By Alessandra Ivaldi / 27.12.2020

In 2020, our contributors devoted themselves heart and soul to the activity of Meeting Halfway. The Covid-19 pandemic was of course often in the forefront of our minds, as Milena Parotti, Ramona Di Bella and Ana Alvarez Calleja demonstrated with their articles focusing on different aspects of everyday life in the time of the Coronavirus.

And to “sweeten” our days spent at home, our contributor Monica Nicol gave us some of her delicious recipes: torrijas al latte and chocolate salami. 

Meeting Halfway also featured two articles on famous traditional Italian products such as pasta and coffee.

Our indefatigable Julia Mayer then shared with us her experiences during her internship in Brussels, in the very heart of the European Union. It is an interesting series of articles combining personal impressions, the wonder of discovering new places and a deeper understanding of European institutions. 

After dedicating herself to Brussels, Julia joined Milena and Elena Noventa in creating another series: You and the EU, focusing on how the European Union works and how it can influence the lives of us all.

The collaboration with the team of the magazine Treffpunkt Europa was also very interesting, thanks to which we contributed to the dissemination of an important testimony about the living conditions of asylum seekers on the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department, during the Covid-19 period.

Working with Europe on Track, we promoted a very interesting opportunity among our readers: to become an EU ambassador with the task of travelling through 21 European cities for a month on Interrail, interviewing other young people about their vision of Europe.

And, in this regard, there was no shortage of articles focusing on the topic of travel, something that was all certainly missed a lot in these troubled times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meeting Halfway has thus “travelled” with the power of imagination through the series of articles dedicated to Alsace and Switzerland.

We also celebrated Carnival by discovering together one of the strangest traditions in Italy, the battle of the oranges of the Ivrea Carnival! And all together we gathered testimonies from different European countries to discover how Easter is celebrated in the EU.

Determined not to limit ourselves to traditional festivities, we also celebrated European Day on 9 May and the European Day of Languages on 26 September with an article by our contributor Giulia Barjona. Giulia also covered current affairs such as the “conquest of space” by Elon Musk, the effects of globalisation on the world of fashion and the tragic murder of a French teacher on 16 October. To conclude with current affairs, we also recommend our article on “The freedom to love: yesterday, today and tomorrow”: homosexuality from antiquity to the present day.

At this point we must thank all our tireless translators and proofreaders, without whom Meeting Halfway could not exist.

They worked on the translations of the articles above:

Fern Dinsdale, Danielle Kramer, Jason Chern, Nazzareno Lacidogna, Monica Nicol, Arina Agafonova, Julia Mayer, Ramona Di Bella, Eleonora Di Gaetano, Irina Dubovko, Eszter Szabò, Lorena Diana, Anastasia Ushakova, Birger Niehaus, Milena Parotti, Lucy Gannon, Jenneke van der Velden, Elena Bzania, Maria Porenkova, Daria Samokhina, Ricard Lluc, Francesca Barmaz, Alexandra Wood, Ivo Ivanov, Susanna Polakov, Martine Wilmes, Helen Gerasimova, Lise Moncey, Albina Pavlova, Arianna Bordi, Roza Evangelia Ladopoulou, Veronika Zhiliakova, Alex Jedwab, Lobke Maene, Camille Defix, Sara Pitardi, Alejandro Manjón Aspe.

And finally, we would like to thank the illustrator Daria Subkhangulova.

Thank you all, and may the New Year bring you joy and success!

Author

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Translator

Alex Jedwab (binational Swiss/British)

 

Studies: MA in English

 

Languages: English, French, German and Italian

 

Europe is... my home!

 

My website as freelance translator

Der Beitrag A big thank you to all our staff erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Giulia Barjona / 11.12.2020

On 16th October a French school teacher was beheaded in the north-central region of Île-de-France after showing offensive images of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in class.

Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, was also responsible for carrying out the moral and civic education lessons; the most difficult subject to address in multicultural classes, especially in schools which are located in priority education zones.

It is therefore necessary to think, or rethink, carefully about the roles everyone has on both a national and international level when talking about education, priorities, values, discipline, and pedagogy.

