« Antidemocratic and xenophobic forces of Europe have always been attracted by the European unity dream, the mystic of the imperial Rome»
(FB - 1998)
" Being a citizen is a voluntary act "
(FB - 2009)
"Thinking about the future only makes sense if it is aimed at improving one’s thinking about the present and about the trends at work"
(FB - 1998)
"The European project is not a dream, but a hope. It is rooted in rationality, which is not the case with dreams. We Europeans have seen our dreams end in nightmares too often not to be suspicious."
(FB - 2005)
"The strength of a network is judged at the information level of the weakest link, or more precisely the link furthest from the centre of the network."
(FB - 2004)
"Europe's destiny is escaping the two "Greats" and it will come knocking on the door of the Europeans."
(FB - 1989)
"The history of Europe is a bit like a multifaceted diamond. Everyone sees the same diamond... but no one sees exactly the same facets."
(FB - E-storia project, 2004)
"Let us dare the future as the founding fathers of Europe did"
(FB - "From EU to Euroland", 2001)
"The European citizenship can not be decreed. The European citizen can only be born..."
(FB - 1992)
"Every state is a minority in the EU. In any case, let’s not forget that if all our states went into building the EU it is because they all felt too small to face alone both their future and the rest of the world."
(FB - 2003)
"From a single (EU) Currency to a single (EU) Citizenship. The euro is only an instrument."
(FB - 1997)
"An empire is always providing platforms where conflicts and wars prolife­rate... an empire needs enemies, whilst a Community requires partners."
(FB - 1992)
"Europe’s history has taught us that dreams and nightmares are the two faces of the same coin"
(FB - “Europe is Peace” 2006)
"Everybody wants to have a successful enlargement whereas it is a successful enlarged EU which is important."
(FB - 2002)
"It is clear that the existing national political parties can not serve two masters: national and European."
(FB - IDE, 1989)
"It takes teamwork to make Europe move forward."
(FB - 2005)
"There is nothing like one European. The European is a team of Europeans... the only way we can imagine a European, it is a team of people from different countries, not a single man or woman."
(FB - Enschede (NL) 2012)
"On the horizon with a heaven of freedom and a land of responsibility, this is perhaps the soul of Europe."
(FB - 1992)
"The future challenge for the European project is not about Europe anymore, it is about the Europeans."
(FB - 2005)
"The more Brussels speaks English, the less Brussels understands the Europeans"
(FB - 2004)
"Occupy the Future of Europe!"
("What do YOU want as a future for AEGEE?" Franck Biancheri at the 2012 Agora in Enschede)
"To combine new technologies and democratic principles to succeed in the entry of European integration in the 21st century or e-democracy at the service of Euro-democracy"
(FB - EUSV, 2001)
"In the years 00 of the 21st century, democratization can only take place in the perspective of the democratic election of a European executive that remains to be invented."
(FB - EUSV, 2001)
"We must build the European Community, otherwise Europe will soon be culturally Americanised, politically Finlandised and technologically Japanised"
EGEE I, 1984

AEGEE 35th anniversary! April 1985, the first” états généraux des étudiants de l’Europe”

On April 16, 1985, under the aegis of Franck Biancheri, its president, the very first congress of the EGEE Association was opened, a high-flying event organized by the 6 grandes écoles of Paris (ENA, ESSEC, HEC, X, Sciences Po, Telecom) and universities (Sorbonne and Paris 6). This congress would welcome in Paris about 350 European students. Under the high patronage of French President François Mitterrand, it was sponsored, as shown in the brochure below, by an impressive number of personalities from the political, economic and cultural world with a European dimension. These included Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission, Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris, Hélène Ahrweiler, Rector of the Universities of Paris, Alfred Grosser and Alain Lamassoure, among others.

 

I’m the guy who invented the European Night

 

This congress was organised around 6 days of conferences and working seminars and plenary lectures, accompanied in the evenings by prestigious receptions, including the famous Night of Europe at the Conciergerie de Paris or the closing gala at the Château de Maisons-Laffitte, no student without a party.

 

There, in Paris, and spontaneously, hundreds of European students had gathered to discuss Europe!

 

The themes of these conferences remain impressively topical: European cultures or a cultural Europe? The new challenges of a social Europe. Which road for a unified Europe? Europe and its defence. Images of Europe. Europe and the Third World. Does the Europe of industry have a future? For a common foreign policy. Europe and the environment. Research and technological cooperation. For a European university system. It would seem that in more than 30 years Europe has not yet been able to provide answers to these various questions…

 

A willingness shown by founding the “Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants d’Europe”, to create the framework for channelling the energy, dreams and visions of European students. Franck Biancheri has thus succeeded in transforming these students into high-level European decision-makers, able to influence political programmes. Generations have passed through the AEGEE network, and this is still true today.