The aim of the project is to create awareness of the fact that the future of European citizens is in the hands of the citizens themselves, and to empower them to take responsibility for the European project. The vision of a European Republic, with its essential principle of political equality for all European citizens, pursues the goal of strengthening shared values among European citizens, in order to counter national segregation and an increasingly ‘identitarian’ discourse in Europe.
In this sense the aim is to underpin the European mantra of “Unity in Diversity”, creating awareness for the fact that normative unity in Europe can be achieved despite - or rather on the basis of - cultural/regional diversity across national borders. Our central claim is that citizens who embark in a political project together must be equal before the law. Citizens must be equal in voting, in taxes and in social access, if we want to build a political entity in Europe together.
We want to see a new Europe without nations, without borders - a citizen-centered, decentralized Europe.
The idea of the common good - the res publica- serves as the guiding principle of our future European order, a European republic. The idea of this long overdue republic is the building block of our artistic-political European Balcony Project.
Conception: Ulrike Guérot, Robert Menasse, Milo Rau