< SWITCH ME >
When students arrive in cities for language courses, conferences or workshops one of the first things they usually do is walk around the city centre. But Berlin is different. To explain why, a group of friends created the “lettuce theory” a few years ago. Please forgive them for the name and try to take them seriously! The theory states that most European cities are “lettuce like”, that is, they have a heart - which is the city centre -, and the rest of the neighborhoods grow around it like the lettuce's leaves. Unlike them, Berlin is what we decided to call, “the package of lettuces”. There is no real unique heart, but lots of them. And instead of having the classic city centre, the German capital has several important neighborhoods with individual hearts. Yesterday, the participants at the E&M workshop “Do you speak European?” didn't do the classic city centre tour but instead, ventured in the many different hearts of Berlin.
KREUZBERG: The flower bud
Asked to choose a symbol that described each of the neighborhoods, some of our group walked around Kreuzberg decided to go for a flower bud. “Just like it,” they said, “the neighborhood is about to bloom”. Described as dirty before the fall of the Berlin wall, suffering from high crime rates in the 70's and after having received big waves of immigration, the neighborhood is now the favourite destination for young people. As we were told by some of the young people we asked on the street, it is becoming more and more popular, and is “the European Brooklyn”.
Presenting the outcomes of the Berlin Foreign Policy survey!
Written by EditorialThis is a special day in Berlin, the first Berlin Foreign Policy Forum has just started in the beautiful Humboldt Carré and E&M are reporting about the events throughout the day. Most importantly though, we are there to make the voice of young Europeans heard. We're very excited to discuss the views you expressed in the survey with politicians, media representatives and policy analysts from around the world. If you want to know all about the EU foreign policy survey in which over 6,500 of you participated, check out our presentation with the outcome of all questions here.
You can access the main points of the results here.
Who has the most influence in the EU at the moment?
Written by EditorialYour top priorities for the next 10 years EU foreign policy
Written by EditorialMost of you believe the EU should focus on humanitarian aid (26.8%) or longterm development of the Southern hemisphere (25.2%). Do you think European involvement actually helped or worsened the development of countries of the Southern hemisphere thus far?
More...
What do you want to know about EU foreign policy?
Written by EditorialGetting ready for the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum
Written by Julia SchulteFirst of all: Thank you!
Thank you to the 6,538 people who participated in our survey about EU Foreign Policy over the last two months. You helped us create the biggest insight ever provided into young Europeans' opinions on this topic. We didn't reach the 10,000 but we are still very proud of the results and want to keep our promise by making all of your voices heard.
Our partners the Körber Foundation and the German Foreign Office were so impressed that eight people were able to encourage 6,000 people to participate that we are still going to the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum. So this weekend, eight E&M authors, editors, and readers from seven different countries met in Berlin to analyse your answers. Of course, we want to be well prepared for meeting different Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Ambassadors, experts and journalists from your countries on November 29th!
When we started on Friday night I was quite impressed by some of the results and, more generally, by how many politically interested young people there seem to be in Europe – and not only Europe: We had participants from the U.S., China, Venezuela, etc! There are definitely many people out there who have an opinion on European Foreign Policy! We started Saturday with a short briefing on German Foreign Policy. I'd love to tell you what was said, but we agreed to Chatham house rules!
We then had to make decisions over who is going to grill the politicians at the Forum itself. Representing young Europeans in the opening panel, and sitting alongside the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Poland and Greece, Matt, Editor of the Sixth Sense (from the UK) and Ingvild, E&M author (from Norway) are going to be there discussing the survey results. The rest of the participants will try to get as many politicians, ambassadors, professors and journalists on our Blue Sofa: there, they will be confronted with your views on EU Foreign Policy. Our interviews will be recorded and we plan to have them available online on the Sixth Sense!
IN -1106 DAYS
