epiStoa strives for a higher awareness of the European Values,
The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.
These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.
(Art. 2 of the EU Treaty; Lisbon, 2007, in force since 2009),
... and promotes the ancient languages, Latin and Greek, as European culture and civilization have essentially been developed in Latin and Greek. Many modern languages in the EU as well as the terminology in the humanities and all other sciences are soaked with Latin and Greek. The value of Greek and Latin literature cannot be overestimated and stimulated Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Goethe (to name just a few) as well as numerous modern writers.
The European history of ideas - notably the history of the Roman law - led across Humanism and the Age of Enlightenment to the modern, secular and democratic states, the European values and the European Court of Human Rights.
People with some knowledge of Latin or Greek have always been a minority, but their absolute number has been remarkably constant over time, and the appreciation of the classical roots is evidently much more wide-spread.
This “European model” has been successful in that it spread to many other countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. At the same time, it is continuously jeopardized, since totalitarian governments - and a few totalitarian-minded politicians in the EU - do not appear to appreciate it. Maintaining the European model thus needs a continuous effort.
Everybody who shares the aims of the epiStoa initiative is welcome to join !
