every one I have to say that it’s a
pleasure to come back to this school and
after many years for the first time not
for parent and teacher meeting because
my three kids studied here and I still
remember some of the conversation
between pretty difficult but the good
news is they got such a great education
in this school that they are doing great
we at the University or in the
professional life but today we are going
to discuss here the future of Europe you
have questions and ideas about how the
world would look 20 years from now and
you know when you want to talk about the
future it’s always very important to be
aware of the present what’s really going
on what’s going on in my community
what’s happening in my country what are
we doing in Europe and how can we
actually make an impact on the world and
therefore when we are trying to
understand the present you always have
to learn from the past from our history
because I’m sure that your history
teachers told you that if you won’t do
that the history has a bad habit it
tends to repeat itself and unfortunately
very often not the most glorious
chapters and therefore I’m not going to
give you another history lesson that I’m
just going to tell you how I was what I
did
in your age at that time I was living in
Bratislava my parents my grandparents
loved me I was doing my sports and only
gradually I noticed that every morning I
am passing by the big fence which was
there on the bank of Danube
I saw the barbed wire I saw soldiers I
saw attack dogs and I saw the country
behind it fence I saw the lights I saw
the cars I can even see the people but
for us that country the Austrian talking
about was in a super distance because we
just thought we would never be able to
cross the river to go
all around it fans and just to talk to
the people on that side of course and in
those days the people been coping with
the stress with the regime with the
humor and we even had the so-called
golden bar jokes meaning that if you are
caught to tell it you can really end up
in the prison and definitely the bars
wouldn’t be gold but you can still get
the price for a good joke and the joke
about this Iron Curtain about this fence
was that the Sun was actually asking his
father daddy who is behind the bars and
the answer was son we are we are in our
parts of Europe so therefore if I would
fast-forward to 1989 then the atmosphere
in the country the continent change
dramatically and it was because of the
students like you because actually it
was the young generation students from
high schools from universities who
brought democracy to Central and Eastern
Europe in Czechoslovakia at that time we
called it Velvet Revolution and the fact
was that what this young generation
brought to the country and to the
continent for something unbelievable it
was the feeling of freedom it was the
feeling of hope and we suddenly felt
that we have the future and future much
brighter than what we thought we would
ever have going to 2004 we joined the
European Union so-called new member
states and and then I have to say that
for many people in a Europe this was a
strong feeling that the mission is the
great extent accomplished because for me
the peace and European ramification are
the major achievements of our European
integration and of our European
cooperation as you know each generation
has a big task to change the world
let’s a task for your generation as well
if you look at what we have accomplished
you might say that we could be pretty
satisfied with Brunei did the Europe we
made
and halt we created the biggest economy
on this planet which is the European one
we are behaving responsibly more and
more responsibility towards the
environment we are taking care of the
countries and the peoples who are poorer
and we believe that it’s our
responsibility to take good care of them
so the question would be how are we done
can we be happy everything was resolved
and here I would say definitely not in
your generation we’ll go through such a
transformation through such a change
that for us it’s even difficult to
imagine it right now because we have
invented algorithms and the machines
which can work for us but we have not
figured out yet how they will work in
the future with the humans how it would
work with this new social media platform
with these opinion bubbles to which the
algorithm of this social media is
pushing everyone was and how to make the
democracy work in the system we
accumulated tremendous amount of wealth
on this planet but we are absolutely
unfair in how we are distributing it how
is it possible that today in 21st
century you can have 62 people on this
planet who owns more property more money
more wealth than half of the human
population and then how about the piece
we are so proud about it here in Europe
but we know that it’s still a task upon
which you have to work every day just
look around our borders and look how our
political systems are coping with the
big problems with the current sometimes
strange mode in Europe we have again
extremists we have anti Europeans we
have racist we have radicals in our
societies and thanks to this new media
platform they are getting the coverage
they couldn’t dream of dream of just few
years ago and then of course we are
strong in industrialization we have
automation robot eyes ation digitization
but at the same time we have a people
who are in social distress and by the
way we are still using more than 80% of
the fossil fuels in our and
she mixes as we used 40 years ago so
these are all the challenges which will
be very much forming the future of
Europe and future of planet so we need
my age the number one question was
geopolitics will there be a war how
these two worlds east and west through
cope together for you it will be how to
cope and combine these new technology
with working democracy how we can use
the technology really for the benefit of
the mankind how we can combine that
drive for better future for the creation
