70 Years after Schuman Declaration

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70 years ago, the Schuman Declaration marked the beginning of a development which led to one of the greatest and most successful projects in European history. The former war-torn continent started to cooperate, to grow together and to overcome the shadows of the past. The narrative of the peace project called “European Union” later spread further and made more and more countries join the Union. In 2013, Croatia became the EU’s 28th member state and underpinned the delusive sentiment that further enlargement would be the only possible direction for the European Union. However, developments turned out to be different. With the United Kingdom deciding to leave the EU, with a rising number of populist and Eurosceptical political parties in almost every member state and (initial) problems to properly address challenges like migration and even more recently the corona crisis, it became obvious that the Union needs a new narrative that guides the way into the future rather than exclusively focusing on the achievements of the past. When the world is calling for more Europe, as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated in 2019, the EU should provide a new ambitious narrative that offers solutions for the current and upcoming challenges and brings people of all ages together in the same inspirational and pro-European spirit, that guided the founding fathers of the EU in the past and paved the way for the benefits everyone experiences today. In times like these, we once more ask ourselves: What kind of Europe do we want to live in for the years to come? How can a new EU narrative look like and which aspects should particularly be emphasized by it?