- *The extract taken from the web site: www.europa.en.it;
*My experience in interviewing young people from the surrounding area;
*The interpretation of data carried out by the different groups in my class.
The extract taken in consideration explains the problem of EU enlargement, which has come to surface in particulars when the countries of Central and Eastern Europe expressed the desire to became members of the EU. In order to do this at the Copenhagen European Council the members states decided the criteria which a country must meet to join EU. These points regard the institutions’ stability, the rule of law, the respect of human rights and the protection of minorities. Moreover a functioning market economy, the ability to cope with pressure and market forces within the union and last but not least the ability to take on the obligations of membership.
To understand how young people consider the matter of EU enlargement I had the possibility to make some interviews. The questions posed concerned what they knew about EU, what EU goals are, what the criteria to be a European citizen should be, what they think about Turkey’s entry, what the language/s to be used in the EU is/are.
Analysing the data it comes to surface that young people are ignorant, the EU’s knowledge is low, in fact most of the answers are superficial or sound like “I don’t know”. Thus I could see that there is no real interest of the young people towards EU enlargement.
As I could read from the interpretation of data carried out by the different groups of my class the matter of EU enlargement is not know. Young people aren’t interested in it.
I think that media should create interest in the young people also problems which concern their next future.