Nowadays we cohabit with technical terms and expressions that build a brand new European language. “Cultural Capitals", “Freedoms”, “Erasmus Programme”, and “Schengen Agreement” are amongst the endless database underlying this innovative “Euronglish”, “Eurench”, “Euroguese” or whatever neologism we use to describe this inventive jargon.
Had I been responsible for elaborating this alphabet (or should we say “alphabEUt”), I certainly wouldn’t know where to start or to finish. When we think of it, this happens to be in line with the process of European integration itself, whose beginning and end are impossible to accurately determine.
Was the idea of a united European space born with the Roman empire, or some centuries later with Charlemagne’s imperialistic mindset? Was it burgeoned from Victor Hugo or Kant’s theories of peace in the modern Era? Or did it not start until the spark of genius of the Founding Fathers in the fifties?
And as for the final destination of the European train, it is as difficult to predict: where do we go from here? Taking into account that we are always moving in Europe, how will Europe move with us?
This evolution of the European reality is in close relation to the topic of this contest: much more important than the variables “A” and “B” is… everything in-between. Therefore, if I had to create the above-mentioned glossary, my point of departure would definitely be the 13th letter of our 26-word alphabet: "M".
Mathematicians (an “M-word”) would call it the exact centre of the list. Linguists would depict its location as the perfect Middle (another “M”!). And it’s not by accident that the term that best describes Europe these days also begins with “M”: MOBILITY.
MOBILITY is the common denominator of my story, or – we might say that – the cement that holds the words “love”, “travel”, “work” and “study” together.
These words lead to “world”: within the framework of a global exchange programme, a group of Australian and European students were gathered in Malmö, Sweden, to participate in a Summer University on “Identity and Migration Patterns in Europe”. The purpose of this event was of course beyond the mere academic knowledge, embracing a wider challenge of sharing cultural and personal experiences.
Two of the participants took this goal very seriously: Ana (from Lisbon) and Nick (from Sydney) have been together ever since. In the almost three years that went by, they have been in many different places of our borderless Europe. Utrecht, Coimbra, and now Brussels (the very heart of Europe) draw the many steps of a path that perhaps wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for the freedoms (to live, to work, to travel) granted by this frontier-free space.
Getting ready for their wedding next year, they still wonder how on earth life has brought them here. Could it be, once again, the hidden Magic of the letter “M”? After all they met in Malmö, and their surnames – Martins and McLean – might have helped in the equation...