The school is primarily a place of learning where education is not limited to only maths, languages, geography, etc. This educational institution offers the opportunity to learn how to discuss and confront other cultures or “only” the most varied ideas. By questioning our convictions we have the opportunity to discover new points of view and to reinforce them. Regarding comments as accusations does not help to develop a dialectical ability useful for making oneself understood.

Additionally, schools offer to teach the greatest amount of useful information in order to be able to live, and live together, in our world. Some professions follow a suitable path to prepare students for future studies, and others offer the opportunity to critically analyse society. Getting to know each other and those around us gives an opportunity to “build” a peaceful and respectful cohabitation.

Moreover, parents of students, when they take their children to school, recognise how useful these institutions are. Schools impart a country’s knowledge and culture. They also share knowledge that parents could never give to their children themselves. These parents are obsessed with the desire for control and with planning the practices, the mind and the life of their “baby”.

However, schools are not ready to face the educational upbringings that children bring with them into class.

First of all, it’s important to be aware of the home culture of the different children and teenagers. Similarly, teachers are hardly ready to tackle such hot topics and start conversations. Paty had not forced students to watch the Charlie Hebdo-related footage, but one of his students did not understand the very purpose of the class. Perhaps the teacher had not understood that the student was not yet ready to approach this topic.

Secondly, in our digital age, there are other solutions than paper newspapers to show images. In some schools, it is forbidden to use mobile phones. Sometimes giving teenagers permission to turn on their phones in order to search for information and use it as they see fit may be a good compromise.

Thirdly, the choice to address current topics is a strategy that is always used. Sometimes, however, you have to think ahead and imagine the consequences. The trial of those responsible for 2015’s Charlie Hebdo bombing took place at the same time as Paty’s murder. Paty had, perhaps, carefully chosen this topic to make students better understand the news they watch on television. However, he did not think that those people involved are terrorists who have links to an international organisation still present in France to this day. It’s enough for an angry father to spark an international “debate” between French president Emmanuel Macron, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the entire Muslim community. Teachers should be informed, even by the military, about taboo subjects.

In conclusion, on one hand a piece of advice to give teachers is to listen to the real interests of students to create better-designed methodologies and programmes. On the other hand, parents should place more trust in schools. They must be informed that no one is trying to replace their authority. A new “structure” of mind is paramount on both sides.

Finally, the two sides must be asked if they truly want to work together and if they are ready to rethink their views. Would such a sincere collaboration ever really be possible?

Author

Giulia Barjona (Italy)

 

Studies: Pedagogical Sciences

 

Languages: Italian, English, French

 

Europe is... an immense source of inspiration and discovery.

Translator

Fern D (UK)

 

Languages: English, French, Russian

 

Study: MA in Applied Translation

 

"As conservative politics tries to push the UK further and further away from the continent, it's now as important as ever to make individual efforts to bring it closer."

Der Beitrag Deprived teachers and demanding parents erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Alessandra Ivaldi / 5.12.2020

In antiquity, bisexuality was considered as something that was completely normal. Let’s look, for example, at the cradle of Western Civilisation, that is to say, Ancient Greece. The attitude of the Greeks towards bisexuality is reflected in their mythology. Various deities had homosexual relations with their mortal lovers. According to legend, Zeus kidnapped the fascinating Ganymede, with whom he had fallen in love. In the Iliad Achilles suffers for the death of his lover Patroclus, while the hero Heracles loves the young Iolaus. 

Moving onto the real world, we cannot forget the Sacred Battalion of Thebes, an elite body of warriors made up of couples of men united by a love affair. This would contribute to the establishment of a great solidarity among the soldiers and a sense of belonging, which represented one of the greatest strengths of this famous group.

The situation changed in the Middle Ages, when homosexuality began to be condemned and severely punished. This attitude persisted also in the following centuries. Just think of the numerous cases of artists persecuted for their sexual orientation. Oscar Wilde for example, was tried and sentenced to two years of forced labour because of his sexual orientation, an event that deeply marked the last years of his life. 

For centuries, therefore, homosexuality has only been considered in two ways: as a crime, a deviance that is dangerous for the rest of society, or as a disease. It was not until the early 1950s that research, conducted in the USA and known as the Kinsey Report, investigated the sexual behaviour and fantasies of a large group of men and women using an anonymous questionnaire. The results of the report revealed that homosexual orientations were much more widespread in the American adult population than was previously thought.

