This is how we will do it, at the very beginning:
"The Union is based on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of members of minorities. These values are common to member states, in a society where pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail." ('Treaty Amending the Treaty Establishing the European Union, aka Lisbon Treaty, Article 1a; 2007)
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The author of this article will honestly admit that, as part of the preparations for this editorial on European values - which is the topic of this issue of the Environment - he googled what European values were all about. The reason for such a procedure probably lies in the many-year process of integration of this environment into the EU: in the pile of everything ever said about it, it was too often mentioned that something is or is not in accordance with European values. And in those many cases, European values occupied the place that, say, God's Will has in the speech of religious people. An unopenable "all-powerful box" of unknown content, from which some rewards or punishments come out from time to time, and on the basis of which the subject of encouragement or deterrence knows that he has done something that is good or bad. And God will know what exactly. Or the European Commission, case by case.
Laymen in the matter of European values - who have become numb over time from the frequent use of the mere phrase - could understand everything by that term. When you don't spit on the street, that's a European value. Or is the waltz a European value, especially in Vienna and especially after the New Year... Those a little less enthusiastic about the EU could proclaim colonialism and imperialism as a much more authentic "European value"; reaching for not-so-old history and not going into what is written in the documents from not-so-recent 2007.
Be that as it may, if we re-read what is written at the beginning of this text - or we are never convinced enough and google a phrase that we have heard at least a hundred times - we will get a clear and precise list of what these values are. But with that, we did not necessarily say whose values these are, about which a few words could also be said.
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Well, here is (this) example, there is no need to come up with a better one, if there is one.
In order for water to reach people, the best way for that is - water supply. And that respect for the need for safe distribution of clean and healthy water represents some value, materialized in pipes and fountains. But if the existence of water supply is more common in cities than in villages, this does not mean that we are talking about urban values. They could first be declared universally human, and only at the end, or perhaps never, particularly urban.
Regional, cultural, population or any other arrogance allows itself the sometimes accidental and sometimes intentional mistake of attributing values that could be everyone's to only some. Realistically, the absence of arrogance could also be added to the list of values we are thinking about, who knows what would go more smoothly in terms of European integration in this environment.
But, speaking a little more seriously, if anything should ever be changed about the phrase "European values", it is the possessive adjective at the beginning. They are not only European: in a world connected more than ever, they have the right to be values towards which every individual and every society aspires - whether it is about those geographically located in Europe (even in the EU) and those who are left without that historical or geographical luck. In this way, it will be harder to forget and less to be googled which are the values that are not only European, and on which the EU has united. Hardly anyone would mind, and one would know exactly what was meant. On value. And period.
Just in case, we'll repeat them one more time. It won't bother, on the contrary:
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"The Union is based on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of members of minorities. These values are common to member states, in a society where pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail."
Bonus video:
