Euroweb: What is the School of Active Citizenship? Do you think you can spread it beyond the upper Grasse region?
FB: Our project is an innovative educational concept, the result of a collaboration between several European organizations that have been working together for over ten years and have decided to pool practices and tools created in the context of various experimental projects supported by the European Commission. The purpose of the school is firstly to raise awareness among young people of European citizenship as an essential element of their personal development, and secondly to make them active in building Europe by strengthening their participation in decisions that concern them. The geographical base of this school is the village of Mas, which offers all the facilities for hosting successive cohorts, but we have also spread to Spain and Bulgaria. Our mission is to disseminate our concept and its educational content throughout Europe and even in more distant countries, as we have just concluded a project with four Latin American countries on the theme of universal citizenship with the drafting of a joint declaration inspired by the values of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. We are in a dynamic of opening up and promoting a powerful message that brings together the energies of youth.
Euroweb: Dare to Europe. Why use the term “Dare”?
FB: There was a time not so long ago when talking about Europe was considered taboo by our elected officials and seen as a non-sellable subject by our media. Things are evolving gradually, but European cause activists need to continue their explanations to the general public to demonstrate the stakes of this political construction. We need to dare to assert and defend our convictions. Also, to gain full public support, we must propose a new “European dream” like the one that guided the founding fathers after World War II. It is undeniable that we must relearn to “dream of Europe,” because, as novelist Madeleine Chapsal says, “we will need to dream because, for things to become possible, one must first dream them.”
Euroweb: How can you add a “soul” to the upcoming elections?
FB: I took the initiative to write to all my fellow mayors in the department telling them that on June 7th, we will be organizing the European elections in our municipalities on the occasion of renewing our representatives in the European Parliament, and that this is a solemn moment for expressing our European citizenship through the active functioning of democracy. Through this letter, I want to express my concern that, once again, a high abstention rate (reminder: 54% in 2004) would be a renewed sign of a misunderstanding by our constituents of the stakes of their vote and would reinforce among our European partners the feeling of a weakening of the French political message…
Local elected officials have a particular responsibility to engage constituents in participating in this election. Europe has been built since 1979 on the basis of votes of MEPs elected by direct universal suffrage. Our voice is thus taken up and amplified even in the European hemicycle. This consultation has become a major election over time. We must therefore organize educational events to raise public awareness of the stakes of building Europe and this election.
It is essential for voters in the Alpes-Maritimes to be convinced that their department will be represented. We must therefore engage with political headquarters of all stripes to ensure, contrary to the current mandate, that an MEP will come from the Alpes-Maritimes and will fully dedicate themselves to a mandate that requires full availability. It seems to me that these two conditions are legitimate prerequisites for voter participation. I add to this that it is necessary to allow young people, who are involved at their level in building Europe and ready to commit, to be in an eligible position on these lists. The top trio announced by the UMP in the Southeast has an average age of 64 years… As long as political parties consider the European Parliament as a house for “pre-retirees” or for apparatchiks whom we thank for their good and loyal services, Europe will be stalled. Being a Member of the European Parliament is above all being an activist for Europe, representative of today’s society and carrying the values of tomorrow’s society; it’s about dedicating oneself to a single, beautiful mission.
