Europe is situated in the middle of a global parallelogram of influence between the two Americas, Asia and Africa. In this position, the social and political development is related to the occurrences nearly everywhere on our planet. Therefore, when I am asked, how I imagine our Europe in the year 2030, the only thing I can do is to speculate looking at the ongoing changes today.
However, what I hope for our future is that Europe will be more similar. Similar to what? could you ask: It could be a Europe where societies are more similar to each other in terms of their ideals and political aims. This condition would be the result of a process which has already begun. Having already done a lot for the pan-European peace and economic relationships, the EU will play a leading part in this process. The financial situation of the union today misgives some people for understandable reasons, e.g. if we look at the Greek debt crisis or the youth unemployment in Spain. Nevertheless, we should not forget that there are ideal conditions for an amalgamation of ideas from different nations, for an approximation of their cultural values. On the one hand, there are political and social reasons: The EU aligns the different constitutions and has abolished trade barriers like customs duties to set up a functioning single market. In addition, migration has been simplified. That means that everyone can theoretically work everywhere in the European Union. This fact could have an important impact on an alloy of cultures, though it can be understood as an incentive, especially for citizens of less wealthy countries, to emigrate to another European country. As every migrant carries his own ideas, aims and values to his new home, every migrant can have a little leverage on the situation that he or she encounters. If many people change their domicile, be that permanently or temporarily, all the little impacts could be compounded, so that their conceptions would be blended. This procedure could be a more and more common action in relation to an ongoing progression of globalisation.
On the other hand – and it is this aspect that I estimate as the most important – there are some characteristics of our generation as “nineties kids”, which are different to previous ones. Firstly we are “digital natives”, meaning that we are born into a world of digital technologies where it is one of the most common things to communicate with social media like Facebook or Twitter and messaging services like WhatsApp. Secondly, being born into a highly globalised world means to know that a distinct sense of openness and candour can be a large advantage for private and especially for professional life. Thirdly, English is now definitely accepted as the worldwide business language and nearly everywhere in Europe it is taught at schools. As a result, we have a possibility to understand each other and to interchange our ideas. The Bologna Process, which is now in full swing, can establish a basis to simplify study visits and later to work abroad, even if it was not benevolently embraced by all students and professors at its introduction. Altogether, the resulting society has unprecedented potentials to be easily connected and to work together to reach new horizons.
If this collaboration works and an understanding of other cultural values exists, Europe will automatically have closed ranks and achieved a stronger solidarity. However only when it works on three different levels: a private, a business and a political level. In a world where only Great Powers sit together at the round table, a Europe with over forty different voices has no chance to be heard in the global discussion. Here it is exactly this solidarity that will have an again greater importance than it has today, due to the fact that it enables a fair agreement about common political aims for the future. So, Europe has a chance to push its ideals forward into a global cognition.
We have to explore the potential of European similarities and the possibilities of being connected easily, to carry on the success story of Europe. All prospects are given and it is now to us to bring in our visions and ideas to shape our Europe. Exactly here I estimate my vision for our Europe in 2030: A Europe where also young people can bring in their ideas to change the place where they live. Considering the described mechanisms we could be on the right path.
Even if they were spoken in another context, we can tell it with the words of Winston Churchill, who held a speech to the youth at the University of Zurich in 1946: “Therefore I say to you: let Europe arise!”