ITALY – SECONDARY SCHOOLS EUI – Lycée Giotto Ulivi- Oreste ROSSI

The Historical Archives developed a programme for high schools focused on three main themes: European citizenship and school, climate change and the institutional reform of the EU. Numerous meetings were held in the prestigious Villa Salviati in Florence to discuss these highly topical issues.
The meetings with the students from Giotto Ulivi were attended by our member Oreste Rossi.

I participated for the first time in one of the events organised by the European University Institute of Florence in collaboration with the Former Members’ Association and was impressed both by the level of the Institute and by the reaction of the secondary school students who attended.

The session was divided into three parts: The first part focused on information on the ‘Europe System’, during which I and a competent Institute official took the floor to address European issues, and I spoke about my personal experience as a Member of the European Parliament. The young people were pleased to get involved and asked some very pertinent questions; The second part, in which the young people, split into three groups, pretended to identify themselves with political parties and to submit a draft legislative initiative; The third part, in which the young people presented the result of their work and we commented on it together.The topics were of general and social interest:

1) EU citizenship and schools;

2) climate change, the environment and energy, and

3) the institutional reform of the European Union.

In my introductory statement, I took a moment to explain the differences between the various European institutions: the Commission, Parliament, Council, Court of Justice of the European Union, Council of the European Union, President of the Commission, President of Parliament, President of the Council and President of the Council of the European Union. I noted that there was a lack of knowledge of the various institutions and their powers. I believe that Member States should include topics relating to the European Union on school curricula as from secondary school level. This is vital in order to educate young people properly. I commend initiatives like this which are useful both to us politicians, to remedy our numerous communication errors, and to young people, who need to open themselves up to the range of opportunities offered to them by a Europe of peoples and cultures.