of more wealth with responsible
environmental policies and how can we
make this world fairer and better place
and therefore when you ask me the
question to prepare for the discussion
with you and for the lecture of today
how’s the Europe how the world will look
in 20 years
that’s actually the question I should
ask you because it was very much depend
on what you want to do with your life
with your community with your country
with your continent how are you ready to
engage in local debates in community
work in volunteering in really showing
the good example how are you ready to
fight for our European values are we
ready to speak up against something
really bad happening in our environment
are we ready to elect good people who
really deserve it and who would think
about the future and about the positive
developments of our countries and the
continent I myself I believe that the
Europe will continue to be the best
place on this planet to live in as it is
today the cleanest first the best place
on this planet and I also believe that
we will continue to build fairer and
fairer society that will be responsible
with our mother earth and I also believe
that we will see in a European more
countries than we have right now because
we know that in Europe if export
stability we always get positive pay
back but if we want exports
ability we might be very much exposed
the possible instability which is coming
from our neighborhood so therefore I
truly believe that we in Europe will
remain to be the world leaders in how to
make our world cleaner place we will be
number one in clean energy we will be
number one in how to integrate these
renewables into our energy systems I
really believe that by 2030 each third
car on our roads will be car which will
be clean with zero or low emissions I
believe that we will have the best
infrastructure for not only charging
these new clean cars but also for
connected and automated driving which
probably you or your kids will bring a
new question do I really need the
driving licence or I just use my hip and
the self-driving car will take me where
I need and I also believe that we will
continue to be responsible to the poorer
people in the world because we know that
the world the economy is in a position
to really make sure that everyone on
this planet would have enough and would
have a decent decent life how are you
going to cope with all of that I have a
full confidence in your generation
because you are first generation what we
call digital natives and I’m sure that
your parents do the same as I do with my
three kids there is a problem with a
smartphone give it your son he will fix
it in a minute if you are frustrated
with the Apple TV or with any of the
technical stuff you had at home mother
calls her daughter’s to help her to fix
it so we know how this works
there is only I would say one warning to
tell you you have from time to time to
get the eyes of the screens to look
around yourself to check if there is not
some other source of the news if the
news which the algorithm are feeding you
Facebook Twitter Instagram or whatever
social media you are on if it’s really
objective one if there is no some other
opinion if you shouldn’t be
we’re of the discussion which is going
on in this topic because when we get our
selves framed closed in this opinion
bubbles as we have seen in some very
famous elections or referendum campaign
then our democracy is getting limited
because you do not have that healthy
debate that healthy exchange in between
the political opponents political
parties or even within civic societies
because you simply have the people who
are hundred percent convinced that this
is just eternal truth forever therefore
we need to work consciously on being
objective getting the information from
different sources being engaged being
active and to talk to the people because
I still believe that this is the best
way how to communicate in the future I
believe that you are excellently
equipped for this new world which
sometimes for our generation is simply
too fast is too technologically driven
and it depends too much on these new new
media new gadgets new new technologies
but you are different and I know that
because as I said I have three millennia
Millennials at home first you are not
afraid of the fast past change you
embrace for you its natural environment
and I see that if you do not find
inspiration in the country you live in
you change it you are not afraid to
travel you are not afraid to study
abroad you are not afraid to look for
the job in another country or to just go
for the weekend if with your friends and
and spend a good time somewhere in
completely different different plates
and therefore I’m glad that our
generation could make the whole Europe
your continent that’s your home you are
free to travel you are free to study you
are free to work and therefore I believe
that it will also feel these
responsibility not only for your
community for your country but also for
your continent and in many cases what I
have witnessed and what I have seen is
that you
are not in expectations you do not
expect to be given a job you are very
good in creating the new ones and if I
look at what are the top 10 professions
which currently all the human resources
departments are looking for these are
actually the professions which didn’t
exist 10 years ago so if you are in IT
if you are in biomedicine if you are in
data analytics if you are in any of
these technical fields you’re absolutely
guaranteed that the companies the firms
will be fighting for you but you even
probably would not be interested in that
because today you can create your own
ideas you can create your own job and
therefore I think that for these
fast-changing this world and huge
development were the digitalization
where the sharing of knowledge is
bringing us to the new place and the new
possibilities will be something which
your generation will be able to embrace
you are excellently equipped with