However, it still took several years before the WHO (World Health Organisation) removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses and defined it as a “natural variant of human behaviour”. This fundamental event took place in 1990 and is remembered every year on 17 May with the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia 

Today we have the means to understand how our point of view on sexual orientation depends on the historical and cultural contexts. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go. In fact, the freedom to follow one’s sexual orientation is still not recognised and guaranteed in all countries of the world. Even within our own continent, we cannot help but observe how the LGBTI community is sometimes treated differently from the rest of society and its rights are not recognised in the same way in all European countries. But let us not despair, there are also positive signs, such as the existence of the European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup. This is an intergroup, made up of members of the European Parliament from different parties, whose aim is to defend the rights of the LGBTI community, monitor the activities of EU countries and promote initiatives in this area. It currently has 151 members, which means that it represents the largest of the 27 intergroups in the European Parliament.

For further information on the subject, I recommend you consult the following website: https://lgbti-ep.eu/

Author

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Translator

Alex Jedwab (binational Swiss/British)

 

Studies: MA in English

 

Languages: English, French, German and Italian

 

Europe is... my home!

 

My website as freelance translator

Der Beitrag The Freedom to Love: yesterday, today and tomorrow erschien zuerst auf MH English.

23.11.2020

Europe on Track is a project from the European Students’ Forum (AEGEE) run entirely by volunteers, who aim to raise awareness, to create a space for discussion and to capture the opinions of young people in Europe on important social issues.

Thanks to Eurail, 6 ambassadors will travel by train across 22 cities in 1 month divided in 3 teams to deliver workshops, interview young people and organise events in cooperation with 200 volunteers. Besides, this year Europe on Track will have an extra online route to reach as many cities as possible in Europe. Through non-formal education, the ambassadors will encourage young people to be socially and politically active. The project intends to cultivate a society in which ideas and beliefs are inclusive and not dividing people based on their nationality, place of birth or discriminated communities. In Europe on Track, we want to inform and empower young people to take the lead in their own future, after the pandemic, through activism at the local, national and European levels.

As an Europe on Track Ambassador, you’ll travel by train with an Interrail ticket for a month (8th April – 6th May) across circa 10 cities encouraging youth to take the lead of their own future through activism. All the expenses are covered by Erasmus + and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe! 

Do you want to become part of the change traveling around Europe as one ambassador? Welcome aboard the #ActivismExpress!  

VÍDEOS YOUTUBE

– OPEN CALL AMBASSADORS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plmVjeIXy5Y 

– TOPIC EUROPE ON TRACK 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ExVHkLbQWc

MORE INFORMATION: https://www.europeontrack.org/

AUTHOR: This text was written by the team Europe on Track.

Der Beitrag Become an Ambassador with Europe on Track! erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Alessandra Ivaldi / 18.11.2020

In the previous articles of this series we explored with our imagination the towns of Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein, making a stop at the wonderful Rhine Falls. Now it is time to end our journey with the last, very famous destination: St. Gallen.

The symbol of the town is its baroque cathedral, which is part of a wide and spectacular religious complex. A sumptuous library is also part of this complex and contains about 170.000 volumes, some of which are hand-written and a thousand years old! The entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The library contains the beautiful Rococo hall of Switzerland, an unrivalled masterpiece, which can be visited only after having worn proper “slippers” that make it possible to walk through this magic place without ruining the sumptuous floors in inlaid wood. The slippers are distributed by the staff of the library at the beginning of the visit.

In addition to the very precious and ancient volumes, visitors will also find inside the hall an Egyptian mummy from the 6th century B.C. and a fascinating item: a faithful copy of a sixteenth-century globe based on one of the first maps of human history – the original was stolen and is now in Zurich.

After the library, do not forget to visit the wonderful cathedral, work of the late Baroque period, with its imposing facade characterised by beautiful decorations that are just a taste of the magnificence waiting for you inside.

The town’s name derives from the legendary Irish monk Saint Gallus, who founded a hermitage in this area in the 7th century A.D…. and over time that humble hermitage turned into one of the greatest Benedictine abbeys of Europe, a center of power and culture. In fact, the abbot was for many centuries also the Lord of the town and the confining territories.

