To create the Perfect European Citizen (call him/her PEC), we have to pick features from all the peoples of our continent, and mix them together ! Qualities, sure ! But weak points too… 27 countries have to be represented in one person ! But now, let’s focus our attention on 5 countries only, which represent well the European Union : Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, and France. Every culture has its specificities, traditions, way of living, and we mustn’t ignore them. Moreover, we’ll have to pass along the stereotypes, and find all the common points between ourselves.
In Perfect European citizen, we have the word Perfect. So, the PEC will gather qualities from our 5 countries. Take a few examples…
One of the most known qualities of Italians is to be good-looking. It’s not a moral quality, but the perfect European will have to take example on the Italians to dress himself. Moreover, he/she will have to know how to cook, in the best way possible, delicious food such as pizza, pastas and ice cream. Also, Italians make one of the best cars in the world, as the Ferraris or Lamborghinis, and that can be a good quality ! But it is also said that the Italians don’t pay any taxes and that their philosophy of life is only based on football…
In Germany, they think a lot about football too, but less than the Italians. The PEC would also have a German part
in his/her mind. So a real European would be efficient, hard worker and disciplined like a German. However, he/she would have to have a sense of humor…
In France, I think I can say that we are affected, a quality that we can give to the perfect European citizen. We also have a common point with the Italians : the research of delicious food ! We can maybe add the reputation of being good in bed… I won’t make any comments on this ! However, it seems that we don’t have the best way to welcome tourists or visitors in our country, even if we have many monuments and traditions to share. This part of the French is not indispensable to the perfect European citizen…
We could continue for a very long time, but this wouldn’t teach us anything. Even if we mix all the qualities and defects from European countries, that will not erase the traditions, the culture, and the customs that make these countries special. We can all be perfect citizen of Europe, with our specificities, if we make an effort to always be better than in the past. We all have something to learn from our neighbours, whether we are French, Italian, German, Spanish, or Austrian !

Jean-Baptiste BOYSSOU – French reporter from Lycée Jean Monnet