Warsaw Declaration

Introduction

To all of us, born in 1989, being European citizens means movement.
Movement can cover many different concepts and terms: mobility, development, exchange of knowledge, flexibility, tolerance and choice. As countries are opening their borders, likewise people should open their minds.
In order to move and to progress, one needs to know one’s origins and one needs a common aim: we would like to offer our children a European future that will not allow nations, cities, friends and families to be separated again.
In this declaration we are going to focus on two main points: education and participation in the European Union. We believe that these points will be of crucial importance for the future of the European Union.


Education

We strongly believe that a good education is of the utmost importance in order to guarantee a prospering future for the European Union. Therefore, we want to point out the following ideas:

-    By acknowledging the motto “United in Diversity” we strongly support crossing of cultural borders.
-    We, as the Generation 89, emphasise the promotion of intercultural education through the learning of different European languages and the understanding of different cultures.
-    Our overall aim is to promote tolerance among Europeans. Therefore, we stress the need for open-mindedness towards all social groups surrounding us. Everyone should be treated equally regardless of his/her origin, social background and/or physical or mental health/disabilities.
-    We emphasise the importance of alternative methods of non-formal education in order to support/reinforce an active democratic civil society.
-    Furthermore, we want to highlight the importance of encouraging life-long learning through the dialogue between generations.
-    In order to implement these ideas into our national educational systems, we suggest creating a new school subject - “European Studies”. This subject would cover all topics mentioned above.
-    Moreover we want to underline the fact that these ideas shall not only be directed at young people, but rather for all citizens of the European Union.
-    All in all, we strongly encourage the knowledge sharing a co-existence between representatives of different cultures, ages, nationalities, levels of education and social status, since we believe sharing plays an essential role for our continuing development
-    Finally, we suggest a more intense promotion of the European Broadcast Union and European Newsletters. These can be used as real means of informing citizens about the impact of the EU's (actions) upon our everyday life.
-    Nevertheless we do realise that while pursuing the goals set out above we shouldn't neglect regional cultural identities. The goal is a common European culture that has respect for others, while actively preserving the unique character of each region.


Participation

In order to enhance participation of young people towards the European Union we suggest that:

-    European citizens should be given the opportunity to access daily news on the issues covered at the European level.
-    The European Youth should be given the opportunity to report on European parliamentary and other European institutional affairs and to impart them by diverse means of communication closer to the Youth, such as social networking.
-    Sessions on the responsibility of an active European citizenship should be made available in schools and universities across Europe, enabling students to come into contact with NGOs and other institutions responsible for the promotion of European projects.
-    The European Union may want to introduce new incentives to promote awareness about the responsibility of the Youth and the opportunities they have in participating in decision-making through the channel of voting.
-    The European Union should develop new ideas and projects in schools engaging children in European affairs on a regular basis. These new ideas would be dispersed through innovative ways of campaigning and advertising.
-    The European Union should emphasize the use of internet and recognize its potential as a new platform of communication and therefore assure an unrestricted access according to the liberty of speech, guaranteed by every EU member state, in order to promote citizens’ active participation.

This Declaration has been made by young Europeans, born in 1989, from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom.

Signatories:
Ioana Anton (Romania), Magdalena Bajda (Poland), Tomasz Burdzik (Poland), Żaneta Czyżniewska (Poland), Virginia Denisa Dan (Romania), Thomas Deweer (Belgium), Karoline Felsner (Austria), Katharina Holst (Germany), Ádám Kapcsos (Hungary), Vera Kondratiuk (Poland), Daniel Kontowski (Poland), Ewelina Krasowska (Poland), Katarzyna Kuczyńska (Poland), Iliana Lazarova (Bulgaria), Réka Livits (Hungary), Alasdair Ian William Macleod (UK), Nikolas Ott (Germany), Konrad Piwowarczyk (Poland), Simona Popa (Romania), Agnieszka Pyrkosz (Poland), Luigi Sementilli (Belgium), Karolína Šklebená (Czech Republic), Kateřina Šustrová (Czech Republic), Ondřej Wagner (Czech Republic), Barbara Wasilewska (Poland), Céline Wiertz (Belgium), Judith Woerle (Austria), Georgina Wright (UK)