European Student Think Tank

There is Greece, whose pos­i­tion is insec­ure. There is the com­mon cur­rency, which is on the bor­der­line. There are waves going high with dis­cus­sions about Euro­bonds and a European Eco­nomic Gov­ern­ment. There is no com­mon European voice in the cur­rent Palestinian request for a full mem­ber­ship within the United Nations. Where is the EU head­ing to? What does the future of the European fam­ily look like? These are only some of the issues and ques­tions, which make EU polit­ics busy these days.

I am  very delighted to take over the role of Editor in Chief for a lively stu­dent plat­form, which the European Stu­dent Think Tank is and con­trib­ute to a very valu­able idea. Demo­cratic polit­ics – no mat­ter if on a national or on the European level – are not made by some high-level people “up there”. They are made by all of us. It is essen­tial that we have a say about and pro­act­ively influ­ence those polit­ics, which shape our lives later on. Espe­cially we as young people should aim to make our poten­tial work and our fresh vis­ions heard and become real­ity in order to make the EU devel­op­ing in the dir­ec­tion we want it to.

Your Role

Based in the Neth­er­lands but with con­trib­ut­ors from dif­fer­ent EU mem­ber states in no way being a national product – this is my vis­ion for EST.  I see EST not only as a Stu­dent Think Tank but also as a plat­form to give crit­ical and ana­lys­ing voices to young, inspir­ing, motiv­ated and motiv­at­ing Europeans from all the geo­graph­ical corners of the European fam­ily, thus flour­ish­ing as a vivid melt­ing pot for ideas and fresh vis­ions bring­ing pos­it­ive change and aggreg­at­ing single thoughts to a syn­er­gistic 3 made up of 1 plus 1. This means enabling dis­cus­sions: I very much would like to see you respond­ing to blogs, either with the com­ment func­tion or with your own art­icle, elab­or­at­ing in a more detailed man­ner. A pos­ted blog should not be isol­ated but be integ­rated into a fruit­ful net­work of dis­cus­sions, ideas and visions.

Your Top­ics

Which are the rel­ev­ant top­ics? Well, in my opin­ion all these, which keep you think­ing and are on your minds; every European polit­ical topic that makes you won­der­ing, shak­ing your head, wor­ry­ing, that gives you a bril­liant idea you want to dis­cuss about, that gives you hope – basic­ally any­thing. Once made sub­ject of dis­cus­sion on the blog, we are inter­ested how this issue con­tin­ues. Fur­ther blogs there­fore should take these up again, build­ing a strin­gent line: one blog leads to the next…

Ideas and vis­ions not only make their way into the pub­lic in a writ­ten text – audio and video blogs is what I like to see from you on EST soon.

I am very much look­ing for­ward to develop EST’s webpage together with an edit­or­ial and journ­al­istic team of young and polit­ic­ally inter­ested stu­dents – to make our voice heard and effect­ive on European polit­ics. The next blogs are going to be online the next days! Hope you are as excited as I am!

Kind regards,

Bet­tina Benzinger.

Editor in Chief

Related posts:

1. Call for EST Editor in Chief 2013-2014
   Feb­ru­ary 3rd, 2013
2. Sup­port EST with a dona­tion!
   June 16th, 2012
3. Call for writers
   Octo­ber 12th, 2012
4. Call for: EST Graphic Designer
   Septem­ber 17th, 2011
5. EST announces cooper­a­tion with “Atlantic Com­munity”
   Novem­ber 13th, 2011