The European Union is an inheritance we received but never asked for. We were born into Europe, a furnished house. The walls were standing, the rules written, the history carefully and meticulously hung up for us to admire. We were told to be grateful, and we are. I promise, but gratitude is not the same as choice.
Our generation did not build Europe, but we inherited it. We inherited its peace, its institutions, its ideals, its dreams but also its silences, its unfinished debates, and its quiet fears. We are asked to protect what we did not design, to define values while we rarely had the chance to evaluate.
Europe speaks often of its youth yet too often about us rather than with us. Participation is encouraged but engagement is limited. We are invited to vote, to volunteer, to believe but not always to shape. And still, this inheritance matters. Simply because we did not choose to, we feel its weight in a different way. To inherit is not to possess, it is to carry responsibility without nostalgia. We do not want a past Europe. We want one alive and standing, standing so strongly that it will not collapse once it is questioned.
The future of Europe will not be preserved by those who remember its beginnings, but by those who dare to reinterpret it. By those who dare to speak up, re-valuate and question it. Loving Europe does not mean following it blindly, but by engaging critically and pushing it to do better and by refusing to pretend everything is perfect.
The European Union must not remain a memory and for that to work it must transition from inheritance to authorship.
By Elodie Cai
