Concepts of Citizenship in the Educational Materials of the EU and the Council of Europe

This article analyses the models of citizenship in educational documents elaborated at the supranational European level. Both the EU and the Council of Europe support a values-based approach to citizenship. However, while the EU favours a non-political form of citizenship, the Council of Europe favours a more politicised form of citizenship. Implementation reports and academic literature show that the countries of Central, Eastern and Balkan Europe are keen to implement European educational recommendations and materials, which are optional and not compulsory. Nevertheless, they tend to resist the value-based approach of citizenship, which is perceived as indoctrination in these post-communist countries. The article concludes that the normative, non-conflictual approach to citizenship does not meet the challenge of the growing conflicts in an ever more pluralistic Europe.