YEAR 2009 NEWS

Do the citizens of the European Union want a charismatic leader or a loyal co-ordinator? Young Europans debated in Berlin. The topic of the debate has been connected with the nomination of Herman Van Rompuy a new leader of the European Council.

It is no secret that the European Union needs more reasons (beyond institutional apparatchic) to glue it together. Economics alone won´t do it! Without the benefit of a shared historical symbol (Europe is widely known to be an extremely varied group of nations) integration becomes pretty tricky. Getting a sample of European youths together for a common aim might be a good start. This project ´The Voice of Europe (European Citizens programme) is a training programme with a very clear set of objectives. The organisers, European Youth4Media Network, an umbrella organisaiton with a network in over 23 countries, conceived of the need of getting youths together to be trained in using Crossmedia both as a tool for helping citizens voice thier opinions more broadly and efficiently, and also to give them the opportunity to express thier creativity using digital media with a focus on political debating, pariticpation, and engament. During a one-week seminar in Berlin the participants not only took part in the media workshops, but also visited different institutions, like the most famous German think-tank DGAP and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. The visits prepared them to the debate, which took place on Saturday, 12th of December 2009 in Berlin. The media coverage of the debate you can see on-line atwww.europeanweb.tv