Of Europe & Men is a seven-month project (from October to May) of engaging in a "Tour de France" organised by two graduate students (us!). This Tour's objective is to reach out to ordinary citizens, and to discuss Europe's state of affairs by launching an interactive dynamic where citizens would suggest innovative ideas for tomorrow's Europe. The main result expected? A book!

Starting from the observation that Europe was not a highly mobilised issue in French politics, and that a wide part of France's citizenry now feels disconnected from a European integration considered to be an elitist project, we have decided to respond (even on our humble scale) to the rise of Euroscepticism - by this wandering project aiming at listening to citizens' voices on Europe.

Bringing Europe into the spotlight during the French presidential campaign (2017)

Choosing to tour France from October to May is not innocent: our Tour de France wants to encourage citizens, the media and public decision-makers to evoke Europe... even (or especially!) during a French electoral period.

Our goal is to have as much echo as possible, to make our initiative known as widely as possible, to motivate each and every citizen hearing about the project to react - and particularly, to bring into the debate his or her ideas to enrich the discussion on Europe's future and its flaws' solutions.

By the way, why paying attention to this Tour de France if you are not French? It is common knowledge that without the Franco-German engine on board, innovative initiatives to rejuvenate the EU have a hard time succeeding, for a wide variety of reasons (political, economic, institutional, etc.). Yet France's Eurosceptic and Europhobic parties are gaining ground, as are their allies across Europe. We chose to react to this major risk of EU blockade by organising a project aiming at voicing citizens' imaginative ideas for a better Europe. It is no secret that constructive projects are far more useful to European integration than border closure!

A book made by citizens to build tomorrow's Europe

The main output of this Tour? To realise, through interactive exchange, a book of citizens' ideas to (re)build Europe, that would take the form of both a general-interest book aimed at everyone and a political report directed to public decision-makers (elected officials, ministers, media executives, academy rectors, etc.).

Going hand in hand with this book, we plan to take initiatives under a wide range of formats: launching a petition if it specifically serves one of the ideas, address an open letter to all presidential candidates about Europe, initiate online talks to further develop generalist citizen ideas...

Far away from our Tour's itinerary? Join the project online!

Okay, let's admit it: going out in the streets to meet all 67 million French might take a bit more time than just seven months. And we haven't even started counting citizens from all across our 500-million-people Europe.

This is why our project will also take place on the Internet! You will be able to follow our adventures, participate in the debates we will launch (and even launch your own), learn tons of interesting things such as untranslatable words from other EU languages or how to reach out to your Members of European Parliament (MEPs)!

Throughout the Tour, you will have access to our video news as well! Thanks to YouTube and Periscope, the aim is for you to easily follow our journey and to live it with us from your home.

To know more about the Tour and how it's going on:

Our website, our Facebook page, our LinkedIn profile and our Twitter account are now waiting for you!

Any ideas, partnership suggestions, questions? Feel free to write us at deseurope.deshommes@gmail.com :)

Des Europe & Des Hommes

Des Europe & Des Hommes