Europe, Culture and Economy

How should Europe be constructed so that it is auspicious for its own citizens and for the citizens of the world? How is the Europe Project which began with the idea of economic cooperation for peace going to be shaped in the future? Are common economical benefits sufficient for the sustainability of the Europe Project? Common economical benefits were sufficient for the start-up of the Europe Project. The people who have been promised economical prosperity have supported the EU integration of their countries and that is how todays Euro-union with the membership of 25 countries was formed. But since the recent economic crisis it became more and more clear that the promised economical wealth is not any more convincing enough for the unions continuity. A common vision is what can keep Europe standing and common goals are what will unite and hold the civil society together in the future. Is there such a clear defined vision which can be shared by all the citizens of the EU? What can unite the people is the belief of a better common future. How is the future of Europe forseen? Can EU still promise its citizens peace and prosperity? Is peace and prosperity of Europe as a region realistic in a globalized world with global problems? The notion of power is changing, the world is now functioning with different rules than twenty years ago. Network societies are born which do not always overlap with the local and regional geographic societies. Boarders of the network societies are different than the political and economical ones. There is a paradigm shift. Europe can only be powerful if its people are aware of this paradigm shift. Aware of the threats of this new environment, but also the opportunities that it brings with. Aware of its own assets, strengths and how to use them to deal with the dominating threats. The threats are the global challenges that all the world is facing: The world is suffering under big problems such as hunger, social injustice, terrorism, wars, global warming, etc. which are all inter-connected and based upon the existing economy model. What are their causes? Wealthy nations constitute 20 percent of the world's population, yet they use more than 70 percent of its resources. Many of these resources are extracted from low-income countries with little benefit to them, further accelerating environmental degradation in these countries, and often destroying the very resources (tress, land, etc.) that low income people depend upon to meet their basic needs. Worldwide, 800 million people are malnourished. More than 380 million people in 31 countries face water scarcity. Species are being lost fifty to one hundred times faster than the rate of natural extinction. The loss of plant and animal species within an eco-system will irrevocably alter that environment in unpredictable and potentially devastating ways. We have been lucky that we belong to the richest part of the world so far but these threats are not anymore local or regional, they are global. There is no way to escape and set walls to them anymore. Most of the problems which seem to be local, national or European are actually inter-connected and related to these global problems. Problems can no way be solved if their overall causes are not identified and removed. We have to realize that

todays economy system cannot keep us in prosper and peace. Therefore we have to create a new way of life, a new culture, a new economy culture, a culture of sharing and living together and a new culture of economy. Europe can be a laboratory to create this new culture. EU actually already possesses the tools and capacity to generate a new system is actually already a laboratory as such developing and experiencing new management and decisionmaking practices at local, national and multinational levels at the same time. The question is what future vision these potentials will be used for? The politicians usually tend to express what the civil society would like to hear. In a system in which the civil society is not ready to face the realities and take their responsibilities there is no way that realistic solutions are proposed by the politicians. Thus the core aims of A Soul for Europe Initiative are even more urgent today than in the past. Europeans have to take responsibility themselves as citizens and play an active role in shaping Europes future. Therefore culture has to be integrated into all levels and sectors of political decision-making and civil society, especially the younger generations, have to participate in the process. European citizens have to make a choice of what kind of Europe they would like to have in the future: A spendthrift Europe which goes on consuming the worlds resources or a responsible Europe which constitutes a model to the rest of the world. Do we want a Europe for just sharing the remaining wealth it has or a Europe of sharing the responsibility for shaping up the common future? Do we want a Europe closed in itself, trying to protect itself from the others or a Europe which is open to the world, globally effective and globally respected? Is it a material-centered economy that we need or a human oriented economy? These are the main questions which should be answered. Therefore a European Culture and Economy Platform is needed to bring these questions into the agenda of Europes civil society; a thinktank of culture and business actors to create new policies.