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Impressions, reports and thoughts of the European Public Sphere team
Workshop No. 3 Crisis to Protection: Addressing Environmental Problems in Ukraine and Its Influence on Germany
The third workshop, titled "Crisis to Protection: Addressing Environmental Problems in Ukraine and Influence for Germany," had its focus, on the environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine, with the goal of highlighting the fact that the so far underestimated...
Artikel 4 Workshop No. 4: “Raising Voices: Ukraine’s Role in Empowering Women in Europe.”
On the 21st of September 2023 the concluding session of the Ukrainian Vibes workshop series took place, with the straightforward title: "Raising Voices: Ukraine's Role in Empowering Women in Europe." The expert this time was Valeria Voshchevska, a Ukrainian human...
The Europe Dome travels throughout Europe. It is the aim of our initiative that all interested people can participate in the talks.
A European Public Sphere needs both: concrete encounters between the citizens and the opportunity to hear about the results of their exchange.
In this blog, the team members of the European Public Sphere initiative talk about the Dome Talks, about the development of our initiative or share other thoughts on Europe.
Our Second Online Event: A look back at “From Ukraine to the EU: Securing Rights through the Charter of Fundamental Rights” (18/09/2023)
As part of our online workshop series, our second session delved into the realm of European values, focusing on the critical theme of human rights. Titled: "From Ukraine to the EU: Securing Rights through the Charter of Fundamental Rights," this session aimed to shed...
European Values
Since the war in Ukraine began last year, our so-called European Values have received quite a bit of attention. Some even go as far as saying that the Ukrainian people are currently defending theEuropean values by defending themselves against the Russian invasion ....
Ukrainian Vibes online tour
After having an exciting offline tour in Germany and Poland, we, the Ukrainian Vibes team, went on with conducting three online events. During the tour, we organised discussions on multiple topics with passers-by in Cologne, Berlin, Wroclaw and with young adults at...
The aqueous story of war
Let’s talk about water. Of course, water is the source of life, we mainly consist of water and we all know water's brighter and darker sides. We know the feeling of a good shower after a long day, but we also know the threat of a heavy precipitation. We know about...
Role of Art in Conversations about War
This article was composed by Anna Proskurina from the interview with Olena Hermasimyuk, where she spoke about the importance of Ukrainian, in particular veteran, art as a way to remember, comprehend, and communicate to the general public the experience of the...
Topic 2: Environmental Consequences of the War
Environmental crimes are accruing every minute in Ukraine. Since the 24th of February, the Russian military has fired more than 2000 missiles into Ukraine, and over 85,000 tons of destroyed Russian military equipment are spreaded all over the country. Explosions...
What is difficult history?
Now, as Ukraine is facing a full-scale war, yet another traumatic and nation-building event, one of the central topics of the Ukrainian Vibes 2022 project is that of difficult history. Sounds interesting, but not clear? So, let’s figure it out.My personal interest in...
Ukrainian Vibes are back – With a new constellation and more difficulties than before
It was the 11th of April when we all came together, the new team of Ukrainian Vibes, at the office of Democracy International in Cologne, and started discussing our project. We all sat together at this small white lacquer table, covered by the breakfast we just had,...
Ukrainian Vibes – Stop 6: Sustainability Revisited
Europe | On the 14th of September was the sixth stop of Ukrainian Vibes – European Public Sphere e-tour. Together with a diverse group of participants from Ukraine, Germany, Macedonia, Portugal, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Brasil, Colombia, United Kingdom, Norway, Spain...
Safe space for democratic ideas: A musical evening in Burgas
Burgas |The Expo Centre Flora in Burgas with its modern and green architecture was our exciting location for the third stop of this year's Remember Tour! Situated right in the middle of the city's impressing Seaside Park which is stretching across most of the coast...
Ukrainian Vibes – Stop 2: Sustainability and Environmental Consciousness
Ukrainian Vibes - Stop 2: Sustainability and Environmental ConsciousnessThe Ukrainian Vibes - European Public Sphere project in phase 1 offered a virtual stage to young people and their visions for the future of Europe and encourages them to become a more active part...
