The Vice-President of the European Commission for Promoting of Our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, stated this Thursday at the Forum Europa in Brussels that what unites the citizens of the European Union is “a set of values on which we agree despite our diversity.”
During a meeting organised by the New Economy Forum in the EU capital, Margaritis Schinas commented on the Eurobarometer figures that indicate that 75% of the citizens of the Member States consider themselves European citizens.
Schinas considered this high percentage of people who identify with the European Union project to be very encouraging, but stated that the European way of life should not be based on a concept of "Homo Europaeus".
Along the same lines, he rejected a model that fits all Europeans, with “the same education, the same curriculum, the same viewpoint.” In his opinion, that would be detrimental to Europe.
“Our strength lies in the richness of our traditions, our languages, our architecture, our stories, our monuments,” he remarked.
For the Vice-President of the Commission, "what unites us is not a 'Homo Europeus'", but "a set of values on which we agree despite our diversity."
In the last five years, he explained, for undesirable reasons such as the pandemic, Europeans saw how they shared values. They found that they have the same fears and the same hopes, “so there has been a tremendous convergence in this communality of values and interests,” he concluded.
