Following the event in Rotterdam the previous day, this get-together was the second one the series “europe to the people!”, which is organised by students from the German University of Witten and forms part of Democracy International's campaign “Democratic Europe Now”.

Valentin Ihßen, one of the organisers reports:

"We held a gathering open to everyone willing to share his ieas and creativity on actions to push forward the idea of a democratic European Union. We started the debate with a brief input covering these points:

- The ideal of a new political culture
- The lack of democracy in the EU institutions
- How the actual state can be changed and overcome by initializing a new democratic convention with european-wide referendums at the end.
- How Democracy International is working on the topic and which kind of campaigning strategy has been put forward.

The discussion atmosphere was a very lively one. After the presentation, the audience was eager to ask many interesting questions. Then, the participants sat together in a circle discussing ideas concerning direct actions, flashmobs and a european-wide bustour to spread the idea all across Europe.

We students of the campaigning team "Democratic Europe Now" were happy once again to see how great and productive it is to come together as citizens of Europe and to discuss in what kind of Europe we want to live in the future."

Valenting Ihßen studies philopsophy, political science and economics at the University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany.