WDEE Turkey and EU Integration Izmir 15-22 May 2010
The second event of WDEE took part in Turkey as nowadays this venue have been chosen according to the fact that Turkey as a candidate for EU membership is currently in a complex and difficult harmonisation process, and the topic of the conference, European integration have been controversially debated here with participants from all over Europe. After the most important aims of WDEE (street action interviews) a second emphasis put on the specific thematic focus of the event: “European Integration – Common Sense?”.This topic was dealt within workshops, lectures, excursions, and discussion rounds with special attention to the core points of the European Council Presidency's agenda.
Due to YiA grant what we managed to win again after hard work on it with our valuable helpers and WDEE FR team, we stayed again in a marvellous place in Cesme (4 star hotel), which is the holiday resort of Izmir. We wanted to represent the problematic points of this topic so we tried to invite speakers who represented or impartially or criticly the main theme, as this workshop title shows Different vision of European Integration in the future.
This time we did street action in a university in Izmir and a shopping center, than next day also in a rural area of Sirince and Cesme. We found a lot of motivated people who although didn’t really know a lot about the topic and the questions regarding their europeaness, but they became very happy to meet foreign students interested in their opinion. It was a unique experience to get in contact with so friendly and hospitable people who are opened for newcomers and glad to share their culture with them. Both for WDEE team members as for the participants it was a special experience which was not so specific in the case of Hungary.
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