According to the legend, Saint Gallus gave a piece of bread to a hungry bear, an animal that at the time represented a dangerous threat for the local community. To reward Saint Gallus for his generosity, the bear helped him to build a chapel of the future monastery by bringing him the wood needed for that hard work. Today the bear is still one of the symbols of the city, and you will find statues and other representations of this animal throughout the old town of St. Gallen.

In this regard, the old town is really lovely and the local authorities decided to protect and keep its beauty by closing the entire area to traffic. Take your time to visit this fascinating place, where important evidence of the rich past of St. Gallen mixes with the vibrant life of a modern university town. St. Gallen and its old town offer many opportunities for visitors who want to have fun between one visit and another…

And that concludes, for now, our journey among the marvels of Switzerland. Do you know other places that you consider worth a visit in the north-western area of this little but fascinating country? Let us know your opinion by commenting on the Meeting Halfway website or on our social pages!

Author

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Proofreader

Alexandra Wood (Great Britain)

 

Languages: English, French

 

Job: Freelance Translator (Alexicon Translations)

 

Europe is... a mezze of languages and culture packed into a little continent.

Der Beitrag The Marvels of Switzerland: a rich historical heritage erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Giulia Barjona / 27.10.2020

Learning a language allows you to discover and confront a new culture, to face the challenges that come with learning a new language, and to develop a part of your brain which is rarely used.

There are many children around the world who begin learning another language from birth. These are referred to as ‘bilinguals’, although this definition has changed over the years following research which has disproven many myths.

Firstly, experiments have shown that half of the world is bilingual. In other words, there are countries where families speak two or more languages either often or all the time. It is also very common for foreign languages to be included in school curriculums.

Secondly, these days the word ‘bilingual’ is used to describe those who use two languages regularly on a day-to-day basis. However, the idea that a bilingual is a person who can comfortably switch between two languages has changed; bilinguals may also speak with a foreign accent or maybe have mastered a foreign language only in certain situations or for different social environments.

Thirdly, researchers have dispelled the myth that bilingualism causes communication problems such as language delays; they discovered that the benefits for children learning a new language are numerous. For example, during studies, researchers found that bilingual children could distinguish between different sounds, had better cognitive flexibility, and more complex thoughts. Furthermore, a greater neuropsychological development helps to improve the level of concentration, intuition, and also prevents Alzheimer’s disease.

In conclusion, why not start learning a new language or using a foreign language you already know?

Author

Giulia Barjona (Italy)

 

Studies: Pedagogical Sciences

 

Languages: Italian, English, French

 

Europe is... an immense source of inspiration and discovery.

Translator

Fern D (UK)

 

Languages: English, French, Russian

 

Study: MA in Applied Translation

 

"As conservative politics tries to push the UK further and further away from the continent, it's now as important as ever to make individual efforts to bring it closer."

Der Beitrag European day of languages and bilingualism erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Anna Alvarez Calleja/ 16.10.2020

Since we became aware of the existence of the virus, there have been alterations to our way of life. We can even differentiate several stages of change that our daily lives have gone through. It is true that these adaptations have not always been possible simultaneously in every part of the world. However, we would like to reflect on what we are going to call the three stages that have followed one another in the live music sector. 

Stage 0:

From December 2019 to February 2020, musical events were carried out in the traditional way. In spaces like concert halls, auditoriums, theatres, football stadiums, and even music schools and conservatories, musicians and the public could share music in the way they have always been used to. Did we have any idea that the way of interacting at musical events, which has remained generally constant since the middle of the 19th century, was going to be impractical so soon?

Stage 1: From March 2020 to July 2020

Certainly one of the most critcal stages that live music has suffered in the last 100 years (since World War II). In several countries, restrictions on personal mobility were imposed to varying degrees, from more or less strict confinements, to changes in the forms of movement (closing of borders, reducing capacity in trains, airplanes etc). These restrictions have an effect on the interaction of people at live music concerts and consequently has led to multiple responses.

On one hand, most concert halls and auditoriums chose to suspend their concert seasons. To make up for this, they offered special programming offered by way of streaming and revisiting past concerts. One of the great advantages of this offer is that it was, for the most part, completely free and accessible to anyone from anywhere in the world. As an example, the Royal Concertgebouw auditorium in Amsterdam offered streaming concert recordings of their orchestra.

