European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

OPENING ADDRESS 33European nature and have contributed to the development of EuropeanIdentity favouring exchanges and partnerships as well as generatingbetter knowledge between people, countries, institutions and cultures.In the first part of this Seminar we will be able to verify the scope ofthese contributions when discussing European Programmes and theirActions.We would like to identify the elements that intervene in the processof European Identity development. In some cases, cognitive systemsplay a role since there is relevant or adequate content to be learnt. Inother cases, the realm of affections and feelings intervenes. The formerare necessary yet insufficient to develop the feeling of belonging. Wewould like to highlight how the various elements in the process comeinto play; that is, through what educational proposals, activities andlearning situations European Identity can be developed.In conclusion, we would like to echo two authorized voices fromour recent past:The first quote is from Jean Monnet. He was able to crystallize thechallenge of the new Europe using these words: ”Our Union is not ofStates but of People” 4 . If Europe remains an abstract idea, theadhesion and identification of individuals is impossible. What we areproposing here, what we are searching for together, is an educationalsystem which forms individuals who are capable of respecting eachother´s differences and standing together to build this shared space,open to the world and generous with the areas of the globe in whichpeople lack everything that we take for granted every day: water, food,housing, respect and personal freedom.The second quote belongs to Edgard Morin (1990) who alerts us tosomething essential to European culture: its capacity to question andreconsider all certainties: “What is important about European culture isnot only the main ideas, but rather these ideas and its opposites: theEuropean spirit lies not only in plurality and change but in the dialoguebetween pluralities which brings about change. The European spirit liesnot in the production of what is new as such, but in the antagonismbetween what is old and what is new” 5 .The European Identity which we are contributing to build demandseducational processes in which educators feed the difficult processes ofdaring to innovate and of burying the roots in the best accomplishmentsof European culture; of asserting one´s nature while acknowledging the4Speech. Washington, April 30, 1952.5Morin, E. (1990) Penser Europa. Paris: Gallimard, p. 150.