Rory in Berlin asks us:

“Is this the right time to celebrate Europe, with riots in Greece and on the cusp of a new era in British politics?”

He’s got a good point – and he’s written a thought-provoking “My Europe” post on his blog here.

Daniel Antal’s contribution argues that the Greek financial crisis shows we need a federal Europe now more than ever.

Ralf Grahn is setting out his vision for Europe in a full week of posts, with the latest installments here, here and here.

Mathew Lowry has posted his idea for Europe here, and he hopes to look back on it in a year’s time to see how his ideas have evolved. This is a fantastic idea – recording your current thoughts on Europe and seeing how events change them.

Nosemonkey has also taken part, offering us a pragmatic vision of a multi-tier Europe where those nations that want to co-operate closely can do so, and those that feel uncomfortable with European integration can take a step back.

On Twitter, the #MyEurope hashtag meme has been a hit with eurogeeks microblogging their ideas for the future of Europe. Some of the best:

@kosmopolit In #myeurope everyone that lives and works in another EU country should be given the right to vote in national elections in that country.

@mteu In #myeurope caring about the society you live in is being considered cool and helping out in your neighbourhood the most natural thing.

@simonblackley In #myeurope, the UK would join the euro, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and Schengen…

@joelitobarski In #MyEurope, the weather would be harmonised across Europe, and minimum sunlight and warmth standards would be implemented.

@hughbs In #myeurope “market Europeans” would be welcomed as builders, not feared as destroyers

@JulienFrisch: #myeurope is a Europe where it doesn’t matter whether my plumber speaks Latvian or French as long as she fixes my tap.

We expect a lot of posts to come on May 9th – the official EU “Europe Day” – but keep them coming today and tomorrow as well!

So earlier I posted a post from C’s Europa blog who wants europe to end as a Federal Europe

Continuing with non-English languages, Anne Albius of Denmark has written this post. It is an interesting post which looks around Europe now and the possibilities for the future.

Ralf Grahn, that prolific Euroblogger, has more posts for us! He looks at the Trivium and the secondary Quadrivium and Universitas of European Integration. He has also blogged in Finnish and Swedish.

Finally for now, Julien Frisch looks back at his experiences travelling by train.

Have you a story or idea to share? Dont forget to submit your post before Sunday!

Nun, die Staaten Europas sollten grundsätzlich einmal aufhören, eifersüchtig über ihre nationalstaatlich gewachsenen Systeme zu streiten. Ein Relikt aus dem 19. und 20. Jahrhundert hat wohl keine Zukunft mehr in einer globalisierten Welt.

Das Europäische Parlament sollte direkt gewählt werden, wobei Länderübergreifende Parteien zur Wahl stehen sollen. Die Rechte des Parlaments müssen noch mehr ausgeweitet werden.

Europa soll selbstbewusster in der Welt auftreten. Als zweitgrößte Demokratie der Welt wäre es endlich an der Zeit, wirklich an einem Strang zu ziehen und außenpolitisch die Prinzipien von Freiheit, Frieden und Solidarität in die Welt hinauszutragen.

So sehr sich Europa auf friedliche Konfliktlösung vertiefen soll, darf es jedoch nicht “zahnlos” dastehen. Die Mitgliedsstaaten der Union müssen auch eine gemeinsame Armee erschaffen, die Europa verteidigt bzw. zu friedensschaffenden Einsätzen bereit steht.

Die Regierungen der einzelnen Mitgliedsstaaten der Union sollen nicht andauernd ihre Fehler auf die EU abwälzen und gleichzeitig Neuerungen und Verbesserungen als eigene Vorschläge verkaufen.

Die Rechte der Frauen müssen stärker gesichert werden, die absolute Gleichstellung von Mann und Frau in Rechten und Pflichten muss gewährleistet sein.

Es wäre wünschenswert, jenen Ländern Europas besser zu helfen, die noch nicht Teil der Gemeinschaft sind, ihre Mitgliedschaft zu erreichen, anstatt ihnen andauernd nur auf die Finger zu klopfen und Vorschriften zu erteilen. Aktive Hilfe sollte das Mindeste sein!

Die EU muss ihren Schwerpunkt von einer tiefgreifenden Wirtschaftsunion zu einer starken politischen Union verlagern.

Am Ende des Weges muss ein föderalistischer, demokratischer, europäischer Staat stehen, in denen alle Länder Europas bis hin zu Weißrussland und Ukraine vereint sind. Nur ein freies gemeinsames, demokratisches Europa kann seine Rolle als Friedensstifter und “Global Player” in dieser Welt spielen. Lasst uns aus den vergangenen Jahrhunderten lernen und nicht wieder in die Nationalstaatlichkeit zurückfallen. Der Weg dahin wird kein leichter, aber die jüngeren Generationen sind bereits sehr gut mit den Vorteilen und Prinzipien eines geeinten Europas vertraut. Lasst uns weiter an Europa arbeiten.

Ich wünsche allen einen schönen Europa-Tag und eine ebenso schöne Europa-Woche.

It’s the morning of the first day, and the first few posts come from Late Night Thoughts of Sarcastic Mind, who is very critical of the future EU; Ralf Grahn, whose first step is a careful consideration of the reasons the EU came into being; and the editorial team from Treffpunkt Europa (German – Google translation here) set out a bullet-point list of their ideas.

Both Ralf Grahn and Treffpunkt Europa promise further installments, and we look forward to reading those. Please – take the time to read and comment on other people’s blogs – this week is a conversation about the future of Europe.

To help promote “My Europe Week,” we’ve added some new features to the Bloggingportal website. We’ve added a new tag to Bloggingportal – and you can follow that tag on this page here. We’ve also added a box showing what people are saying on Twitter about My Europe (using the #MyEurope hashtag).

You can also follow @Bloggingportal on Twitter and keep updated on our Facebook page.

We hope you’ll be taking part next week!

P.S. You can post in any language you want – not just English!

Rolf Grahn has blogged about the idea in a number of languages. In Finnish he gives a round up of the blog posts surrounding the idea and one informing his readers of this blog and of course the all important twitter hashtags!

He has also posted about it in Swedish, here and here

Ralf also has a post in English!

Matthew has a blog post about the idea and how he sees it and how it could provide a “fascinating EU-wide snapshot of what people expect and want from the EU.” He also has a hard time in picking a subject to write on!

Martin has a blog post in German about the idea and in which he had the prototype of what became our logo!

We also got a link from Erkan’s Field Diary who tells me he will be taking part!

And finally Ugis Libietis of Latvia has a post on “United in Diversity” and why it isn’t always true in the EU.

It was designed by Martin of europaeum! (Thanks Martin!) If you are going to take part in the project, please feel free to use the logo!

What do you think of our logo?

Welcome to the blog. This is an attempt by some of the Editors of Bloggingportal.eu to celebrate Europe Day online.

So firstly to explain about Europe Day. Europe Day marks the day in 1950 that Robert Schuman made his declaration on sharing the coal and steel resources of Germany and France (and other countries) to prevent further outbreaks of war. His declaration led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community which was the predecessor of what was to become the European Union. Europe Day is also the flag day of the European Union.

There is also a Europe Day celebrated on May 5th. The is to mark the foundation of the Council of Europe on that day in 1949.

So enough history, what do we want to do? We want to have a blog carnival. What’s this you ask? Well basically, we want you to write about your Europe. What you want from Europe. How you want Europe to develop. We want you to make to make your declaration on what you want from Europe.

The week will run from May 3rd to May 9th.

We want both bloggers who write about the EU and those who dont to write about this, so please spread the word!

To take part, either link to your post or submit a post through this form!