AEGEE-Delft and the Franck Biancheri Year

For several years AEGEE-Delft has worked on improving their supranational policies to engage more with AEGEE on a European level. The general idea behind Europe and its identities was to honour the memory of Franck Biancheri in an unforgettable way. Therefore it was thought to be important to return to the very first values of AEGEE. That is to create a platform, from which various European students could have an objective discussion about political issues regarding the future of Europe. Because of this, several provocative topics about Europe were chosen that could still be seen as highly debatable issues all over Europe such as questions concerning the size and influence of the European Union. According to AEGEE-Delft, people who live in a democracy would also be responsible for its every decision and should therefore at least be able to talk about the issues and the choices their democracy. One of the more intimate issues that was discussed in the Dutch city of Delft was that of racism, linked to the traditional celebration of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, Belgium and the Swiss city of Fribourg on December seventh. While a strongly vocal minority in the Netherlands sometimes violently tries to abolish this tradition, in which a white bishop brings presents and sweets to children with the help of his black assistants, others vehemently try to keep the tradition as it is. The skin colour in fact is what fuels the argument, since both parties have acknowledged that both the white bishop named, Sinterklaas or Saint Nicholas, and his black assistants, all of which are named Pete, are treated fairly and would not be in a Master-and-Slave relationship. Considering the tradition, its alternatives and the option to abolish the tradition completely sparked a universal notion of tolerance. That is to say that against expectations all participants agreed that the discussion about the celebration was more ludicrous than the celebration itself. Regardless of this outcome the process of discussion gives a keen insight of how the other debates in Delft had been set up. That is to say by taking a national issue and presenting it in an informative way to a group of multinational members of AEGEE who then further discussed it and created a greater sense of awareness on a European level. Except discussing topics such as democratisation, conflicts and secession, AEGEE-Delft also found it important to be informative about such issues unless the discussion might turn into a prejudiced, verbal conflict. According to AEGEE-Delft most of the participants, three of which were Dutch and twenty-five of them were international, had been surprised about how little they knew about the majority of topics. To inform students about the issues facing the future of Europe, AEGEE-Delft reasoned, should be one of the principle roles of AEGEE regarding its future.Even though the FBY 2014 has come to an end perhaps more of Europe’s identities and future will be seen at the next Franck Biancheri Event in 2015. A special thanks to Femke Lokhorst, President of AEGEE-Delft 2014-2015, who helped organising this event. She has also written an excellent and informative article called “AEGEE-Delft elaborates on the discussion of our future Europe in “Europe and it’s identities/How divided is Europe””. It is indispensable for everyone who would like to know more about the Franck Biancheri Year event in Delft and for everyone who would like to organise one of these themselves in the future.

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