What makes a moment worthy of the name? A moment is much more than the attempt to bring time to a stand-still; it is more than a snapshot of things past.
On Friday 20 January 2017, around 50 young people from all over Germany and Europe came together to launch a pro-European campaign. It was a moment of unison, of standing together, united by our diverse visions of Europe.
With recent political developments still fresh in our minds, we took the time to recap how the European story has evolved over the past few years. It was not a pretty sight. We saw attempts to rekindle nationalist vitriol, ever-deepening social divisions, and how the radicalisation of words and deeds has spiralled out of proportion.
So was it a moment of shock, of crippling fear? No. Far from shying away from the challenge, we wanted to seize the moment. No hesitation, repetition, deviation: under our rallying cry to “seize the moment!” it was time to finally give a voice to everyone who believes in the value of Europe and wants to help shape its future.
The very same evening, we spent time getting to know each other and our views on Europe. Our conversation ranged from hot topics such as Ulrike Guérot’s vision of a European Republic to mapping out the detailed demands we wanted to make of European institutions and processes. It all boiled down to one simple but powerful statement: above all else, we see Europe as a framework of action that transcends national, social, and cultural boundaries, the key to a forward-thinking, peaceful life together, and one that can no longer be gambled away.
We had found our campaign’s central mission. We want to reach a broad, European audience and spur people on to stand up for precisely this kind of peaceful, cooperative, European existence. Of course, we recognise that there is much room for criticism, but we believe that the time has come to act, to take a stand against political forces that threaten to drag everyone back to the past. Now is the moment to celebrate all of the many European achievements that are commonly taken for granted. The value of cross-border exchange – be it in experiences, ideas, art or culture – has never been more worth fighting for than now, when we are faced with tidal waves of deportations and divisions.
On the second day of our campaign launch, we set out in more concrete terms what exactly we mean by our vision of the future European community. We split up into groups and developed positions and demands based on different keywords, including justice-democracy, solidarity-fairness, economic sustainability-ecology, transparency-experience, humanitarianism-diversity, human rights, freedom-peace, and nonviolence.
After honing our demands to perfection, we turned to the question of how flexible they should be, and how open our campaign should be to other interested parties. One look back at how we defined ourselves and the core of what we wanted to achieve gave us the answer. As a platform for constructive European discourse, we will stand in the way only of those who preach hatred, fear, and rejection of Europe as a supposed “alternative”. In contrast, we see ourselves as
a platform for pro-Europeans, open to everyone who believes in the importance of a peaceful and united Europe. Now more than ever, we want to stand up passionately for the European project, countering anti-European vitriol with a constructive voice that isn’t afraid to speak out about critical issues.
We advocate a diverse and open-minded Europe that is built on democracy and the rule of law. We must live side by side, bound together by solidarity. Fairness and sustainability must be the guiding principles of politics.
Now is our Moment to stand up for these values.
Following our conviction that European problems need European solutions, our campaign is calling for:
- an extensive European initiative to tackle youth unemployment.
- fair economic and tax policies that centre on solidarity and actively reduce social inequality.
- ambitious cross-European action to combat climate change.
- a common European solution to the challenges posed by migration, and for the humane treatment of refugees.
- European decision-makers to take a hard line against renationalisation and populism.
On the third and final day of our launch, we stood before two major tasks: pin down the cornerstones of our campaign, and find a fitting name for the movement. Debates and votes ensued, but looking back, it almost seems that the answer was staring us in the face all along.
The European Moment describes a feeling that unites us all in sharing not only the very start of our campaign, but also in witnessing an entire European movement.