Group discussions
Participants in the conference divided into twelve round table groups to discuss with
young people some of the issues they could inherit during the next 50 years. Each
group included one or more students who were part of the West Sussex "Europeers"
or European Youth Ambassador initiative. |
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Human rights key issue –
functioning democracy and religious toleration would follow from better respect for human
rights |
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Army generals constrain functional
democracy and have considerable influence over the Government’s writ |
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Turkey could create with Kurdistan
an effective buffer state between Iraq and Iran |
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Increasing commercial exchanges and
an expanding economy make Turkey more acceptable to the EU |
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United Cyprus – lynchpin to
Turkey’s acceptance by EU; but how to achieve this? |
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Free movement of labour across the EU a
fundamental right for all EU citizens |
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Group consensus that in the light of this
principle there should be no controls on labour movement; but if imposed, they should
apply across the board, not just to new members states – unjust discrimination |
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What kind of controls? On emigration across
state boundaries as well as immigration? |
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Danger of valuable human resources being drained
from the poorer EU states? |
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Public opinion on the issue too easily
influenced by some sections of the media |
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Has EU developed in peace as a result of
reliance on US power? |
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EU stronger with Britain playing its full part |
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Should Britain side with EU to mitigate climate
change? And should EU as a whole ally with US against increasing power of Russia and
China? |
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Appropriate balance required in the light of
discrete UK interests. Exclusive choice could damage UK’s relations with both US and
other EU states |
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On occasion UK needs to stress its European
affinities and stand up to overweening US power. |
continued in right-hand column
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UK adults have an island mentality, militating
against easy access for young people to opportunities in Europe |
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Exchanges, joint projects, work experience
appeal to young people |
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Links should be casual and fun, rather than
academic – roles for sport, drama, music, media, fashion, languages, travel |
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Young people need more information; EU languages
and culture should be taught at an early age; role here for greater EU financial support? |
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Informally West Sussex’s peer education
formula should be taken up elsewhere; formally European studies should be part of the
national curriculum. |
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Start could be made on EU wide framework of
measures, with individual states imposing penalties on transgressors - essential that
coordination agreed by all member states, with common promotion of measures |
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EU to set an example as a way of putting
pressure on China and India |
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Improve information flow to EU citizens on
causes of climate change and effectiveness of measures implemented; special role for young
people in promoting preventive measures |
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New technologies to be developed and implemented
EU wide; measures to be operational down to level of individual household |
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EU could have a role in discouraging flying and
in managing consequences. |
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Greater awareness of distinct national
identities and cultures, with more emphasis on foreign language learning; at same time
enhanced sense of European identity with greater coordination of EU wide actions in
interests of all |
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An enlarged EU to include all Nordic and eastern
European states, Turkey and European Russia |
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EU to have agreed constitutional arrangements
for effective action on the basis of sovereignty willingly pooled by all member states |
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All states to have accepted the monetary
discipline of the eurozone |
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Creation of common EU foreign policy and EU
peacekeeping force for deployment beyond Europe; establishment of internal federal police
force. |
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