By Stavros Papagianneas, Founder of Steps 4 Europe
20.10.2020

Europe has been undergoing a process of slow unification for almost seven decades now and is better off for it. There is less conflict between European countries than at any time in history, and their collective power makes Europe strong - even now in the era of coronavirus.

The European Union has brought freedom, justice, sustainable democracy and helps protect our basic political, social and economic rights. Citizens living in the EU have the same rights in all other member states as they do in their country of origin. Europeans can travel, study, reside and work in the other member states. They can even vote in certain elections in other EU countries.

The Union has achieved extraordinary results in the fields of education, environment, research and innovation. However, in other areas like the creation of jobs, public diplomacy and illegal immigration - one of the major public's concern - it failed to fulfil citizens expectations and give answers with one united voice.

Despite ensuring more than 60 years of peace in Europe, the EU struggles to sell its story. Most Europeans see it as boring, and they often don't understand what is happening in Brussels. In recent years, the EU and the MS have spent a lot of time and money on communicating with citizens, explaining their policies and their purpose. However, this communication has been high on jargon and low on impact. The EU and its member states failed in communicating Europe.

The member states have different opinions depending on their historical, political, socio-economic and media context. However, the EU faces a series of challenges within the globalised environment, that require legitimate, accountable and transparent actions.

In this regard, the establishment of a genuine European Public Sphere should be considered more urgent than ever. At the same time, there is an extreme necessity for an "Europeanisation" of the national public spheres of the different member states. Mass media play an essential role. They supply the public with information and enable them to monitor decision-makers’ activities. But there is more.

Governments, EU Institutions, pro-European political parties and civil society associations need to go local - and local means every town, village and community inside the EU - and explain the added value of Europe. Empowering the citizens and help them to understand what is a European identity and what our values are.

Engaging with them, supporting the development of a European Public Sphere, setting-up a two-way dialogue, listening to the people and being transparent. Most of the main actual problems such as the migrant-crisis, Euroscepticism, cooperation on security issues, and lately the coronavirus pandemic require a coordinated European answer.

The most considerable problem of the EU is that European citizens don't know each other well. Therefore we have created Steps 4 Europe, a non-profit civic start-up to contribute to the reinforcement of the European Public Sphere and promote the valuesof theEU.

S4E aims to be a successful concept for citizens that get to know European countries and cultures in an interactive way. People need a personal and emotional idea to feel like a part of a whole. 

Our mission is to foster understanding, transparency and participation of citizens in EU policy and decision making. To inspire and help them to understand and influence major policy decisions.

To sustain the European unification idea and promote Europe as a continent of values. A peace project and an area of freedom and democracy where fundamental rights are respected.

To educate citizens about Europe. People are not aware of the added value of the EU. There is an urgent need to explain what Europe is doing in a language that everybody understands.

To build sustainable bridges of understanding between the people of the European countries.

To create a community of citizen journalists covering interesting European topics in an ethical and deontological way.

S4E is open for all nationalities, ages, races & religions. It does not represent any national, political, corporate nor, NGO point of view. It also promotes society diversity, equal chances and inclusion.

S4E would focus on involving civil society in large debates about the future of Europe and help provide finding sustainable solutions on how the Union can respond to peoples' needs.

S4E wants to contribute to identifying what the EU does well and what new measures it needs to do better, to increase its capacity to act and be more democratic.

Our priority is to focus on misconceived European topics and promote projects that will address them with maximum impact and understanding. We are planning two wonderful projects for 2021 & 2022, and we can use all your help to realise them.

As Robert Schuman famously said on 9 May 1950, a European Public Sphere will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. Instead, it will be built through concrete initiatives and policies which first create a de facto solidarity and we-feeling. 

You can find how you can support us here.

You can also become S4E Ambassador in your country. You don't need to be a high profile VIP. What S4E needs are motivated pro-Europeans who believe in the future of a real federation - the United States of Europe - and would love to be involved in this wonderful project. 

For more info please feel free to contact us via s4e@steps4europe.com

By Christoph Klenner, Steps 4 Europe Ambassador, Belgium
26.03.2021

During the last months, the European Commission has been criticised by EU Member State governments and national media for alleged delays in COVID vaccine approvals, purchases and deliveries. It looks like an unfortunate symptom of a systematic blame game with negative consequences for the EU's image - aiming to conceal some of the Member States' own failed national COVID response and mitigation policies.
In reality, the Commission has played an important and constructive role in funding and accelerating research concerning COVID and fast-tracking provisional vaccine approvals (for better or for worse). Also, it has been engaged in bulk purchasing from producers - which at the time and in good faith - though they would deliver the goods on time.
I would invite national governments, journalists and the numerous overly critical armchair experts to constructively suggest how this process could have been better organised and managed in the circumstances of the actual health crisis .
Vaccines are now delivered, albeit initially at a somewhat different pace, but that is not surprising given the complexity of production, approval and distribution. I believe that the record time of development, approval, production and distribution of effective vaccines can be considered as exemplary. This makes calls to "nationalise" vaccine production unnecessary.
These days, we see an unfortunate and worrying resurgence of nationalistic reflexes, orchestrated by national governments that use the global COVID pandemic as a pretext. The implied statements by mainstream politicians in numerous EU countries that the virus "comes from abroad" remind us of some of the worst episodes of European history.
In some countries, including my native Belgium, this political rhetoric has been taken one step further by introducing unprecedented, disproportionate and illegal travel restrictions.
These restrictions are incompatible with the EU's rule law and the fundamental freedom of movement. They contrast with the same national governments' failure to protect vulnerable groups against the corona virus effectively. It looks like restrictions are introduced in an effort to distract from the failings of national policies.
It is of grave concern that when Europe really should pull together and agree on a clear strategy and coordinated action, some are forcing us to back to narrow-minded parochialism.
In normal circumstances and before this pandemic, we as citizens would systematically be reminded of European values and the rule of law. Now that it really counts, the European values and the rule of law are evidently out the window.
The crux question is what we can do to restore the EU’s perception in the midst of a storm caused by overtly anti-European governments. The EU stands for efficient policy-making, a functioning internal market and rules that allow European entrepreneurs, inventors, researchers, artists and other professionals to scale their ideas across a single economic and judicial area with more than 450 million citizens.
We have an incredible opportunity to combine this economic potential with our strong tradition for decent economic behaviour, social democracy, robust and future-oriented welfare and health system, and good quality of life for all citizens.
We must mobilise a maximum number of people, notably young people who live and breathe Europe every day, who want to build it and grow it, to go against the narrow-minded nationalism and mercantilism exhibited by Member States - large and small.