Donetsk Euroclub is happy to present a series of essays on the topic "Future of Europe" by former members of Euroclubs. Essays were submitted for a competition to participate in a Youth in Action exchange in Norway. Essays are presented as received.
Author: Anastasiia Zhurova
Anastasiia was elected to be the president of the Sumy Specialized School № 1 in 2008 and the President of Sumy Euroclub in 2009. Together with the Euroclub's coordinator she initiated the beginning of the club’s work on 1 February 2009. She took an active part in public life of the school, city and region as well as in Camp Excite movement, organized by American Peace Corps volunteers and the Center of European Initiatives in Sumy. They communicated there only in English, which was great practice for Nastia. She studied art, music and theater there. Since 2009 she has been taking part in the sessions of the European Youth Parliament in Ukraine. In August 2009 Anastasiia took part in the project "Leadership School of European Democracy" in Sumy. In June 2009 she participated in a project "Tolerance". In 2010 Nastia participated in the national competition “Europa Nostra” in Kyiv. Together with her teammates, she was defending the honor of Sumy region and they were among 5 prize winners. For 3 years she has been helping in the organization of Europe Days in Sumy and was awarded with a trip to Poland. Nastia was the author of Euro-planner project which was devoted to studying and communicating among the members of European clubs from Sumy region in an informal setting. Nastia also a member of Euro-foot quest and her team took the 3rd place in 2008 and the 1st in 2009.
To find out what must happen, one needs just to track what has happened… It occurs because all human deeds are done by people, who have always had and will always have the same passions, and that is why will inevitably lead to the same result.
Niccolo Makiavelli
In the first half of the last century Europe tormented itself with two wars and destroyed its central role in the world politics. In the second half of the century far-sighted leaders looked further than just revenge and gradually created institutes of the European integration. The thought of a new war between France and Germany seems totally ridiculous today, and the development of the European Union increased an appeal of Europe in the world considerably. Unfortunately, this historical achievement is under question now.
The European unity has already faced significant obstacles. The tax and budget integration has limited nature. National identities are still stronger, than the all-European identity, despite six decades of integration. And national interests, even if not as strongly pronounced as in the past, are still important.
Expansion of EU to include 27 states (with plans of inclusion of the new states in the future) means that the European institutes can remain sui generis (institutes for the sake of institutes), incapable to create strong federal Europe or the united state. Juridical integration amplifies, and verdicts of the European Court convince EU countries to change their politics. But integration at level of legislative and executive power lags behind, and though Europe has created a position of the president and the central figure for the international relations, the foreign and defensive politics is still restrictedly united.
The approach of EU consisting in division of powers, in the conclusion of detailed contracts and in resolving conflicts by means of numerous committees can seem bulky and not effective enough, but it becomes more and more important for solving a number of questions in the today's interdependent world.
But all this potential force can appear to be useless if Europeans don't solve the urgent problems caused by the loss of belief in euro by the financial markets. Everyone who admires the European experiment, should hope for its success.
Author: Anastasiia Zhurova
Anastasiia was elected to be the president of the Sumy Specialized School № 1 in 2008 and the President of Sumy Euroclub in 2009. Together with the Euroclub's coordinator she initiated the beginning of the club’s work on 1 February 2009. She took an active part in public life of the school, city and region as well as in Camp Excite movement, organized by American Peace Corps volunteers and the Center of European Initiatives in Sumy. They communicated there only in English, which was great practice for Nastia. She studied art, music and theater there. Since 2009 she has been taking part in the sessions of the European Youth Parliament in Ukraine. In August 2009 Anastasiia took part in the project "Leadership School of European Democracy" in Sumy. In June 2009 she participated in a project "Tolerance". In 2010 Nastia participated in the national competition “Europa Nostra” in Kyiv. Together with her teammates, she was defending the honor of Sumy region and they were among 5 prize winners. For 3 years she has been helping in the organization of Europe Days in Sumy and was awarded with a trip to Poland. Nastia was the author of Euro-planner project which was devoted to studying and communicating among the members of European clubs from Sumy region in an informal setting. Nastia also a member of Euro-foot quest and her team took the 3rd place in 2008 and the 1st in 2009.
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