The Schumann Declaration from 9 May, 1950
The Schuman Declaration from 9 May 1950On 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman issued his historic Schuman Declaration. Shortly after the Second World War, it served as the impetus for the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, which...
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Europe Jam on the EU and the Western Balkan
Europe | When asked by one of our participants after the Europe Jam on Gender whether we would be interested in organising a Jam on the EU and the Western Balkans exploring especially the role of youth in the integration process, we of course said yes and made this...
Europe Jam on Digital Europe
Europe | On 17 November our Europe Jam on the topic of digital Europe took place. Our intern Anna-Lea Reinhart shares her impressions. They sit in front of screens,big and small,day in and day out,from morning till night.They like, tweet, share, subscribe.They work -...
Europe Jam on Minority and Migratory experiences 🇪🇺
Our third edition of the Europe Jams linked two major themes with several overlaps: Minority and Migration Experiences. In this session, we wanted to focus on the experiences of the participants to make room for different perspectives. Our intern Max Tjong-Ayong...
Europe 2.0 – The first Europe Jam at the Online Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy
The ongoing Covid 19 pandemic affects us all – that also includes our traveling discussion dome. For this reason, the European Public Sphere team has decided to organise weekly online discussion rounds on various topics, targeted at young Europeans. The so-called...
Virtual Public Sphere
Europe | On Monday the 11th of May, in honor of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights turning 20 years old, we held our first online Public Sphere event discussing the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. As part of the Connect Europe project with 7 civil society...
(En)Vision Tempelhof
Berlin | We could of course not let the long way back from Poland go uneventlessly. And so it came that we included another stop in Berlin. This was made possible by the cooperation with Tempelhofer Feld Vision (THF Vision). In line with the activities of the...
Krzyżowa – Authoring European History
Krzyżowa | Our stop in Krzyżowa was a very special one to me. 3 years ago still as a student, I had taken part in a workshop to create a multi-media guide for the outdoor exhibition "Mut und Versöhnung" (courage and reconciliation) with 5 other Polish and German...
Zandvoort – While the wind blows, the discussion flows
Zandvoort| The last stop of the Europe Dome in the Netherlands was on the beach! The small town of Zandvoort is located right at the sea and is home to several beautiful and “gezellige” beach tents. One of them, Paviljoen Jeroen, hosted our European Public Sphere...
Texel – Make the Fire of Democracy Blaze Again
Den Burg, Texel| My name is David Reich. As an intern, I joined the BeNeLux Tour in Belgium and the Netherlands in April this year. The first destination in the Netherlands for me personally (the others already had a stop before in Maastricht) was in beautiful Texel,...
Antwerp – Give the young people a voice and stage, we need them more than ever
Antwerp| The next stop marked on our Benelux map was Antwerp - a beautiful port city located in the Flemish region. At Groenplaats, in the heart of the city, we had two talks on Citizen Participation and Climate Change. Here, David Reich describes his experiences in...
Extend the Sensors to the West and South
In our Austria-Tour we still have one more stop to do. On 16 October we will rebuild the Dome for an "inclusive Dome Talk" - in Vienna, where the opening event also took place in July. In the meantime, however, we were on our way - with a detour to South Tyrol - in...
Kick-off in Austria
Vienna, Austria | Austria is holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months starting 1 July. The European Public Sphere is taking up this occasion by planning a small series of Dome-Events throughout Austria over the next few months. For...
Rethinking Social Justice in Europe
Witten, Germany | Last Friday, the fifth Dome Talk of the North Rhine-Westphalia Tour took place in Witten, Germany, organized by Mehr Demokratie within the framework of the European Public Sphere Project. The topic "Rethinking Social Justice in Europe" was...
European Public Sphere goes Münster
Münster, Germany | As part of its NRW tour, the dome came to Münster on 11 May. Not only the continuing good weather, but also the Catholic Day encouraged a lively participation of different organizations’ invited representatives, but above all for keen-to-discuss...
