Dear colleagues,

My paper doesn’t contain the currently by politicians discussed “New and Old Europe” – no it is much more complex and looks at “Europe’s New Geography and its Consequences to Geography in Higher Education”.

Therefore I am selecting the following subthemes:
• Past, Present and Future of Europe
• Disparities and Solidarity
• European Communities
• Nations and Regions
• Cooperation in New Action Spaces
• Networking in Higher Education
• Resources

PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE
My introductory question is:
Does Europe play an important role in our present life?
When you are for example searching new European terms which have been generated in the last few decades you can find terms as: Eurocity, Eurotunnel, Euroland, Eurodisney, Eurocup, Europol, Eurovision, The European, Euro, Euroregion, Eurogeo and many similar terms.
That means: Europe does indeed play an important role in our daily life.
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My next question is: Did Europe play an important role in the past?

Yes of course, it did. Most time when there has been an international problem the Europeans tried to solve it by war with the effect of changing borders, dividing states and therefore making Europe looking like a broken mirror. Foucher, a French geographer, has drawn a map, where one can see the many border changes in Europe from the 17th century up to recent years. Separation by building new borders and states has been the main concept of Europeans to solve international issues.

Europe as broken mirror

One of the last, most terrible methods to divide Europe has been the Iron Curtain, which has been abandoned in 1989, but most people have already forgotten it. This Iron Curtain together with the Berlin Wall divided Europe in a so called West- and East-Europe with NATO and the European Community in the West and Warsaw Pact and COMECON in the East. Europe has really been separated into ideological blocks and communication has been nearly impossible. People should remember this situation, when they are not enough satisfied with the current issues in Europe.

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But it seems that many Europeans have learned their lesson and that they are going to unify Europe step by step. The European Union has been leading this European process from 1952 onwards. After founding the European Economic Community there followed a Northern and finally a Southern Enlargement up to our present days where we have got the so-called Europe of the 15.

So Europe played an important role in the past up to present days.
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DISPARIT|IES AND SOLIDARITY
My next question is: Will Europe play an important role in our future life?

We are just experiencing the enlargement process of the European Union, although we cannot be sure whether every candidate country really will become a Union member. Either a country does not fulfil the Kopenhagen criteria - as up to now Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey - or a referendum in a candidate country will not become successful.

If we look at the intended enlargement of the European Union, one can see that we will get 8 new languages, 25% growth of space up to 4, 4 Mill. qkm, 22% growth of population up to 450 Mill. people, but just 4% growth of the GDP.

No past enlargement has brought such a big growth of space and population. So we are confronted with a historic chance and challenge to unify Europe.

One of the biggest challenges is beside the growth of space and population the increase of socio-spatial disparities.
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This diagram contains the GDP/Head in purchasing power standards in 1999 and differentiates between 3 groups of countries.

The first group shows compared with the index 100, i.e. the average of 26 European countries, just a value of 45. Only east-middle European countries belong to this group.
The second group contains east-middle and EU-countries. They have got 10 points less than the average of the 26 countries.

The third group is the richest with 120 points and contains just EU-countries.

If one compares the average of the EU with the average of the candidate countries they differ between 120 and 45. With the enlarging of the EU the national disparities will grow dramatically. This is of course a severe challenge to the European solidarity system.

But one shouldn’t forget that there will be generated bigger and bigger markets to exchange goods and services more for the funding members than for the funded member states. Hungary for example exports already nearly 80% of its goods and services to the European Union – nearly half of it to Germany.

Per average all the candidate countries export 60 - 70% to the European Union.

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There are many different examples of Europe.

For example some large Europe, as Europe of the Council of Europe, which is the fore-runner of the European ethical, cultural and social integration and which extends up to the Pacific and includes some Central-Asian countries.

Or Europe of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe which includes even USA, Canada and Australia.

Or the Union of the European Football Associations (UEFA), which includes for example Israel. The Israelian politician Netanyau claims for example:

Europe is at first a spiritual concept and not so much a geographical space. Therefore other countries which don’t belong to the physical continent Europe can belong to the European Union.
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Or Schengen-Europe, the so called borderless Europe, with some other members than those of the Union as Norway and Iceland.

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And finally the European Union, which will likely be enlarged in 2004 to 25 countries and likely in 2007 to 27 member states. This Union has been developed from an Economic Community up to a Political Union with a common Charter on Human Rights and may be soon a common Constitution.