Many of these concerts remain available to the public and can be accessed from the institution’s websites. In Spain, the National Centre for Musical Diffusion proposed something similar, including concerts not only of classical music but also of pop, urban music and even the latest trends in traditional music fusion. From the United States, a unique offer appeared from the Metropolitan Opera of New York, which made many of its great productions available to opera lovers for 24 hours.

Stage 2: From July 2020 to September 2020

With the summer period, you would expect the many festivals of all musical genres that take place each year. Given the situation of the pandemic, we have seen two different responses offered by organisers. Most have chosen to cancel the festivals and offer, as an alternative, retransmissions of the best moments from past years. This has been the case of Glastonbury festival or the BBC Proms.

However, there have been a few brave festival proposals that, either because of their history, size or location have decided to go ahead with the 2020 event, applying restrictions and special sanitary measures. This has been the case of the Salzburg Festival, which this year celebrated its 100th anniversary, and of the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight.

Similarly, some auditoriums have held concerts not usually seen in this season, such as the Berlin Philharmonie and its Parisian counterpart, who are offering their concerts in streaming and with the special collaboration of the television channels Mezzo and Medici.tv.

Stage 3: September 2020 onwards

Any other year, September would be the month where the concert seasons begins, just like the school year. It is true that, while many of the summer festivals were cancelled or postpooned, the few concerts that have taken place have served to test the conditions in which they are held.

With all this, we observe that, in most of the big capitals, the concert halls have plans to reopen their doors and have rescheduled a small season between September and December, which seems to be loaded with a renewed illusion. A prominent example is that of the Hungarian Opera House, which offered a free Crown Gala on September 7, 2020. Otherwise, the custom of streaming seems like it will continue, this time live, although it will no longer be free, as established by Wigmore Chamber Music Hall in London or already offered in the past by the Berlin Philharmonie.

Ultimately, the pandemic has caused the music industry to adapt and provide a response to make up for the inability to access concert halls. In a more or less satisfactory way for the public, technology and the Internet have been key to carrying out this response. From the current situation, we can see an intention to recover live music again, without these intermediaries. But, at the end of the day, we have found a very accessible avenue that can give us ideas for designing the future of live music.

And you? Have you been to any concerts this summer? What has been your experience?

Links that might be of interest for readers: 

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/watch-free-live-streams-from-the-royal-concertgebouw

http://www.cndm.mcu.es/node/21653

https://live.philharmoniedeparis.fr/

Author

Ana Alvarez Calleja (Spain)

Studies and work: Music history teacher and musicologist

Languages: Spanish, English, French and a bit of Dutch

Europe is... cultural variety within a common ground.

Translator

Lucy Gannon (United Kingdom)

Job: Aupair and English Tutor

Languages: English and Spanish

Europe is... a home away from home

Der Beitrag The Past, Present and Future of Live Music During the Pandemic erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Alessandra Ivaldi / 13.10.2020

The first article of our short series on the ‘Marvels of Switzerland’ lead us to Schaffhausen. There, we admired the old town and the banks of the Rhine, including the spectacular Rhine Falls, where the power of nature amazes even the least sensitive visitor. Around 20 minutes from Schaffhausen, there is a village where a very valuable treasure is hidden. It is accessible by car or public transport. The village is called Stein am Rhein, and is the meeting place of  Lake Constance (Bodensee) and the Rhine. In 1972, it received the Wakkerpreis (Wakker Prize), a prize awarded the Swiss Heritage Society awards yearly to a Swiss municipality that is committed to the preservation and development of its architectural heritage. Stein am Rhein was the first municipality to be awarded this prize. Certainly, no other town would deserve this prize more than this wonderful, medieval village. The village’s old town will leave you speechless. Despite its limited dimensions – you can explore Stein am Rhein on foot in a short time – it would be easy to spend a whole day among the old town’s buildings and admire the details of their facades. Even if you were to explore the old town again the following day, you would still find some new and surprising details! The buildings are unique. It seems as though the magnificent frescoes, with their beautifully decorated and colour facades, can lead visitors into a fabulous world, far away from the chaos of everyday life.     

