Happy birthday Franck!

Dear Franck,

Today is your birthday and I'm thinking of you. In fact I think of you every day. Europe is doing bad. Europe pretends to be democratic but supports street wars and casualties. Europe pretends to be free but leaves  Atlantist forces build a wall of fire on its ground. Europe pretends to be fraternal but lets children and women die in its seas.  Europe pretends to be powerful but imperialist forces are dictating its laws upon it. Europe pretends to be egalitarian but since the crisis never has the gap been so wide between rich and poor, elites and people(s), political leaders and citizens, institutions and nations. Europe pretends to be modern but still disregards Sao Paulo, Moscow, Mumbai, Beijing, Johannesburg,... when just visiting these cities speaks on European decadence. Europe falters as it pretends to save a world that no longer exists.

You would have so much to say about the cirrent events: Ukraine and the pseudo cold war against Russia, TTIP and this Atlantist regulation of our internal market, even the cultural exception is flickering as the "all-English" and "all-institution"  mantras have reconquered Brussels, Merkel's and Sarkozy's taping, who have reaped what they themselves have sown and now declare themselves above the law, above the citizens, immune to life like European civil servants, media which have lost any sense of European ethics, European elections which are presented as a new farce by the leading forces in power, leaving to citizens the crumbs of a petition and the illusion of a big change of the Commission.
Euroland, the project that you have born for close to 20 years, today called to rescue Europe from disintegration, will it suffice? Will it save the Euro, the sole tool of European integration that more than 300 million citizens carry in their pockets?
Fortunately, Franck, you have left us so much, in 30 years, none of your articles, of your analyzes, has aged a bit. Today your calls for democratization, your alerts, your anticipationss still guide us along a thinking that must be universal, generous, made for the most humble of us, of men, of citizens, and not for leaders, institutions, and the powerful. This is what your heritage is about: the vision of a Europe powerful for its people, the vision of a Europe democratic for its citizens, the vision of a Europe social for its men, women, youth, children. All your projects have been built around this single dimension: Aegee, Erasmus, EUSV for students, IDE, Newropeans for Europeans, Prometheus-Europe, Europe 2020, TIESWeb for bringing people together ...

Today, dear Frank, we are proud of a project that will allow us to track back the thread of your story and keep your memory alive for future generations, the Franck Biancheri Year, a first medal dedicated to the path you opened as a great European democrat. There will be others, we are working on it. Because we all need challenges to go forward in the future, such as reaching the moon...

Marianne Ranke-Cormier
11/03/2014

French here:
http://www.newropeans-magazine.info/Happy-birthday-Franck_a75.html