AND ALREADY WE HAVE KICKED OFF!!

This is the email from Nicos to all of us..well done my boy!! (Nicos attached a word document with all our emails but I refrained from publishing it on Gap Lab in case some people didn't want their email address plasted on the net. However, if no one minds, then I will!!)

My unconventional conventionists,

It was strange the way it happened.One of those quirks of fate really. One of those moments when you seem irredeemably lost: you panic; you're trapped; your back's against the wall.
The information on the EU enterprise is just to much to take in!
The volume is just huge! There's no way out, and then suddenly, you get a break. All the pieces seem to fit into place. What a sucker you 've been.
What a fool. The answer was thereall the time. It took a small "accident" to make it happen. An accident! An accident, like the Youth Media Seminar on Active EU Citizenship! An accident that made us realize our power, unite into one team and build our network. To give the so-called Gap a good kick in the butt!


this is Niko Koulousios and I am still in Brussels.May I prefix this email by saying that the city is just not the same without you all!!

As promised, I am sending you the list with all our email addresses. Unfortunately, the PC i m working on does not have Office (believe it or not), therefore i cannot send you the Excel sheet with all our details, but you will receive that one asa i m back in Holland.

As you may have noticed, I have Cced this email to some of the people we have all met (and inspired by) at the seminar, such as Martin Westlake, David Monkcom, Lone Larsen etc., to keep them informed of (and involved in) our Bridge the Gap network-to-be.

In short, we have decided to take advantage of our coming together at the seminar, and create a network of young journalists aiming at a closer cooperation among us. All we have so far is our experience of the seminar, our enthusiasm and a list of email contacts. This is the basis upon which we aspire to fill the GAP between the EU and the real people, the "humans", the true heart of this hard-to-grasp Union.

To that direction we have unanimously decided to build a web space/weblog where we can bring everyone's voice together and communicate/share our ideas about our project. As you may remember, my Cypriot friend John Leonidou has agreed to set this weblog up and I am sure we will hear from him pretty soon. Myself and Anna (Sweden), Maria (Finland), John (Cyprus), Sergej (Slovakia), Sinisa (Slovenia) and Marie (Denmark) have come up with a name for this weblog - and that is GapLab. If there is anyone who does not agree with this name and has a more imaginative suggestion please feel free to send it to us and John of course.

Myself and Angel Igov will try to write our manifesto. At the same time, we have proposed to the organising committee of the seminar to let us speak our mind and heart about what we have experienced these 4 days in BRXL - and to include this in the publication that they will be preparing with the "results" of the Seminar. Therefore, we would like to ask you all to send us a few lines of what you think should be included in these two documents! Time is an important ally to this effort of ours so please send us ur thoughts asap. Angel and I will start writing the manifesto asap, maybe even before we receive everyone's ideas, but we will not publish it until we have also summarised, edited and included all of your contributions! Let me take this opportunity and say that this should be a collaborative work and no-one will assume himself/herself the leader in this. There is no hierarchy, no fixed posts and no personal ambition in this effort. It is all about equality and sharing of ideas...on equal and fair terms. We cannot do this otherwise- - - if we want to give the message to everyone (esp in the EU) about what democracy should really be about!

I would like to thank you all for these unforgettably special 4 days we spent in BRXL, and we hope to hear back from all of you asap.

Keep up the good work and... ... mind the GAP!!!

My warmest regards,

Niko Koulousios