Outline for a "European democratic citizen service" (EDC) - a five-sector crisis training for all young Europeans

Abstract

This paper outlines a proposal for a 'European Democratic Citizen Service', and summarises some reactions to this proposal from several feedback discussions with young people and students. The paper is written as a programmatic proposal like a 'business plan' or an 'ERASMUS for all' - describing the objectives and then an appropriate possible structure. The second part reports the experiences of the two-dozen informal feedback group discussions with young people. Overall, the proposal of a multiculturally designed Citizen Service is welcomed by most young people; they, however, need moderate financial support. Formulating a structural design is an exercise, which could give the impetus for a new foundation for European identity building, for multicultural understanding and pan-national cohesion. This article aims to encourage discussion about how to structure and organise inter-national groups for cooperation on partially very difficult tasks. Multicultural education can happen while learning 'on the job'; young people travelling in different European countries in pursuit of a common task means practical education, thereby appropriately reflecting the common challenge of our century. The proposed participation can become a large social experiment relating to truly cross-national, cross-ethnic, cross-cultural organisation-building, i.e. especially if intelligently and with care 'multicultural teams' are composed.