Europe is facing increasing challenges in democratic and environmental issues. Since decisions in these areas are only meaningful or comprehensible if they are supported by the majority of EU citizens, it seems important to the participating partner schools in Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Germany to make a contribution to the promotion of European awareness by considering and implementing ecological questions in the school environment. We think it makes sense that our students practice and internalise democratic behaviour and at the same time implement democratic decisions. This is to be understood as participation. Participation and the awareness of self-efficacy strengthen the motivation to participate in decision-making processes. This is how we want to achieve project results in all partner schools in the sense of a three-step approach. All three steps take place nationally, i.e. between the project meetings, and at European level, i.e. during the meetings. Planned phases (steps) are: 1. democracy and participation; 2. decision-making process in Europe; 3. implementation of ecologically sustainable projects. We will practice democratic decision-making procedures, taking into account ecological aspects. In the next step we will deal with decision-making procedures in the European context (procedures of European legislation or EU regulations and directives) and finally we will turn to the implementation of concrete ecological projects in the partner schools. The aim of the project is therefore not only to increase the European political awareness of our students, but also to implement concrete ecologically sustainable projects in the European context. In analogy to European procedures, these projects are on the one hand binding for all partners, but on the other hand their implementation can also be realised in part school-specific. Conclusion: We are trying to bring transparency into European decision-making processes with the focus on "sustainability", so that in the future, at least among our students, there will be greater tolerance for these procedures and thus acceptance of our Europe.
Europe is facing increasing challenges in democratic and ecological issues. Since decisions in these areas are only meaningful or comprehensible if they are supported by the majority of EU citizens, it seemed important to the participating partner schools in Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Germany to make a contribution to the promotion of European awareness while taking into account or implementing ecological issues in the school environment. We believe that it makes sense for our students to practice and internalize democratic behavior and at the same time to implement democratic decisions. This is what is meant by participation. Participation and the awareness of self-efficacy strengthen the motivation to take part in decision-making processes. In this way, we have achieved project results in all partner schools in the sense of a three-step process. All three steps take place nationally, i.e., between the project meetings, and European-wide, i.e., during the meetings. Planned phases (steps) were: 1. democracy and participation; 2. decision-making procedures in Europe; 3. implementation of ecologically sustainable projects. Thereby we practiced democratic decision-making procedures under consideration of ecological aspects, did in the next step with decision-making procedures in the European context (procedures of the European legislation and/or regulations and guidelines of the EU) and turned finally to the implementation of concrete ecological projects in the partner schools. The aim of the project was not only to broaden the European political awareness of our students, but also to implement concrete ecologically sustainable projects in a European context. Analogous to European procedures, these projects are on the one hand binding for all partners, but on the other hand their implementation can also be partially realized school-specifically. However, since the meeting in Vienna with the topic "Systemic Consensus" could not be held due to COVID, a corresponding training for all partners was not possible. This meant: GER trained these procedures with the students and thus came to the selection of the project topics to be proposed in competition with the partner schools. The partner schools, in turn, arrived at their proposals by the classic method of majority voting. In the end, the final vote took place in the style of systemic consensus building, guided by the coordinating school. Conclusion: We tried to bring transparency into European decision-making processes with a focus on "sustainability" for everyone, so that in the future at least our students will have a higher tolerance for these procedures and thus also acceptance for our Europe.