European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

4.The European Dimension of EducationMaria Angeles MarínResearch Group on Intercultural EducationUniversity of Barcelona, SpainIntroductionThe necessity of building a European Union which would not only bebased on an economic and/or a political union but also on the social andcultural, favoured the granting of a relevant role to education. Anotherof the elements that has influenced the role granted to education hasbeen to verify the lack of awareness of belonging to this new transnationalreality on the part of the citizenry of the different countries of theUnion 1 . The term, “European Dimension of Education” gushes forth asit did in 1976.The origins of community politics in relation to this Europeandimension of Education go back to the 70s. 2 During the 80s the role ofeducation was redefined and boosted by the Committee of EuropeanNations, headed by Pietro Adonino. In the second of Adonino’s reports,the committee includes propositions of action in the fields of educationand culture to promote the European identity. Education for citizenshipand identity receives a great impulse during that time through two1The younger generation has difficulties in identifying itself with the reality andpotential of a unified Europe seen from its own country. For these youngsters thenation itself is much more important than Europe or any other nation (DuBois-Reymond, 1997).2In 1974 the Ministers Council made public a declaration in which were shown fourpriority areas for community politics: foreign language education; promotion and studyof Europe as a part of the ordinary curriculum; the cooperation in higher education, andsupport of European schools. Nonetheless, community action in education hasoutweighed the cooperation more than the harmonization of the different politics ofthe member states regarding the education systems.