How do you explain Europe to your Children ?

I really liked the question of Klaus Schwab during the second Plenary session today, about The Shape of the New European Union. Klaus Schwab is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Question: -How do you explain what Europe is in one sentence to your Children ? My answer after World War Two was easy, "Peace"-

Wojciech J. Kostrzewa, President and CEO, BRE Bank, Poland: Europa is the freedom of traveling and using the same Currency
Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia: Europe is about diversity but diversity is not a very good "glue".
Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands : Freedom, Excellence and Solidarity
Georgi Parvanov, President of Bulgaria: it will not be difficult to explain to my sons what is Europe because our children have no complexes heritated from the past, they do not use the rear view window. They are much ahead of us, they have their own definition
Rafael del Pino, Chairman, Ferrovial, Spain: Europe is the place where we can success but it is not quite there yet
Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland: Peace and Solidarity

Here is mine: a dream without enough definition, without a Face, and without proper execution that may come true when you are adults (my boys are 8, 6 and 3 years old).

What is yours ?

Comments

[John Robb]

A flexible model for global integration.

Hopefully, the trend towards ala carte integration continues. The more granular the options become, the greater the potential that it can be expanded beyond Europe.

[Matthew Cadbury]

Europe is about shared values of respect, tolerance, law, opportunity and democracy. Without these it will not succeed. Right now the biggest impediment to European progress is its economic policies, particularly the Common Agricultural Policy which is a crazy survivor of Stalinist thinking. Europe must learn to move forward and that includes abandoning errors like the CAP.

[Rodrigo Sepulveda]

Europe is the place where my son's ancestors came from (since the 16th c.): Denmark, Prussia (places now in Russia and Poland), Austro-Hungary (places now in Austria and Slovenia), Italy, France and Spain.

It's where Western Civilization was born, and where a big part of our cultural heritage comes from, both in terms of language, civilization, and political structure.

The European dream is not new (Catherine de Medicis had to deal with Poland, Spain, Flanders, France, etc. at the same time 5 centuries ago), nor is the freedom of movement: scholars travelled to Universities in Bologna, Paris, Salamanca, Heidelberg, Oxford 8 centuries ago.

The idea of peace and fraternity is not new. Victor Hugo spoke about it already in the early 19th century. Robert Schuman spoke again about it a century later.
However, modern Europe was built on the aftermath of 3 wars between France and Germany. It had become a necessity for future generations.

Hence, Europe is not about our past anymore (although we should cherish our heritage).

Europe is about our future.

[lionel]

europe is what the world should become before we die. otherwise we'll die.

[jm]

germans love belgians who love frenchs who love italians who love spanishs who love polishs who love englishs who love Hungarians, etc...

[martin varsavsky]

This is how I explain Europe to my kids.

Europe is a continent that suffered tyranny and war for thousands of years until after the worse war of all it finally realized that there was a better way and over the last 60 years it´s been a thriving place of mostly peace and prosperity. Aren´t you lucky to have been born now?

[Olivier Travers]

OK, I cheated, my post is not kid-proof! Let me try again:

"Europe is a space we live in where we can move freely around to choose what's best for us."

[Olivier Travers]

The opportunity brought by Europe is more freedom and competition. If you don't like the economic opportunities, taxation system or local laws, you can relocate elsewhere with relatively few administrative hassles to check out whether grass is greener elsewhere. It's a system that can keep local politicians in check and prevent them from doing too stupid things (provided nations actually comply with European law, which is far from a given). In a nutshell, Europe is a both an opportunity enabler and a safeguard.

Of course Europe can also become a dystopian sovietic superstate where everything has been streamlined to the worst-case scenario with high taxes and restricted freedom of speech, while offering no significant differences within it. We are at a crossroads (and the EU has a heavy tendency towards more bureaucracy and more rules), be very wary of the proponents of "harmonization," as you might not like their baseline.

[Oliver Thylmann]

Ok Ross, you win ;)

[Ross Mayfield]

Where mommy comes from

[Oliver Thylmann]

a patchwork of countries that are trying to forget their borders, put their history beind them, march united into a better future not forgetting their own cultures.

I actually don't think you can explain europe in a few words. You'd probably need a picture example for a kid.

What is Europe?
Think of it as a salad buffet. We're now taking out all the boxes and putting the salad on the buffet all by itself. Salad sticks to its own, but there will be a little mixing and matching and it will be a mess in some parts. Over time, the borders between salads will be not only non existent but also not there anymore, untracable. And before too long, you will have one big blob of salad, with the importance being that without their own little place, each salad still needs to know what their roots are. You will have to adapt your eating order a little bit, but the diversity and exchange will make us all richer, in many espects and least of which money.

Ok, that got a little bit longer. But it might be a start :)