Europe in case of a future enlargement those people would help in the process of their integration to the EU.

For example, Sweden was one of the last countries that didn’t have fees for education regardless of their nationality (even higher studies). But for the next year, Sweden has changed the law, and now the Non-European students will pay a huge fee to study in a Swedish university. It for sure will be another obstacle in addition to the VISA problem. Until now, one could see a town full of students from everywhere around the world, and it makes education much rich and better. For the next year, Swedish education will have less diversity than previous years, and Sweden will lose one of the best points it has in education.

As Flingstein points out more interaction would promote further integration of the European citizens so EU should lay the grounds for people so that they can interact more easily and freely, if it wants to create a common European identity and promote interaction.

Can Olgu ERDEREN

Javier RUIZ