For decades, a united Europe brought peace and prosperity to its inhabitants. But today the European Union faces enormous challenges: unemployment, climate change, migration, digitization, populism and much more.
In order to face up to these challenges and to continue to secure peace and prosperity, Europe needs greater integration and solidarity among its member states. We citizens must come together to preserve and further the unity of Europe. For this, Europe has to grow much more than before from “below”. We want a Europe of citizens.
“People meet people” – that’s our idea of the European Citizens’ Meeting (EBB). We are convinced that if we EU citizens get to know each other better, the necessary trust and willingness for solidarity will emerge.
This is why we want to get to know each other in Kassel, meet each other face-to-face and talk to each other, for example, about socially relevant European topics. Europe should become an exciting experience for everyone.
The European Citizens’ Meeting (EBB) takes place every two years in Kassel. It creates a stable framework for a continuous exchange between Europeans. This results in a lasting network, reaching down to the personal level. This is how we overcome geographical and ideological distances, also towards the EU. We experience that both a national and European identity work. The result is unity in diversity and European federalism at the grass roots level.
The European Citizens’ Meeting will only succeed if we incorporate the decades of European experience of the various actors of urban and rural citizenship. This applies in particular to town twinning, German-European societies and Europeans from other EU countries living here with us. They are an integral part of our project. Everyone who shares and lives our values of a peaceful and free Europe of solidarity are welcome as cooperation partners and participants.