In order to facilitate exchange between committed European organisations and municipalities, Stiftung Zukunft Berlin has now launched the digital cooperation platform Europe Bottom-Up together with its partners and the support of the Federal Foreign Office.

At the local launch event in Berlin, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, former president of Goethe-Institut and member of the Europe Bottom-Up board, said on Thursday: “Europe is neither a salad bowl nor a melting pot. It can rather be compared to a mosaic in which a common picture emerges on the basis of the rule of law, but where the individual building blocks remain visible.”

Lehmann took part in a discussion with three members of the Berlin state parliament, Susanna Kahlefeld, Sven Meyer, and Björn Wohlert, moderated by Stiftung Zukunft Berlin board member Yolanda Rother. The discussants agreed that issues that cities and their populations dealt with on a local level could be transferred to the European sphere and that Berlin in particular could play a bridging role between Eastern and Western European experiences. “We are a laboratory for Europe in the best sense”, Susanna Kahlefeld said.

With a war raging right on Europe’s doorstep, the peace project European Union is currently experiencing an attack on the fundamental values it stands for, and more than ever, its future depends on how unified Europe really is. The unity of the Union is based on the cultural diversity of Europe and benefits from its people and regions. Those who shape Europe are its citizens, its initiatives, its cities and regions. They embody its cultural energy: its history, its values, its beliefs, its diversity. They are the movers who push Europe forward.

europebottomup.eu

is designed to provide cities, regions and various initiatives with a tool for exchange across national borders. It is an instrument that makes it easier to learn from each other and to arrange and carry out joint projects. The explicit goal is to strengthen the European unification and to attract others to it through the joint presence on the platform. Europe Bottom-Up is open to all initiatives, groups and local administrations in the cities and regions of Europe that place Europe at the core of their work. It creates an opportunity to connect, collaborate and work online.

The development of the platform was funded by the Federal Foreign Office and implemented by Stiftung Zukunft Berlin. The platform builds on the networks of Stiftung Zukunft Berlin’s initiatives “A Soul for Europe”, “Cities for Europe” and “Wir sind Europa”.

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Download Picture: Screenshot of the Europe Bottom-Up landing page

Download Picture: Discussion at the local launch event in Berlin on 2 June 2022, Photo by Frederic Schweizer