Possible topics for my EU academic paper

Welcome back to university! This is my first post for SUK3 and because we are discussing the European Union during this term, my first post concerns this topic. As we have to write an academic paper for part 2, I now present you my five possible topics:

1) Loss of cultural identity

By this time, every one of us has heard the motto of the EU at least once: “United in diversity”. It indicates that European citizens have come together, in the form of the EU, to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time maintain a member state’s many different cultures, traditions and languages. In my opinion, however, there is one problem: In terms of open boarders within the European Union migration is playing an increasingly important role. People from different member countries are in a close contact to each other. Therefore more and more cultures are going to meld together. So the first question that came to my mind is if there will be only one European culture one day?

2) Multilingualism in the EU

I have always envied people who were grown up bilingual. It takes you a long time to master a foreign language and sometimes you only see the effort you put into your language learning. Whereas someone who was raised bilingual has advantages without really work on it. As I mentioned above migration is a crucial topic for the EU and therefore is worth writing a paper about it.

3) YELL2 Young Europeans Love Languages

“YELL2 promotes the improvement of language learning and encourages creative teaching to inspire and motivate language learning.” (source: European Commission) YELL 2 stands for Young European Love Languages 2 and it is a network of European organizations which consists of three partners from Germany, UK and Turkey. The institution also gives individuals the chance to actively participate in the project by signing up in a network and educators have the opportunity to share their own best practices with others. I really like the idea of this establishment, because the ability of speaking foreign languages is more than just a boost to your CV or handy for travelling. It also improves the functionality of your brain!

4) Lifelong Learning Programme

I am convinced that everyone has heard about Erasmus but do you know that this is just a sub-programme of an European initiative called “Lifelong Learning Programme”? Not only students have the chance to spend some time abroad, but also pupils, people who are participating in vocational and adult education. The reason why this is a topic worth writing about is the fact, that it enables people at all stages of their lives to take part in significant learning experiences, as well as helping to develop the education and training sector across Europe.

5) Unemployment rate

As a future worker I am often concerned about the increasing unemployment rate in the EU. Will I find a job as a translator when I have finished university? What should I do not get a job? The average unemployment rate of the EU amounts to 10 % which is very high. Although the number of unemployed people has also risen in Austria, it is an outstanding fact that our country has the lowest rate compared to all other member states. So how are our job prospects going to be in the future? What does the EU do to combat this problem? These are just a few question that I would try to answer with this paper.