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A NEW EU proposal will be brought to the parliament next week regarding gifting teenagers with a free interrail pass for their 18th birthday.
The proposal is being put forward by Manfred Weber of the European People’s Party (EEP), the party in Europe aligned with Fine Gael.
Weber is requesting that the European Commission funds and launches an initiative whereby 18-year-olds are gifted a single use interrail ticket for their birthday.
The programme would be funded by the European Commission in cooperation with member states and rail companies.
Interrailing is a common holiday option for Europeans and involves getting trains around Europe from place to place over a period of time.
Typically, a person buys a single multi-use ticket which they can to take trains all around Europe.
“The mobility of young people is essential in promoting a sense of belonging to Europe, enhancing social cohesion and ensuring a competitive European economy,” said Weber in the text of his question to be brought before the European Parliament.
Weber said that mobility of young people in Europe “is not yet widespread” and that ”populism and the spread of misinformation” was one of the biggest threats facing Europe.
He said granting free travel to young people to allow them to travel around Europe and would help combat this.
The proposal was welcomed and supported by Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes, who said that the pass would help promote tourism and enhance social cohesion.
Hayes also said that Europe needed to “move on from the failure on Brexit”.
“Europe needs to reach out to a younger generation. Europe badly needs to dream again and celebrate the common bonds that tie us together,” he said.
The 18th Birthday Interrail Pass for Europe would give all young people, regardless of their social and educational background, the opportunity to discover Europe.
The proposal is expected to be discussed in the European Parliament next week.
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Fascinating as always.
Great article. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!
I needed to read something like this today. Thank you.
Today, above all other days, we are redefining what it means to be Irish. Our proud, culturally-rich country will rise again, as it has many times before.
For now, a very happy St Patrick’s Day to all of you. Stay safe.
I’ve fed my family by selling Leprechauns (other stuff as well!) in our little Galway shop – we decided to close it for the time being yesterday, safer for staff, immunosuppressed family members and for the general public.
In normal times people from all over the world get to hear me ráméis about Leprechauns and we all enjoy the interaction.
I prefer telling them about Newgrange, Poulnabrone, Gráinne Mhaol, our Poets, our writers and the people of 1916 but the much denigrated Leprechaun is an innocent part of the overall package and, while never giving me a pot of gold, has enabled me to feed a family, pay rent and taxes and allow my suppliers and their employees do the same.
The Tourism business looks like it’s totally screwed this year, just hoping the scraps from our online sales will keep us going.
Beidh lá eile againn!
Great article. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!
I love these articles by Darach, way more please!
I think we need to break this association of the aos sídhe and fairies. Fairies are a mythological Germanic creature, usually depicted as very diminished in size – typically the size of an outstretched hand – with wings. The aos sídhe were of human size (we don’t know enough about the lúchorpáin) and had no wings. They looked exactly like humans although they were from the Otherworld or the Western World. Tír na nÓg, for example, was a home of the aos sídhe. The banshee is literally a bean sídhe. Sídhe, itself, refers to the mounds and not the mythological creature. Aos sídhe, daoine sídhe, na daoine maithe, etc are all other terms for them.
leprechaun economics
That leprechaun is unnaturally tall.
@D’oh: or those children are unnaturally small. They are mine!
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