Dome-Talk with Europe-Activists in Vienna
Vienna, Austria | On 1 October 2017, the European Public Sphere took place in the center of Vienna at Karlsplatz with the Karlskirche as its scenery. The Dome-Talk started after a Pulse of Europe rally, whose comrades-in-arms were invited together with other European...
The first of our online events: A look back at “Youth Voices Unite: Driving Change through Youth Participation in the EU and Ukraine“ (12/09/2023)
We, the Ukrainian Vibes team, embarked on exploration of youth engagement in politics with the series of online events, the first of which took place on September 12th. Our Workshop "Youth Voices Unite: Driving Change through Youth Participation in the EU and Ukraine"...
Poli-Fest Tour
Whoever said politics are no fun has clearly never visited a political or social festival! In 2023, our Europe Dome will meet you at four exciting opportunities across Germany to dig deeper together. See you there!weltwärts Festival | 31 May - 4 June | Göttingen...
The Ukrainian Vibes Tour in 19 Pictures
Already one month has passed since the Ukrainian Vibes project’s last in person-discussion under the Europe Dome. The team of Ukrainian Vibes 2022 visited four cities with their discussion events and spoke to people with all kinds of backgrounds. Focussing on the...
Stealing History: How Moscovia (Muscovy) is stealing Ukrainian history
The formation of the national consciousness of Ukraine was constantly accompanied by the oppression of the empires under whose power the state was. As a result, even today the world often perceives independent Ukraine as a part of Russia (at least it was the case...
Keeping the dignity
“The dignity of the human being is inviolable”, that is the one phrase in German schools every student heard multiple times in class, it’s the one phrase everyone has first in mind if you ask to paraphrase the German law - also because it is the first sentence of the...
Topic 3: Humanitarian Consequences of the War
Human rights is a very broad and widely speculated topic in general, and with the ongoing full-scale war in Ukraine human rights violations are making headlines. In the "Humanitarian consequences of the war" section, we are focusing on how war crimes violate basic...
Face to Face – A selection of interviews
"War is everyone's business. If you want to survive wherever you are, in the Zacarpatsky region or in Luhansk, you need to know pre-med first aid, you need to know how to protect yourself if Russia drops nuclear bombs here, etc. It starts with your own security as an...
The Dome at the Democracy Festival in Prague
Seven Basic European Values Ania Nahorna and Stefaniya Vlasova | Jun 16, 2023|Since the war in Ukraine began last year, our so-called European Values have received quite a bit of attention. Some even go as far as saying that the Ukrainian people are currently...
Ukrainian Vibes – Stop 5: Democracy Revisited
Europe | The fifth stop of the Ukrainian Vibes - European Public Sphere tour took once again place under the digital dome. The topic “Inclusiveness of Democracy & Participatory Innovations” was discussed with participants from all over Europe. Together, European...
A day to remember for Romanian citizens at Bucharest’s historical Kilometre 0 of Democracy
The second stop of the Remember Tour was Bucharest, a city with a lot of history, with new opportunities and challenges for its citizens. The event took place right at Bucharest's historical Kilometre 0 of Democracy in University Square. What other place is more...
Ukrainian Vibes – Stop 3: European Integration
Ukrainian Vibes - Stop 3: European IntegrationThe Ukrainian Vibes - European Public Sphere project in phase 1 offers a virtual stage to young people and their visions for the future of Europe and encourages them to become a more active part of society. In the four...
Europe 2.0 – Unsere Online-Ausstellung
Europe 2.0 - Our Online-ExhibitionFrom September to February, Europe 2.0 was our open laboratory for Europe's future issues. In 10 online conversations - our Europe Jams - we discussed topics such as climate issues, social justice, migration and minority issues,...
Remember 🇩🇪 🇷🇴 🇧🇬 🇩🇰 🇵🇱 🇨🇿
6 countries - 6 places of remembrance - 12 Dome Talks In a society increasingly characterised by polarising identities, voices critical of Europe and shrinking civil society space, the European Public Sphere created a common public space. To celebrate the 70th...
