Newsletter
Euros du Village
Gli Euros
Die Euros
The Euros
Los EurosThe history behind the website
The way the website operates and its editorial contents
Who are we ?
« The Euros » brings together students and young professionals specialised in European matters. They are all members of the association to which they contribute voluntarily by writing and posting articles on the website. To learn more about these young writers, click on “Who are we ?”
Why “the Euros” ?
“The Euros” is all about being passionately interested in Europe and wanting to share that interest with others. Our “European dream” is to make Europeans conscious of the bond bringing them together, be it political, social, economic or cultural. The name “the Euros” therefore embodies the community spirit present among the association’s members, together with an overriding mutual understanding and solidarity. All these values are those we cherish and hope to share amongst each other as European citizens, and with neighbouring countries.
Our goals
The association and its committed team have one major objective : to create ties between informed and less informed people, in other words between professionals, amateurs, politicians, citizens, the man in the street and day-to-day web information. This website equally serves as a bridge linking a complex and spread out Europe with everyday news.
Concretely speaking, our aim is to strive towards the establishment of both an information platform and a location where one can gather relevant ideas and opinions on European stakes and policies. Not only has the Euros been put in evidence on the web, but it has also been very active on the civil society scene by way of conferences and specific events which aim to encourage citizens’ implications in Europe’s present and future.
“The Euros” is primarily an educational project. We seek to speak about Europe and, reciprocally, have Europe speak in a new and different way with the best quality analyses.
“Open yourself to Europe” is our motto and our association is based on four principles :
EDUCATION. It is our top commitment. We mean to explain European policies, offer keys for their better understanding, supply references and bring forward debatable issues.
QUALITY. The team has specific writing requirements. Discussions and analyses must focus on the contents of the topics and leave commonplace ideas aside.
DIVERSITY. The website is accessible to everyone, from curious citizens and students to more specialised ones. Diversity applies to opinions, therefore we want to include every person in this debate about and over Europe. The Euros are neither federalists nor royalists, and we do not favour any political orientations. We seek to give life to the EU in an enthusiastic and intelligent manner.
SPONTANEITY. Articles have a direct and personal tone, without any kind of formatting or professorial style. We wish to create links between contributors and readers, between readers and European professionals in the easiest possible way.
The history behind the website
Created on June 1st 2005 by Mathieu Collet, currently the head of the association, “The Euros” all began with a blog : « the European dream – les Euros du Village ». It came first as a reaction to the event which saw the Constitutional Treaty being voted off by referendum in France. Many prior articles posted on the website reflected anger and disappointment. This opened our eyes on the vital fact that there exists a plethora of opinions throughout Europe and on the latter. The blog consequently became a user-friendly tool, which aimed at informing citizens on European questions in a view to create an enlightened debate.
The Euros was subsequently revamped in January 2006. That year saw the official creation of the Association, with the joining of new members including “historical” encounters. The enthusiasm that rose from the project coupled with the team’s extraordinary motivation had a snowball effect : from being a mere dozen members at the start of 2006, the number rose up to fifty by the end of the year. The association subsequently developed decentralized branches in different towns : one pilot project in Bruges, within the College of Europe itself, as well as activities inside civil society at the European level. After many months of preparation, the start of 2007 features a major revision and modernizing of the website : “Euros du Village 2.0”.
Prospects
“The Euros” is today a tool developed by and for citizens. It is also an organisation which uses this tool to call up, structure and materialise competencies, desires and ambitions for those who wish to learn more about Europe with conviction and without prejudice.
“The Euros”’s ambition is therefore to make this tool more and more accessible, interactive and user-friendly to a growing audience. However the organisation goes beyond the web in that it embodies a flexible, transparent and expanding entity in constant search of new talents and incentives. These ambitions aim to enable us to link up with other networks and create successful partnerships, which are two necessary elements for conveying our ideas.
The way the website operates and its editorial contents
This website is meant to be an interactive tool, accessible to each of our members allowing them to post their articles, comments and suggestions. An editorial staff is in charge of checking the content’s quality as well as the articles’ compliance according to our editorial chart and the educational principle. The editorial staff then approves the propositions and posts them online.
“The Euros” does not pretend to be an exhaustive resource nor does it wish to drown the reader in a flood of information. The articles’ frequency is voluntarily limited in order to enable readers to keep up to date with a higher quality website. In addition, all publications are made “in-house” to guarantee both relevance and an honest commitment. We never publish any agency articles or press releases and are particularly careful to prevent any form of plagiarism.
Our website is divided into five main columns
News : With « News-Focus », the Euros screens European news for you : comments in “weekly news” and the best sources are especially selected for you in “Live news”. In short, carefully selected information is at hand for readers to follow the trends of European construction.
In the spotlight : Hate it or love it, it is Europe as we see it. We express ourselves in “opinions” or external figures do so in “European viewpoints”.
Analyses : The Euros analyse European news or essential themes (“article analysis”). With our policy papers we give you the opportunity to go even further by downloading studies in PDF format.
Listen and Watch : With « Listen & watch », there are three different manners to tackle Europe audio-wise. With “Our guest”, key personalities give out their views and opinions about an evolving Europe through interviews in which you get to play a part. With our “reports”, just enjoy and listen to a closer Europe. And with our “podcast chronicles”, the news transpires through educational methodology.
Discover : With our « discovery » articles, take a closer look at European locations and people, images and maps included. The Euros also gives you an exclusive educational method for you to understand everything at a glance : the “fact sheets”.
Other columns and information services are also offered, such as “Special reports” which gather articles together according to a specific theme (Constitution, Turkey, etc.). Do not miss our directory “Europe on the web” or “The week as seen by the Euros”. We hope the website will provide new interactive functionalities in the near future.
How to become involved
Our website strove to be a participative one and open to all kinds of sensitivities. Indeed, we offer different ways to be involved in our project :
1. By reacting to our articles. A comment section is available for all the articles published on this website. Comments however may be edited so as to avoid the spreading of contentious opinions (racism, anti-semitism, revisionism, etc.)
2. By taking part in our interviews. For most of our interviews, an advertisement will be published a few weeks in advance so that our readers have the opportunity to submit their questions.
3. By becoming an “external contributor”. We give the opportunity to those people specialised in European issues to send us their article (see “European viewpoints”). If you are eligible you can send us your proposals by e-mail.
4. By becoming a Member. All our contributors are members of Euro People. By becoming a member, they commit to our project for an undetermined period, which is a way for us to guarantee the website’s quality and relevance. Members can therefore lead projects in the The Euros’s name or create a decentralized branch in their town or university. The “associate member” status can be attributed to the non-members who still participate to the website’s activity. This status is allocated in very particular cases and all cases must be examined by our board of administration.
Contact us
You can send us any remarks or suggestions you may have by writing to : contact@eurosduvillage.com
or
Euros du Village ASBL Avenue Ernestine 6 B-1050 Bruxelles Belgique
Copyrights
The website’s contents is full property of « the Euros ». Reproducing an element of this website is permitted in respect to the three following conditions :
non-commercial use
taken elements have to be taken in their entirety : no modifications or alterations are permitted
both the website’s name (Euros du Village) and the author of the article have to be clearly mentioned. The website address (www.eurosduvillage.com) has to appear in any case just before the title of the article and has to be a hyperlink.
