The European elections are on May 25th. Participation means having a say – how we live, work and study in the future. UNIGLOBALE was traveling in Brussels and met two MPs.
Spend a semester abroad? No, when Doris Pack was an education student in the 1960s, this topic played no role at all for her and her fellow students. Although the European Communities ECSC, EEC and Euratom already existed, a study visit to Paris or an internship in London – these options were still a bit like science fiction back then. In order to think outside the box of her home in Saarland, Doris Pack only had to take her own initiative: During the semester break, she shouldered her backpack and drove to her boyfriend, a French student. Her father had previously sent her to the neighboring country as an au pair. “I’m eternally grateful to him for that to this day,” says Doris Pack.
Not only the good French, with which she now communicates every day alongside German, English and Italian, has remained from this early period. Born in the middle of the Second World War, the realization also grew of what harm can be done by opposing rather than together.
A hunch became a passion for Europe and the European idea. A life topic that has occupied the now 72-year-old for 25 years.
As a member of the European People's Party (EPP), the EU Parliament has been her second home since 1989. Like the idea of a European
Identity can become real? For Doris Pack, this path is not just about beautiful words and open borders, but also about mutual exchange in everyday life, at work and, above all, in the area of education. About young people who go abroad to study or work, who are enthusiastic about Europe and who pass this on.
“Without education, everything is nothing,” she says. As chairwoman of the Culture and Education Committee and rapporteur for the EU education programs (including Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo and Grundtvig), she has been fighting and promoting more interaction, mobility and equal opportunities for years. The fact that the opportunities to experience Europe and learn each other's languages are greater today than ever before - students largely have Doris Pack to thank for this. Her most recent achievement is 'Erasmus+', a new edition of the same educational programs that she led as negotiator and for which the Council and the European Parliament finally gave the green light at the end of 2013. “We included things that came up again and again in discussions with professors and students,” says Doris Pack. The almost 300-page work also contains, among other things, a whole range of innovations specifically for students. This includes the opportunity to go abroad with Erasmus not just once, but three times - during the bachelor's, master's and doctoral phases. Or the chance to complete your entire master's degree abroad. »Many people can't go with the normal Erasmus. Unless they have rich parents,” says Doris Pack. The 'Erasmus+' offer: a low-interest loan guaranteed by the EU. 12,000 euros for one year, 18,000 euros for two. There is no guilt that cannot be paid off, says Doris Pack. Sometimes you have to dare something, take responsibility for yourself and just try it.
The program will run until 2020. Doris Pack was able to achieve a budget of 14.7 billion euros - 40 percent more than in the previous financial period. Around four million EU citizens, including two million students, are expected to benefit from this.
Studying abroad – for the politician it doesn’t just mean lecture halls and learning languages. "Many people think: 'Oh, they're going with Erasmus so they can party,'" says Doris Pack, taking it in her stride.
Of course, it's primarily about learning. But what good is it for a German student to sit in his dorm room in Valencia, alone and only engrossed in his books? He should rather do it like the young assistants and interns here in Brussels: go out to Place Lux in the evenings after work, talk to each other, talk about their Finnish or Romanian homeland. “This is Europe!” says Doris Pack. Communication and shared fun – two 'tools' that can convey the European idea better than any flyer.
When Europe elects a new parliament from May 22nd to 25th, Doris Pack will probably have already vacated her offices. She will no longer run for office and is ending her political career. What does she want for the 'European lecture hall'? Fewer universities that disagree when it comes to recognizing credit points; more universities that dare to follow the proposal pushed through in the Council in 1999: an adjustment of the Erasmus scholarship to the social background.
She looks back on an interesting but also strenuous working life. Situations like the recent one when she met 350 young people in Berlin show her that it was worth it. They had all completed voluntary service, including a partial program initiated by Doris Pack. “After this year, I know who I am, what I can do and now I want to do something completely different than what I planned to do a year ago” – these were the words used by a participant who had just returned from Lithuania. “It’s such a nice feeling,” says Doris Pack.
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The European elections are on May 25th. Participation means having a say – how we live, work and study in the future. UNIGLOBALE was traveling in Brussels and met two MPs. Spend a semester abroad? No, when Doris Pack was an education student in the 1960s, this topic played no role at all for her and her fellow students. That is