Europe Jam on Gender in Europe
Europe | In the last Europe Jam of 2020, we welcomed guests who work in and beyond the EU on the topic of gender equality. We started together into the round of introductions, where the following questions were answered: What are the biggest problems in the field of...
Europe Jam on Social Justice
Europe | On 10 November, we jammed on the topic of Social Justice. Our intern Josephine Schnee reports back from the conversation.Many thanks to the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. for supporting this project. Share this post: 0 Shares Facebook Twitter Google+ Our Jam...
Europe Jam on Climate! 🇪🇺
After the first event of the Europe Jams during the Online Forum on Modern Direct Democracy was initially planned as a free discussion platform, we decided, based on the feedback from the participants, to hold upcoming Jams on specific topics. Our following Europe Jam...
More playgrounds and sports fields, clean school toilets and faster internet
Cologne | Students from Cologne-Mülheim have very concrete ideas about what they would like to change at their school, in their district and in the country. As part of the TREAT YOURSELF TO DEMOCRACY project, representatives of Mehr Demokratie NRW, the Verband...
Together instead of one upon the other – The day of action ‘Northern City’ in Hildesheim
Hildesheim | The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress. – Joseph Joubert (1754 - 1824), French moralist. Our intern Katharina Brauckmann shares her thoughts on 2019's last Dome Event! The aim of a discussion should not be...
Krakow – It’s getting hot in here
Krakow | Krakow, June 12th, was the last stop of our Poland Tour. The day before we made our way back south from the far north near Gdansk. Again and again we had picked up one thing in passing by: It was to be the hottest day in Gdansk ever measured that early in a...
Luxembourg – Naturally Celebrating Diversity
Luxembourg|Our second stop in Luxembourg, and also the final stop of the BeNeLux-Tour, took place in Luxembourg City. There, we built our dome on the Place de Clairefontaine, in close walking distance from many of the city’s sights, like the Palace, the Parliament...
A two level game: The Hague talks outside and inside the Dome
Den Haag| On 13 April 2019 we held our talks at our second-to last stop in the Netherlands, at the Leyweg shopping centre in The Hague. Not only was the weather exciting, also our Dome Talks came in a slightly different form. In The Hague, the European Public Sphere...
Back to Maastricht of the 1300s
Maastricht |Have you ever felt like being in a beautiful safe space? A little part of the world where you can come and just talk with people without being judged or corrected. Where you look around and see, just outside your cocoon, a wonderful surrounding. And you...
Brussels – Studying Citizen Participation and Sustainability
Brussels| In the capital of Europe we held our second dome talk in Belgium. In the light of the upcoming European elections we visited the future academics of Europe - the students of the University of Brussels. Brussels is the city of diversity with 3 languages...
When the Dome res(is)ted
Manheim, Germany | Hambach Forest, 18 August, 2018: On the occasion of the camp for [future] 2018, the Europe Dome is put together in the baking heat. Around 17.30 about 120 young activists are approaching the resistance acre of the BUND NRW via the steppe-like...
What’s your vision of Europe?
Kick-off of the Austria-Tour on 6 July With the beginning of the second half of the year Austria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Ines Kanka has written a small report for the magazine "Wegweiser Anthroposophie" (Guidepost...
Time is running out with the European elections calling
Bonn, Münster, Düsseldorf, Wesel... The list of cities in which we have already built up our wooden dome within the European Public Sphere Tour through NRW is constantly growing. And on Saturday, 26.05.2018, we added another one. This time in a small group, we set of...
Kick-off of the NRW-Tour in Bonn
Bonn, Germany | On May 5th it finally happened: the first event of the NRW tour of the European Public Sphere took place in Bonn. This time the wooden dome was set up on the Münsterplatz in Bonn's city centre, where a major sporting event in bright sunshine and...
First Dome Talk at Democracy Camp in Wels
The "European Public Sphere" project had its premiere on 29 September 2017. As part of the "More Democracy Camp" in Wels/Austria, we built our Europe Dome in the cultural center “Alter Schlachthof” in Wels and organized a dome talk on the topic “Democracy in...
