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Teenagers' thoughts twinkle high and proud in the European sky!
What a beautiful first day of Spring was last March 21st for us!
After working hard and a long time spent on debating on the relevance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights for the future of Europe, all our tasks have been completed by our team. Since January 2001, our coordinating teacher Prof. Vittoria Di Fabio has considered the analysis of C.F.R. as very important and has inserted it in our syllabus this year too. In fact, we have decided to explore the cultural world surrounding our lives, making a virtual tour through states and cities of our beautiful E.U. and we found it extremely interesting and motivating.
Our Spring Day Event saw our Headmaster introducing and welcoming Dr. Paolo Ponzano who brought to us the official message by President Romano Prodi read to the school assembly by our English language and Civilization teacher Prof. Vittoria Di Fabio.
Dr. Ponzano introduced to us the works of the Convention for the achievement of the final text of the E.U. Constitution. Our Cd on the Nobel prizes was then shown to our "audience". The debate, which took place on Spring Day, was actually very deep, wide and interesting thanks to the competence of our special guest who fully and thoroughly answered all our questions with patience and kindness.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Ponzano asked us to be given a copy of the four books (writers, painters, folk music, Nobel prizes) as a souvenir of a unique day in the history of E.U.
Celebration of the European Charter
of Fundamental Rights
21.03.2003 - MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Dear young Europeans,
Even in difficult, tension-filled days like these, none of you should forget that European integration has to keep moving forward.
World crises and rifts between Member State governments are an added reason for -- not against -- greater European unity tomorrow.
The brief past of our united Europe tells of divides bridged, of countries separated by world wars and later by the Cold War, and then gradually starting to work together in the awareness of a shared destiny.
Today's union of Europe's countries and peoples was born of the ashes of past conflicts. And today's conflicts and divisions may give birth to a closer union of Europe's countries tomorrow.
The challenges of the next few years are historic in scope and they will have lasting impact on the history of our continent and the lives of each of you.
There is the challenge of the reunification of Europe, a Europe that will finally be able to breathe with both lungs -- the western and the eastern ones. There are the challenges of sustainable development, of economic growth combined with respect for the environment and the protection of less-favoured regions and sections of the population. There are the challenges of globalisation and Europe's role in shaping a democratic model for globalisation on a human scale.
To meet these and other challenges coherently and effectively, a Constitutional Treaty and a new institutional architecture are being prepared for the European Union. The European Convention we set up after the Laeken European Council in 2001 is currently working to that end. It includes more than one hundred representatives of your -- and our -- institutions, both within the EU and at national level, and this gives it the democratic basis it needs to draft the Constitutional Treaty.
But tomorrow's European Union cannot be built without its young people and certainly not on opposition to them. So it is vital for your generation to take part in the European integration process, even if you are critical of it, taking a constructive attitude based on accurate information, the free exchange of ideas and openness to dialogue.
Spring Day in Europe is an opportunity for you to grasp the challenges and possibilities that lie before you, a chance to be heard and to express your ideas. Over 5 000 schools throughout Europe -- and in some countries beyond too -- are taking part in today's discussion on our continent's future. Together with the sponsors, Michel Barnier, Ana Palacio, Georgios Katiforis, Henning Christophersen and Olivier Duhamel, I want to thank all the teachers and organisers. I hope the event will bring you even closer on the issues that concern Europe and that it may help to put Europe's future on a sounder and surer footing.
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