The so-called four freedoms – free movement of people, goods, services and capital – are important advantages of the Union, which is based on three pillars – the first is the common market, the second is the beginning of a common foreign and security policy and the third is the start into a common domestic and law policy.
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NATIONS AND REGIONS
The classical geographical understanding of Europe up to the Ural is a human construct as the other large and small Europe are.
Where are the geographers, who publish and teach about Europe as a whole, about Europe as a process?

Where are the geographers who develop a new understanding of the European space and borders?

Where are the geographers who are discussing the concept of “universal state borders” and describe spaces, regions and states in Europe surrounded by borders with less and less functions in order to avoid nationalist thinking in terms of separation, apartheid or even ethnic cleansing?

Where are the geographers who describe the European process as a process of many centres with different goals and functions and with different and often overlapping impact areas as for example the Interreg Regions, Euro-Land and Schengen-Land but also the Baltic Council or Balkan Stability Pact and others?

Of course, there is a strong European Core in the Middle of the European Union, but wouldn’t it be better to avoid the term “Core Europe” and use instead a concept of a polycentric, multilateral and often overlapping system with state groups of “strengthened cooperation”?
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There are many special regions – so called border regions, which have a distance from a national border less than 100 km. In the Eastern part of Europe nearly all regions are such border regions, but also in the Western part a big percentage of them belong to a border region.

Up to 1990 these regions have been disadvantaged regions, because the borders had got the effect of a barrier. Often there have been special national development programs to assist these regions. Now these border regions are becoming more and more open and offer new chances to cooperate across borders.

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That change has led to the construction of new border crossing regions – so called Euro-regions. There are now many activities across borders – here more and their less.

Many geographers are involved in researching these new border crossing processes. Here they often practice a model, how geographers from different countries can cooperate and contribute to the European process. But I am not sure, whether the outcomes are made enough known and are sufficiently taught at universities and schools. To reveal people, how border crossing activities in peoples own region can succeed, is one of the best ways to show how Europe can work for the well being of European citizens. They can directly see the importance of frontier crossing activities for their daily life and can become motivated to commit for the development of the European idea.

Within Europe there are many changes. The impact areas of cities are developing in different directions. New cooperation systems are offering new chances to people. So it is for example no big problem to Londoners to go shopping to Paris through the Euro-tunnel. Shopping would be even easier if France and UK would have the same currency. But it is also not a big challenge to French and British geographers anymore to meet in Paris or London.
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Within these urban systems, which often combine some different states, most people live and most future trends and innovations are generated. Compared with national spaces these border crossing urban systems are becoming more and more important.

These new cooperation systems are studied by geographers and the best way to do that is by working in teams of colleagues from different national areas.There are some geographers who practice this method.

The question is: Do they look enough after the impact of Europe, for example after directives of the European Commission on the development of these urban systems but also on the regions outside? If yes, are the outcomes enough known for research and teaching in other areas?

NETWORKING
Clearing house/home page/data banks
If all European geographers shall know what all European geographers know, you need a modern Information and Communication System, a databank and network to collect and exchange information. Of course, there are some databanks as EUROSTAT, but that is not sufficient. May be that Herodotnet can fill this gap. Up to now we don’t have a European Geography Association or a similar Institution which could be responsible for collecting and offering adequate geographical information - as for example the Dutch Information and Documentation Centre of the Geography of the Netherlands did.

The former Community of Geography Teachers’ Associations tried to exchange information on Europe for school purposes in a traditional form of the journal EUROGEO, but now it is hoped that the new EUROGEO-system will do it electronically and better and that it gets more man power to realise its plans.
Geography at Higher Education is missing such a European instrument.

Who is who in Geography?
I believe that as important as the exchange of information is the task to bring geographers, who work in the same field, together. There is no sufficient system which makes it easier to get to know “Who is who and who is working on what in Europe?”
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Chat rooms/groups/conferences
An important basis to optimize international cooperation could be the establishment of chat rooms for specialized geographers, where research and teaching projects and experiences can be discussed. Such chat activities can lead to border crossing cooperation through face to face conferences and field studies.

International Team Working:
- research
- fieldwork (students and teachers)
- teaching (bilingual courses)
- exchange of credits
Of course, research with a European dimension needs international teams of geographers, but also fieldwork and excursions in foreign countries should be done by teachers and by students from the home and foreign country as well. Normally the lingua franca will be English but the participants should also be able to practice a minimum of a survival language of the visited country.