As part of the UAB’s Argó summer school programme, Eduard Soler i
Lecha, a member of the Obs, took part as a trainer on the course “Europa, pam a
pam: què és la UE i com ens afecta” (“Europe, step by step: what the EU is and
how it affects us”), aimed at students in Years 3 and 4 of ESO, the Baccalaureate and vocational training programmes. The course took place on the UAB campus from 22 to 26 June, with the aim of explaining how the EU works in a way that is easy to understand and relevant to young people’s everyday lives. On 25 and 26 June, Eduard Soler i Lecha led the sessions dedicated to the main current geopolitical challenges and the role of the in the international context. These sessions explored how the EU’s international role has responded to both internal and international transformations, often in the wake of crises, enabling the students to understand the functioning of the EU as a sui generis international actor — the ‘OPNI’ (unidentified political object) as defined by Jacques Delors.
Beyond conceptual reflection, the sessions had a strong practical component, contributing to the public debate on democratic resilience. The students carried out a joint assessment of the EU’s strengths, weaknesses, risks and opportunities, and, drawing on a range of possible proposals, developed one of them — focusing on education — which they eventually uploaded to the EU’s online platform. The course, organised by the Centre de Documentació Europea (CDE) in collaboration with the Institut de Ciències de l’Educació (ICE) at the UAB, also included sessions led by Pol Adroher Bernal on the institutional system and EU law, and a concluding session with the director of the CDE, Conxi Muñoz.