A European dream with a young Slovenian protagonist called Lousiane, a European nightmare of powerless European institutions, xenophobia, extreme-right parties in power as well as a wake-up call for European power policy makers – these three completely different scenarios were painted by Marilou, Suzanne and Nicolas in their submissions to the French “My Europe” writing contest. The jury composed of representatives of Friedrich Foundation, Marie de Paris, Presseurop and Frankfurter Zukunftsrat rightly chose their articles to be the most innovative and well-written ones.

As a consequence, the three students were invited to the city hall of Paris by Deputy Mayor Pierre Schapira on 20 September 2013. The visit began with a guided tour including artistic, historical and political background information, and it culminated in an informal meeting with Mr. Schapira. The politician shared some of his experiences as a member of the European Parliament and talked with the students about their attitudes towards Europe.

Congratulations to Marilou who won first prize with her article “Trifling gestures accounting for great achievement” and who thus won an internship with the multi-lingual news portal Presseurop. Suzanne is awarded an internship at the Mairie de Paris and Nicolas won a Kindle eReader.