We the young people of Europe
Does the title ring a bell with you at all? Sure it does! It’s a reference to the famous Preamble of the US Constitution (‘We the people of the United States’), which established that the power of government comes from the people. Why this reference? Because in times of democratic backsliding across Europe and all over the world, we want to draw attention to those very two terms that are at the root of the Greek word dêmokratia, i.e. dêmos for people, and kratos for power or rule. We want to reclaim our responsibility for participating actively in our democracy.

As Europeans, at the same time, we also wish to refer to the landmarks of our own past. In 2021, the year that marks its 80th anniversary, one such landmark is the Ventotene Manifesto for a free and united Europe, a political statement drafted in 1941 by three Italian anti-fascist intellectuals confined on the island of Ventotene, a document that can be considered one of the building blocks of the European project. By referring back to this statement in times of acute Euroscepticism and rising xenophobia, we want to renew the ideals on which the European vision was founded, including freedom, equality, unity, and solidarity beyond national borders.

Reclaiming back our future
Yet what is truly visionary and revolutionary in the title are the words ‘young people’. In a time filled with crises and unprecedented challenges, we want to unleash our potential and put ourselves, young people, at the forefront of decision-making about the most pressing social, cultural, economic, and environmental problems.
The time has come for us to take a stand. The time has come for us to make our voices heard. The time has come for us to play a leading role in the shaping of our own future. Civic education is the springboard, active European citizenship – the means. And this is the moment to be seized. It’s high time we became the Founding Children of tomorrow’s Europe.