Common Ground 2021

The second edition of our annual magazine Common Ground is out! We believe it is a way to share common European ground, and celebrate Europe Day.

This magazine is not about the last days of corona but the future we ought to build out of it. What can we learn from the last one and a half year? What can we do better and how? There is much talk about the New Normal. Can you still remember the Normal just before corona hit? Trump looked confident to win his second presidential term. Despite the Greta Thunberg impact and all the talk about climate change CO2 emissions had reached another peak. California was burning yet again. The new European Commission looked little inspirational while Brexit reached its sad finale. The immediate Normal before corona should not be our reference point as we look into the future. So, what about the ‘new’ New?

There is plenty New in this magazine. This is intentional. You will read about the case for a Cultural Deal for Europe, may get inspired by the idea of a New European Bauhaus movement. We believe the time has come for a whole new chapter of European philanthropy. We see the future being imagined in European Pavilions springing up all over Europe. Challenges cry out for new solutions. This is what The Europe Challenge is about, a new initiative in the works with the libraries of Europe. We are ready for the future.

Further in this magazine you will discover European moments of hope, resilience and solidarity, why black lives matter, why we must not forget about Belarus, what the New Gospel means for Europe and what the Sisters of Europe have to say about the independent media. You will not find only one but four photo essays. That’s four times more than in our last edition. Finally, there is a short story on life in lockdown, just to remember it before we move on.

We do hope you will find inspiration, hope and fresh ideas in these pages and a thirst to make the future together with us. We are counting on you.