The project had a number of objectives. - To highlight, by means of a double questionnaire in the 10 countries, what ‘curators’ - qualified people from the worlds of education, culture and politics, as well as students and parents - considered to be a European culture in which everyone could identify. - Then translate this common corpus into a reference framework of knowledge, skills and attitudes that would serve as a basis for teachers. - To experiment simultaneously in the 10 countries with integrating this European content into the teaching provided at primary and secondary level; - draw lessons on how to extend this European dimension to teaching and be in a position to propose tools to facilitate it. - More generally, the aim was to enhance the partners' knowledge of European culture, develop future working relationships between them and promote the opportunities offered by the Erasmus programme to the experimental schools.
While Europe does have a certain identity, to affirm it firmly it lacks a common culture and, in particular, shared ethical and aesthetic values, which are the only things capable of uniting people around mobilising objectives. The part reserved for Europe and its culture is still too symbolic in the curricula for the feeling of European belonging and identity to be present at the various levels of schooling. Initially, the project consisted of cooperation between the ten European partners to bring out the ‘European culture’, the fruit of a shared reflection first at national level and then synthesised during meetings. The next objective was to translate this common or shared European culture into a reference framework that could be integrated into a trial conducted in year 2 of the project at the various experimental sites. It was hoped that, by the end of the experiment, pupils and teachers would be more aware of their European identity and that the European dimension given to teaching would strengthen the feeling of belonging to Europe and open up new prospects.