Martinusweg 2022-2023– Europa heute und damals

"<< Background >>We notice this huge erosion of the unifying european values: It is reflected in forms of neo-nationalism as well as in a growing alienation between citizens and the Brussels authorities. The Europeanization of many processes affecting citizens is no longer perceived as progress, but increasingly and across all levels of society as a threat to the mostly regional roots and self-definitions. Our aim is to make the unifying European values just as perceptible as the experience that an increasing supranationality does not contradict regional identity. We take the term subsidiarity out of theory and make it tangible. In this way, we are removing the basis for neo-nationalism and the process of alienation between Brussels and European citizens. The joint, consciously sustainable journey of a multicultural and multinational group creates meeting spaces in which the regionally/nationally different answers to similar questions are discussed. In these discussions we learn and we experience that a large (administrative) unit can and should consist of many strong regional units. We create a setting in which a core value of christian social theory can be experenced as the main structural ingredient of the peaceful post-war europe.<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to use a participant-related measurement with a lot of encounters between people at the lowest level of the organizations to set them up in such a way that they can play a more active role in a network in the future and be able to give impulses locally and at the European level. The network is intended to launch further projects in the future, both in the context of “Impacts of the European unification process on the local working environment” and in the context of “Strengthening the resilience of democratic processes in the European unification process / European and national/regional identity – complement or contradiction”. Here the project partners did not lack concepts, but they did lack experience in dealing with large transnational projects. This project should therefore create the basis for partnership work in areas in which all partners are active individually and regionally - but for which they lack a european network and like- or similarly-minded partners at the European level. An important measurement of perpetuating transnational activities should be a central office that brings together project partners and guarantees that the European employment strategy is more deeply rooted among citizens.<< Implementation >>Announced acticities: Introductory seminar on Hungary as a multi-ethnic state and the life of the Hungarian minority in GermanyThematic tour of Hungary's history Traveling in 2022 with night trains, trains and public transportIron Curtain educational trail (with the participation of the mayor of Sopronkovesd)Museum tour Horvát Tájhaz Local History Museum (and the Museum of Burgenland-Croats)Encounter evenings (especially here: Croatian evening in Kópháza, labor market project presentations in Marz and in Vienna, Betriebsseelsorge (special worker pastoral) in Upper Austria, reception in the Köszeg town hall and introduction to the Trianon argument in the Köszeg Museum by Mayor Basthy)Alternative city tour of Vienna with several projects for those looking for work or apprenticeOne year breakDanube route 2023Port of LinzEducational river tour on the Danube to realize the human impactBavarian themed endingSeminar on identity formationChemical water treatment – company tourWater preparation through renaturation of the floodplainsTraveling in 2023 with night trains, trains and public transportSupport vehicle Democracy-MobilSpecial additional activities: Celtic Museum on the DanubeElectronic Arts Center Linz<< Results >>First concrete output: the participants continue to hike across Europe waving the European flag, in 2024 from Passau to Munich, in 2025 the trinational group plans to start in the Bavarian state parliament and go via Dachau concentration camp, Fuggerei Augsburg and Lechfeld to Biberach. The group is open to participants and it is growing. Since there is no longer any funding, it's for at least three of the original participants financially not possible to take part. The network is looking for ways to support them, the network is still working together but is weakened by personnel changes. The idea is to consolidate the collaboration with a new project with additional partners from other countries. A concrete goal achieved is that the project organizations and all participants define themselves in a more European way (even participants from Orban's neo-nationalist context revised their positions through the encounters and experiences in the project). This continues to have an effect, because the group that is now running through Europe introduces itself as ""Europeans"" and runs with the EU flag jubefore the European elections. The Christian reference point of St. Martin became secondary, the secular-political Europe is now priority."