There is no common thread linking the stories represented by the frescoes on those buildings; each building is a universe in itself. The names of the different buildings are taken from the decorations characterising them. The House of the Sun, for example, was named after the legend on its walls, where you can see Alexander the great and Diogenes, the philosopher. In the fresco, they are illuminated by the long rays of a sun with a human face looking at both of them.                                                                                        

Legend has it that the great leader wanted to pay tribute to the famous philosopher, and offered to grant Diogenes a wish. As an extreme example of his commitment to self-control and self-sufficiency, Diogenes lived in a barrel. Thus, in order to talk to him, Alexander had to enter the barrel. In doing so, he covered the sun’s rays, which were illuminating the philosopher’s ‘house’, with his body. Thus, Diogenes used his wish to ask Alexander, the mighty king, to ‘move away from his light’.

Another remarkable building is the ‘Haus zum roten Ochsen’ (House of the red Ox). Of course, the name of one of the oldest taverns in Switzerland derives from the animal, which can be found below the numerous details on the walls of this building.

If you have the opportunity to visit Stein am Rhein, you can admire the oldest fresco in Switzerland. You can recognise it by the white eagle depicted on it. Not surprisingly, the building is called ‘Haus zum weißen Adler’ (House of the white eagle). The fresco dates from the 1520s and represents images from the stories of the Dekameron by Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio and from the Gesta Romanorum, a collection of 13th- and 14th – century anecdotes and tales.

The list of sights you are able to admire on a simple walk through the old town of Stein am Rhein is endless. The village did not only win the Wakker Prize because of its beautiful old town. One of its museums, the Museum Lindwurm (the name of a legendary creature of the past, comparable to a dragon), was in fact awarded the title of ‘European Museum of the Year’ in 1995. You can recognise this museum by the dragon figure depicted almost everywhere around the building. The museum depicts 19th-century middle class life. 

Another highlight is the Kloster St. Georgen which overlooks the Rhine. It is a Benedictine monastery with a church from the 12th century. Its well-preserved rooms contain a history museum.

Our imaginary journey through North-eastern Switzerland continues: in the next article, we will reach the famous city of Sankt Gallen.

Author

Alessandra Ivaldi (Italy)

Speaks: Italian, English, German, French

Europe is... a cultural heritage.

Website: https://iva1794.wixsite.com/home

Translator

Martine Wilmes (Luxembourg)

 

Studies: MA in English Literature

 

Languages: Luxembourgish, German, French, English, a bit of Spanish

 

Europe is... forging cross-cultural relationships.

 

My LinkedIn profile

Der Beitrag The marvels of Switzerland: The discovery of a hidden treasure erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Milena Parotti / 3.10.2020

The financial foundations of the Regional policy are three of the European structural and investment funds (ESIF): the European regional development fund (ERDF), the European social fund (ESF), and the Cohesion fund (CF).

In contrast to other kinds of European funds (direct funding), this policy is based on the subsidiarity principle, which aims at ensuring that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen: by Member States, regions, and cities. This means every state receives a certain amount of funding every 7 years, based on their GDP, and agrees on a Partnership Agreement in cooperation with the European Commission. Then, every region writes an Operational programme, that is a detailed plan, to explain how the ESIF will be spent during those 7 years.

It might seem complicated, but it is an efficient and fair way to make sure every region invests their money on what really matters.

When Covid-19 started to spread in Europe in March 2020, the European Commission decided to take advantage of this financial instrument for a first response to the emergency. The ERDF has been used for health expenditure and for small and medium-sized enterprises. The ESF, instead, has been used for smart-working needs, for payroll subsidies, for e-learning and a lot more in the job field.

Most of all, a lot of restrictions have been overcome to allow regions to spend the remaining funds for the pandemic. The simplification of the bureaucratic procedures helped regions to redirect their resources to the emergency when Member states were still really far from an agreement on the Recovery fund.

These measures were launched in April 2020 as Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+), which were endorsed by the European Parliament and the European Council, and then supplemented on the REACT-EU package.

According to Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, “Three months after the adoption of the CRII+ and pending agreement on the REACT-EU package, Member States are making full use of the flexibilities and liquidities offered by Cohesion funds to help those most impacted: healthcare workers and hospitals, SMEs, and workers. […] the CRII provided emergency response where it was most needed. We have excellent examples on the mobilisation of funds and the measures introduced in many cities and regions across Europe”.

