In Global World, European Union Gets Closer

Diplomats From 26 Countries Bring Awareness to Students

H-B Woodlawn senior Joe Huennekens's T-shirt explained it all -- why the teenager would choose to spend his free class period in the auditorium, listening to a Swedish diplomat explain the significance of the European Union.

"What footprint will you leave?" his black shirt says on the front. On the back, it refers to the genocide in Darfur.

Huennekens said he didn't wear the shirt on purpose May 9, Europe Day, when diplomats from 26 countries spoke at high schools across the Washington region. He wore it, he said, simply because members of his generation are more aware of the world outside the Unites States and the role it will play in their lives.

"I think the future really is globalization," said Huennekens, 18. "The borders are getting so much less rigid."

Europe Day is the annual celebration of the E.U.'s conception. For four years, diplomats from member countries have commemorated it by speaking at high schools in Maryland, Virginia and the District. This year was the largest effort yet, with 26 of 27 member countries participating at 32 public and private schools.

Speakers included ambassadors from Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

John Bruton, the European Union's ambassador to the United States, said the increased participation gives him hope that one day the effort can be extended nationwide.

"It is important that the rising generation of Americans understands not only the importance of the European Union but the extent to which it is not just a European achievement but also an American one," Bruton said.

He said that each time he stands before a class, he strives to explain the E.U. by comparing it to what the students already know: the U.S. government. The United States is the "cradle of democracy," he said, but although individual states cannot choose to remove themselves from the nation's governance, members of the European Union can.

"The European Union is taking the American experiment to the next stage, and I think it's important that American students understand this," he said.

"The European Union is probably the most ambitious example of constructive political cooperation that has occurred in the 20th century," said Bruton, who was prime minister of Ireland in the mid-1990s. "It is unique. It is the only multinational democracy in the world."

Bruton said he thinks it is especially important to bring the subject to high school students because they will soon be making policy.