WhyEurope is a non-partisan and independent non-profit organization, which was founded in 2016 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Since September 2017, WhyEurope is an officially registered association based in

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

, Germany. It has approximately 30 members from over 10 European states.

Background and History

The initiative was founded by three students, who shared a concern about the rise of euro-scepticism and right-wing-populism. The outcome of the

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

referendum was the trigger for them to become active. They decided to publish pictures with simple pro-European messages on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and Instagram.

Communication Style

WhyEurope has adopted a communication style they refer to as “Positive Populism”. The founders describe the approach as simple, emotional and personal. They refrain from including difficult, political or legal terms in their slogans and make their messages as catchy and short as possible. WhyEurope trigger positive emotions in their audience by connecting political issues to every-day topics such as love or happiness. They believe that ''Positive Populism'' is to be seen as a simple and emotional communication style, but sustains a foundation of hard facts and evidence. In contrary to actual negative populists, they want to provide factual evidence and explanations for their claims. WhyEurope considers Positive Populism an approach to opposing current populist and

extremist Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...

movements.

Independence

Since their foundation, Why Europe has emphasized their character as a non-partisan and independent initiative. Despite being in contact with actors of the European Union, they have stated their distance to the EU institutions.

Relationship to other initiatives

WhyEurope has had a number of cooperation with other pro-European initiatives. Since beginning of 2016, Benedikt Kau and Hans-Christoph Schlüter were in contact with Daniel Röder and Sabine Röder when they launched the demonstrations under the name Pulse of Europe. Pulse of Europe adopted the campaign and the slogan of the campaign “Blijf bij ons” focusing on the Dutch General elections. Together, the initiatives mobilized ten thousands of people joining pro-European demonstrations. Further cooperation included projects with the

Young European Federalists Young European Federalists (french: Jeunes Européens Fédéralistes, JEF) is a political youth organisation. Active in most European countries, it seeks to promote European integration through the strengthening and democratisation of the Euro ...

and Laute Europäer.

Reception

On 31 January, Marine Le Pen (

Front National The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: ...

) filed a parliamentary request in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

asking about the funding of WhyEurope through the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

. Commissioner

Günther Oettinger Günther Hermann Oettinger (born 15 October 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner for Digit ...

, then responsible person for the EU budget, replied that the Commission has not funded WhyEurope in any way and the name were not found within the central accounting system. November 2017, WhyEurope has been awarded ''European Public Communication Award'' by the

European Committee Of The Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

. The prize was received during the EuroPCom in the hemicycle of the

. In May 2018, WhyEurope was awarded the Arno-Esch-Preis by the Association of Liberal Academics in Germany.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.whyeurope.org/ Pro-Europeanism Organisations based in Tübingen Political organisations based in Germany Organizations established in 2017