Building Bridges: Exploring Europe’s Future on the Ukrainian Vibes Tour through Saxony
In the summer of 2023, the Ukrainian Vibes team embarked on a tour through the German Bundesland Saxony with the Europe Dome, sparking discussions about the future of Europe. The mission of the tour: To give everyone a chance to actively participate, share ideas, and...
Ukrainian Vibes 2023
With this catalogue, we seek to provide you with all the recommendations, visions, and ideas for Europe’s future that circulated during the activities of Ukrainian Vibes 2023. As the aim of the project was to raise a sense of responsibility for the future in Europe...
Democracy Days at Kaiserin-Theophanu-School and Digital Democracy Days
Democracy Days at the Kaiserin-Theophanu-School30 August to 01 September 2022 | Cologne What ideas do you have for your school? What should change? What can you do to achieve this? Under the travelling structure ‘Europe Dome’ we will discuss your possibilities for...
Civic participation in Ukrainian history
Civic participation is the involvement of individual constituents or communities in local, state, and national government. In short, it is the participation of people in government and democratic processes. Civic activities are essential to good local governance...
ECOCIDE – Killing one’s home
The lives of Ukrainians have been disrupted by the Russian invasion. Less visible are the environmental consequences through the hand of the Russian army that are added to the already existing threat of global warming for more than 3 months now. Russian weapons harm...
Topic 1: Difficult History and Civic Participation
All modern states have periods of what we call difficult history, the heritage that still lives in our minds in the present and usually leads to fundamental disagreements over who we are as a society and what values we hold. With the ongoing full-scale war in Ukraine,...
Ukrainian Vibes in Sandkrug – An intercultural experience at the ASA-seminars
Last week we, the team of Ukrainian Vibes, had a rest from our work on the project. Instead, we went to a secluded, green idyll in a small village called Sandkrug, which is close to Oldenburg. However inconspicuous the whole place sounds, the event which took place...
Ukrainian Vibes – Final Stop: Europe & Ukraine
Europe | Having hearts beating European in the East and the West and with the future of Europe in mind - how could it have been otherwise than to discuss “Europe and Ukraine” at the final event of the Ukrainian Vibes - European Public Sphere Tour? In times in which...
Fundamental Rights and Democratic Dialogues at WorldPride 2021 in Copenhagen
Fundamental Rights and democratic dialogues at WorldPride 2021 in Copenhagen by Ben Dörner | Sep 28, 2021Copenhagen | During WorldPride 2021, the Europe Dome was part of the "1:1 Democracy Festival". With 21 events in the Dome, attended by around 270 people, we had...
Ukrainian Vibes – Stop 1: Democracy
Ukrainian Vibes - Stop 1: Democracy Europe | 30.06.2021| The Ukrainian Vibes - European Public Sphere project in phase 1 offers a virtual stage to young people and their visions for the future of Europe and encourages them to become a more active part of society. In...
Ukrainian Vibes – Stop 4: Our Europe – Create your Future
Ukrainian Vibes - Stop 4: Our Europe - Create Your FutureEurope | 30.06.2021 | The Ukrainian Vibes - European Public Sphere project in phase 1 offered a virtual stage to young people and their visions for the future of Europe and encouraged them to become a more...
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Our videos Our Dome Talks of the Remember Tour 2021 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950.Impressions from our previous Dome Talks:Blog posts from previous stops:Supported by: A project by:
Final Europe Jam: The Conference on the Future of Europe!
Europe| True to our motto Your future - Your turn to design it! , we hosted our Europe Jam on the Conference on the Future of Europe on 26 January - and it was our last one, rounding up the project Europe 2.0 that we had been working on since September 2020. Not...
Europe Jam: The Building blocks for European Integration
Europe | On 08 December, we met - how fitting - in a Europe-wide round for the Europe Jam on European Integration. Our intern Anna-Lea Reinhart put together some of the building blocks.In our Europe Jam on European Integration we welcomed our guests: Dr. Robert Stüwe...
