I think the UK’s attitude towards Europe is sad if not lamentable. Our representation in Europe reflects this, and anything we can do to remedy it must be done.
The first thing to say is that the UK suffers from a lack of understanding of Europe, how it works and how it tries to benefit all EU citizens. This lack of knowledge is partly down to the lack of column inches in the media and what coverage there is is mostly negative.
Education is the key to this and sadly the one hugely successful pedagogical tool that helped to explain Europe to UK students, along with all other EU secondary schools in the EMS, was the Europa Diary. This was provided under a framework contract which was recently suspended, by the lead DG. (No names, no pack drills!)
If the European project is ever to move forward with conscensus there has to be an understanding of a common purpose. This will be more difficult to achieve if the rules for membership are so prescriptive that the fault lines are allowed to grow larger.
Education of, “tomorrows decision makers, today”, as well as an understanding of the positive, as well as the negative, aspects of the “project” are key to reducing the UK’s position on Europe. This will be the driver to better UK representation in Europe. This will not happen overnight but we should make every effort, NOW, to continue to provide more information to all UK citizens, and in particular our children. It is, after all, they who are going to have to deal with the situation that we leave to them.
2 comments
Anthony Coulson says:
Feb 28, 2012
I think the UK’s attitude towards Europe is sad if not lamentable. Our representation in Europe reflects this, and anything we can do to remedy it must be done.
David Thorburn says:
May 11, 2012
The first thing to say is that the UK suffers from a lack of understanding of Europe, how it works and how it tries to benefit all EU citizens. This lack of knowledge is partly down to the lack of column inches in the media and what coverage there is is mostly negative.
Education is the key to this and sadly the one hugely successful pedagogical tool that helped to explain Europe to UK students, along with all other EU secondary schools in the EMS, was the Europa Diary. This was provided under a framework contract which was recently suspended, by the lead DG. (No names, no pack drills!)
If the European project is ever to move forward with conscensus there has to be an understanding of a common purpose. This will be more difficult to achieve if the rules for membership are so prescriptive that the fault lines are allowed to grow larger.
Education of, “tomorrows decision makers, today”, as well as an understanding of the positive, as well as the negative, aspects of the “project” are key to reducing the UK’s position on Europe. This will be the driver to better UK representation in Europe. This will not happen overnight but we should make every effort, NOW, to continue to provide more information to all UK citizens, and in particular our children. It is, after all, they who are going to have to deal with the situation that we leave to them.