An example: Bulgaria reallocated more than 20 million euros of Cohesion policy funds to strengthen the healthcare sector’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. The same was done by most of the EU Member states. Eager to know more? Here you can find more information and more examples: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/coronavirus-response/

Author

Milena Parotti (Italy)

Studies: Public and political communication

Languages: Italian, English, French, German

Europe is… a big family where differences are strengths.

Proofreader

Alexandra Wood (Great Britain)

 

Languages: English, French

 

Job: Freelance Translator (Alexicon Translations)

 

Europe is... a mezze of languages and culture packed into a little continent.

Der Beitrag Cohesion policy and Covid-19: the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Giulia Barjona / 17.09.2020

Globalisation has reached all areas of the industry, including large and small fashion houses. Sometimes, it can be difficult to escape this trend, which becomes an injunction. In other cases, fashion allows certain social categories to emancipate themselves.

The idea of ‘globalisation of the world’ had already been born when Marco Polo visited China, when Captain Cook discovered the Cook Islands and when oriental manufacturers conquered Europe. The particular desire to westernise the whole world is a passion that never left the Europeans, as they had everything to achieve it.

For centuries, the ideals harboured in the minds of men have changed, but the desire to build a ‘world-community’ has continued to live in dreams as a synonym for power. Moreover, knowing and mixing different cultures has always been a symbol of openness, leaning towards a knowledge and a civilisation, a social group or even a human category. More precisely, the opening of fashion to the influence of other traditions creates the possibility of bringing about changes within an entire society. In the 18th century, for example, the fashion of the royal courts was reassessed to incorporate new colours and images of Chinese origin into the European tradition. In this particular case, all fabrics, jewellery, etc…witnessed a sudden turn by adapting the different shades of blue and black-line designs to white surfaces. In the same way, we find this phenomenon in modern society, by creating a visually appealing potpourri, like in the streets of Tokyo. The capital of Japan offers the opportunity to observe young people dressed in funny costumes that combine innovative fashion trends with the tradition of their ancestors.

However, from the 1970s onwards, globalisation became the main goal of all industries and, sometimes, of individuals. On the one hand, the various fields were urging for a faster production of goods. On the other hand, people experienced (and still do today) the fear of falling behind. For this reason, fashion had the opportunity to become the symbol of presence in the world; a ‘fashionable’ person is a person with the possibility of earning their place in life and the workplace. Therefore, to be fashionable becomes a necessity where there is an imperative to be recognised as a citizen of the world. Moreover, this deficit in the imagination is underlined by the big fashion houses with the triggering of a commercial plan at a global level, selling the same clothes all over the world. The feeling of comfort obtained among buyers has increased the popularity of an industry that is always ready to embrace certain novelties. These are made available to all cultures and all social classes scattered across the Earth.

However, these marketing techniques are not necessarily appreciated by most young people. The new generation prefers to move away from official fashion and invent their own style. The respect conferred on the offerings of big fashion houses is sometimes ignored or fought against. Young people often repurpose old clothes (a trend originating from rummaging through their grandmother’s wardrobe) or a meticulous search in a vintage shop where old clothes can be given a new lease of life. The revival of the textile secondhand trade underlines the need to give a new purpose to an object seen as ‘hopeless’. This work of identification of a boy or girl with a fake object, a ring or an ‘ugly’ detail becomes a symbol of the will to be recognised as an individual capable and worthy of existing. Modern young people are looking for a past to recognise themselves in order to be respected and heard by adults.

In conclusion, fashion has always dominated an important part of the industry and society, but it has not always been appreciated.

So what is the limit between fashion as an opportunity for self-assertion and fashion as a negation of personal identity?

Author

Giulia Barjona (Italy)

 

Studies: Pedagogical Sciences

 

Languages: Italian, English, French

 

Europe is... an immense source of inspiration and discovery.

Translator

Martine Wilmes (Luxembourg)

 

Studies: MA in English Literature

 

Languages: Luxembourgish, German, French, English, a bit of Spanish

 

Europe is... forging cross-cultural relationships.

 

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Proofreader

Alex Jedwab (binational Swiss/British)

 

Studies: MA in English

 

Languages: English, French, German and Italian

 

Europe is... my home!

 

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Der Beitrag The revenge of flea markets and the “ugly” erschien zuerst auf MH English.