Europe Jam on Democracy and Participation
Europe | For our session on the 27 October, we came together to discuss issues related to democracy and participation in Europe. More than 20 participants joined our call from different movements and organisations across Europe including the Citizens Take Over Europe...
TREAT YOURSELF TO DEMOCRACY – field report
Cologne | As part of the European public sphere project TREAT YOURSELF TO DEMOCRACY we visited the Don-Bosco club in the culturally diverse district of Müllheim, Cologne on 10 September. The idea behind the project is to motivate first-time voters to participate in...
Europe 2.0 – Your future, your turn to design it! 🇪🇺
👉 The European Public Sphere - Europe 2.0 creates an open laboratory for Europe’s future questions. And these should be answered by those who will have to live with the ideas: young Europeans such as yourself. 💡Together with you, we want to develop...
Kirchentag 2019
Dortmund | Every two years Church Day puts the city under its spell. More than 100,000 people of all ages, religions and backgrounds come together to reflect and discuss on the issues of our time. Of course, the European Public Sphere was also involved! A report by...
Youth for Baltic Sea
Sobieszewo (Gdánsk) | Our second stop of our Poland Tour was at Hotel Orle on Sobieszewo island just outside of Gdańsk. Supported by GLS Treuhand e.V., we joined the first Baltic Sea Youth Camp, a festival to increase youth participation in the Baltic Sea Region....
Schengen – Borderless Europe
Schengen| With the two stops in Luxembourg, the BeNeLux-Tour of the European Public Sphere was slowly coming to an end. But it was not over yet. Both Schengen and Luxembourg City were vital stops for our Dome Talks and delivered with vibrant discussions. Our intern...
Amsterdam – Food for Thought
Amsterdam| On the 12th of April, the Europe Dome visited the multicultural city of Amsterdam. Right in the middle of the Passage in De Hallen, a bustling centre for culture and craftsmanship, the Europe Dome invited everyone to join in discussions on citizen...
Gent – A Day in the Life of the Europe Dome team
Gent| Dome events are fun. But to make them fun, a lot of tasks need to be taken care of before, during and after the talks. Follow the organisers through their daily (non-)routine during the BeNeLux Tour and get to know another side of beautiful Gent.The dome day...
Liège – Democracy for Sale! Or not?
Liège| The first stop of the BeNeLux Tour of the European Public Sphere project was the 30th of March in Liège. We erected the Europe Dome in shopping centre Mediacité and held three talks on digital democracy, integration and the new European Parliament! Enjoy a...
Summiteers: What does Europe need the Alps for?
Henar Mountain Pasture | From 13 to 16 August, the European Public Sphere-Dome stood on the Henar mountain pasture between the peaks of the so-called Dead Mountains. This stop in the border region of Styria and Upper Austria is part of our tour on the occasion of the...
What are the forces of judgement for Europe’s future?
Herzogenrath, Germany | On Sunday the NRW Tour of the European Public Sphere led to Herzogenrath. As part of the Realize Festival 2018 we set up the Europe Dome in the youth centre HOT. The topic was "Youth and Europe" and we discussed with six pupils of the Europe...
Man and mouse under Düsseldorf-dome
Düsseldorf, Germany | On the occasion of the annual March against Monsanto on 19 May the dome travelled to Düsseldorf. It was in good company on the grass-covered Graf-Adolf-Platz: with the Monsanto high-rise as a scenery, it was surrounded by stands of...
Am I the only one who remembers the man from San Sebastian?
Donostia- San Sebastiàn, Spain (Basque country) | In April in one of our first Dome Talks organized from the distance, we could draw a surprising picture and work on our state of relaxation! Seeming to have made similar experiences, San Sebastiàn now in the words of...
Start of the project “European Public Sphere”
At the end of September the time had come: The European Public Sphere Project’s first dome talk took place. Gerhard Schuster, co-founder of the European Public Sphere, explains how this initiative came to life and what it is about. A few days before our double...