On January 17, 2026, the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur was signed. Although its significance has a strong political component, its provisions create the world’s largest free trade area, comprising countries in Europe and Latin America with 750 million consumers. It represents a decisive step in establishing a strategic alliance between the two regions, as it transcends purely economic considerations and enters the realm of shared cultural values ​​and international interests.

However, this agreement has not been well received by a large part of the Spanish public, who have seized the opportunity to add yet another reason for disagreement with the European Union. Despite this, it remains more sensible to strive for the strengthening of the Union than, as its detractors do, to promote its questioning and yearn for its demise, especially considering the current international situation, shaped by a new world order of spheres of influence erratically led by China, Russia, and the United States.

That is why I welcomed the news that was disseminated in the media a few days ago by the Valencian educational authorities: the introduction, for the 2026-2027 academic year, of an optional subject in the school curriculum focused on the European Union. As has already happened in other autonomous communities, this new development is primarily motivated by the interest of schools in internationalization. This interest has led to the Valencian Community’s leading position in terms of European projects—exchanges, temporary placements, or collaborative projects—awarded to schools, making it the region with the most grants in certain categories.

This kind of “community pedagogy” is crucial for the future of the Union, as it aims to communicate to young people the historical significance of the shared adventure that is the construction of the European Union and to strengthen the role of civil society in this process. Instruments like this are necessary to overcome the chronic weakness that, since the origins of the integration process, has plagued the Union in terms of the influence of its member states’ societies in confronting the preponderance of established power in its various forms.

While the distance, indifference, and disbelief of the governed at any level of governance are worrying, the situation affecting European integration is far more troubling: both due to its very structure and operation (the vastness of its bureaucratic machinery, legal complexity, political distance, etc.) and due to a lack of understanding of its grand project of integration, which, through a gradual pooling of diverse national interests, achieved political coexistence among traditionally opposing powers. Therefore, students’ understanding of the geographical, historical, political, economic, social, and cultural realities of the European Union, as well as their awareness of civic engagement with this supranational entity, can contribute to rekindling the original enthusiasm for that process.

These lessons, far from portraying a Union monopolized by high-ranking dignitaries and major political events, must focus on instilling a civic spirit committed daily to the European Community, so that it is perceived as a matter for all of society and not just its leaders. What is needed is a pervasive, capillary educational influence that, acting on the conscience of every European, places citizens at the heart of the integration process until they recognize themselves as the source of European power and find in their service the very reason for the Union’s existence.

It is true that generating widespread acceptance of the European project as one of the great political inventions of the last century is an arduous and protracted task, but it is absolutely necessary today. Currently, it is not enough to simply “be European.” What is urgently needed is “knowing how to be European,” since an integration process like this still allows us to harbor the hope cherished by Jean Monnet (1888-1979) of achieving new forms of organization for peoples based on freely accepted common norms and institutions.

Pedro Paricio. Give me three minutes.