by Niccolo Milanese, festival co-founder and organiser
As George Steiner has argued before, the genius of Europe is in what Blake called ‘minute particulars’: it is the genius of diverse languages, diverse cultures, customs, and interests. There are an infinite number of events one could have as part of a Festival of Europe: this year we picked out some which seemed most interesting to us. But the wonder of the continent is that whatever aspect one chooses to focus on, when goes deeply enough into it one finds it implicitly contains the whole world: each element of Europe is a microcosm which includes the whole multiplicious complex of its relations to everything outside of it.
So it has been with this Festival. Over our 10 events we have seen well over 1000 people, who have come from or have ancestry in almost every country in the world, who have brought their diverse interests and experiences to bear on the questions at issue. We have been extremely pleased both which the diversity of the audiences, and with their willingness to take part in debate and discussion. All of our speakers have been extremely generous with their time both in the debates and afterwards, often exchanging e-mail addresses with members of the audience to continue discussions.
Picking out highlights would be a futile business, but one event in which I think all the organisers take particular pride is the debate we held on the night of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome itself – Sunday 25th. There were plenty of people who doubted we would get an audience on a Sunday evening in London for a debate about Europe. We had over 250 people to debate the values of Europe, and the ‘Berlin Declaration of Shared European Values’ which was issued on that day. Oli Henman from Power rushed from York with the results of the first European Citizens Consultation to present them, which added to the drama.
The Berlin Declaration concludes by saying that the peoples of Europe know that Europe is their ‘common future’. I do not yet believe this is true, but our event on that Sunday, and the wide-ranging events throughout the two weeks, allowed people to begin to imagine their futures in this way, at the same time as starting taking control over them.
I increasingly think of our work in this way: opening up spaces for the possibility of European dreams. Romano Prodi said in his address for the anniversary that Europe must recover its ‘creative folly’. We are providing occasions and stimuli for this to happen. It is about learning to live with one another, not just next to one another: this is the genius of Europe as well.
But it is not just about dreaming: those dreams must have efficacy in the world. That is what excites many about Europe – it now has a set of institutions which can act for it. To influencing those institutions and the way they act is where we’ll be turning our energies next, and with increasing urgency. European Alterities (www.euroalter.com), the organisation behind the festival, will be continuing throughout the year in holding events and debates: opening up new spaces for discussion of Europe and spaces for Europe’s relations with the world, but also constructing our idea of Europe within them. That is one way I understand open democracy.
