Posted on 08 March 2016
On Thursday 3 March fifteen students and two teachers from the EU Citizens’ Club at Zanneio Experimental Junior High School of Piraeus visited the Historical Archives of the European Union at Villa Salviati in the framework of the Archives’ educational programme.
The visiting EU Citizens’ Club consisted of 2nd and 3rd grade students accompanied by Dr. Sophia Kitsou who instigated this club for the first time this year. According to Dr. Kitsou the idea for the club “came up because of the communication gap between the EU and its citizens, especially the Greek citizens. The EU institutions and their decision-making procedures seem inaccessible to the ordinary citizens due to their complexity. The citizens do not know enough about the EU and they feel they do not have an effective way to reject or to change the course of politics and policy. The Greek citizens are very euro-sceptic at the moment because of the Euro crisis – The students, cannot know, even their parents do not know all of this EU stuff my students have managed to get a grip on through this EU club”.
The club visited the HAEU to gain a better understanding of EU affairs. Visiting the HAEU “was like having access to inside information about the EU and its functioning and history” added Dr. Kitsou.
During their visit at the HAEU, the students participated in educational activities, which ended with a parliamentary debate. They were divided in four groups and each of the groups stood for one of the European Parliament’s political groups: the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), the European People’s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL).
The groups discussed the issue of the temporary suspension of the Schengen Treaty after which they took a stand and voted. Since vote was divided, the students went on debating until the decision was unanimous. One of the groups stated: “We want to have police on the streets to protect people” to which another one applied: “We agree but the police of other countries has to cooperate”. Finally it was stated that all the groups wanted “more cooperation between the national polices and higher presence of the police on the streets”.
During the afternoon the students had the chance to get a glance of the work the archivists do at the HAEU in the form of presentations and they could see original archival documents in the deposits and visit the premises at Villa Salviati.
The EU Citizens’ Club organized the study trip to Florence mainly for educational purposes but also managed to do some sightseeing. Students praised Florence and the surrounding Tuscany region for its beauty and rich history.