On 9 May 2025, Europe Day, around 40 students from the Robert-Schuman-Berufskolleg in Essen, together with researchers from the department and experts from the field, held an interactive workshop on the topic of ‘The EU in your everyday life – European future on #EuropeDay’. The aim of the morning was to make the importance of the EU tangible for young people and at the same time to create space for their own visions of Europe’s future.
After a joint introduction with a video and a warm-up on the question ‘Where do we encounter the EU in everyday life?’, there was an impulse on the historical significance of the Schuman Declaration – and what it has to do with the challenges facing the EU today. The students were then able to get active themselves in two creative stations: Whether as EU influencers with a fictitious social media campaign or with their own ‘Schuman Declaration 2.0’ – the results were impressive and were then presented and discussed in the plenary session.
The group work and the final discussion were accompanied by two recognised experts in the field: Martin Mödder (Speaker EuropeDirect, Edu:Impact) and Carolin Mues (Young European Federalists NRW). Their categorisations and feedback from European practice gave the students exciting insights into the real work with and for Europe.
A symbolic balloon campaign organised by the school to mark Europe Day rounded off the workshop.