languages I remember how tough was it
for us to learn English to learn French
because there was no Google Translate
there be no video tutorials you had the
dictionary you had a teacher and you had
to study hard and on top of it you never
knew if you would use the language in
the real life or not for you it’s
natural to speak in different languages
and you don’t see there’s a barrier you
see it as a link you see there’s
something which connects you connects
you to your to your friends and I also
am absolutely convinced that from the
fact that you know so well your friends
from other countries that you can
compare the lives that you shared so
much time and moments or here in the
schools or on your travels across the
Europe that you would feel something
which is this European sense of
belonging that we actually are one
continent which has a big responsibility
not only for us but for the planet and I
absolutely convinced that the next
decade would be crucial from how from
the point of view how the world would
look like who would be winning
presenting convincing with the arguments
with the results the rest of the world
would be China or the United States or
would it be Europe and I believe that
world needs the European lifestyle world
need European social responsibility
Europe nay the world need Europe’s feel
of fairness and the world need also our
technologies our bright people our
people with a great linguistic skills
and that feeling of empathy when you are
talking to the people coming from the
other continent so with all that little
list of tasks I really would like to
wish you lots of luck I would like to
wish you good choice of your
universities and I would really play
with you
please be engaged be interested being
formed and these active as you are today
when you are organising these talks were
the people like me are extremely glad
that you are ready to listen that you
want to share your views that you want
to share your impressions about how the
society is evolving because in few years
you will be not only the young people
you will become the young leaders and
the Europe and the world with very much
depend on you to which I really would
like to issue that good luck all the
best and thank you very much for your
attention
pleasure to come back to this school and
after many years for the first time not
for parent and teacher meeting because
my three kids studied here and I still
remember some of the conversation
between pretty difficult but the good
news is they got such a great education
in this school that they are doing great
we at the University or in the
professional life but today we are going
to discuss here the future of Europe you
have questions and ideas about how the
world would look 20 years from now and
you know when you want to talk about the
future it’s always very important to be
aware of the present what’s really going
on what’s going on in my community
what’s happening in my country what are
we doing in Europe and how can we
actually make an impact on the world and
therefore when we are trying to
understand the present you always have
to learn from the past from our history
because I’m sure that your history
teachers told you that if you won’t do
that the history has a bad habit it
tends to repeat itself and unfortunately
very often not the most glorious
chapters and therefore I’m not going to
give you another history lesson that I’m
just going to tell you how I was what I
did
in your age at that time I was living in
Bratislava my parents my grandparents
loved me I was doing my sports and only
gradually I noticed that every morning I
am passing by the big fence which was
there on the bank of Danube
I saw the barbed wire I saw soldiers I
saw attack dogs and I saw the country
behind it fence I saw the lights I saw
the cars I can even see the people but
for us that country the Austrian talking
about was in a super distance because we
just thought we would never be able to
cross the river to go
all around it fans and just to talk to
the people on that side of course and in
those days the people been coping with
the stress with the regime with the
humor and we even had the so-called
golden bar jokes meaning that if you are
caught to tell it you can really end up
in the prison and definitely the bars
wouldn’t be gold but you can still get
the price for a good joke and the joke
about this Iron Curtain about this fence
was that the Sun was actually asking his
father daddy who is behind the bars and
the answer was son we are we are in our
parts of Europe so therefore if I would
fast-forward to 1989 then the atmosphere
in the country the continent change
dramatically and it was because of the
students like you because actually it
was the young generation students from
high schools from universities who
brought democracy to Central and Eastern
Europe in Czechoslovakia at that time we
called it Velvet Revolution and the fact
was that what this young generation
brought to the country and to the
continent for something unbelievable it
was the feeling of freedom it was the
feeling of hope and we suddenly felt
that we have the future and future much
brighter than what we thought we would
ever have going to 2004 we joined the
European Union so-called new member
states and and then I have to say that
for many people in a Europe this was a
strong feeling that the mission is the
great extent accomplished because for me
the peace and European ramification are
the major achievements of our European
integration and of our European
cooperation as you know each generation
has a big task to change the world
let’s a task for your generation as well
if you look at what we have accomplished
you might say that we could be pretty
satisfied with Brunei did the Europe we
made
and halt we created the biggest economy
on this planet which is the European one
we are behaving responsibly more and
more responsibility towards the
environment we are taking care of the
countries and the peoples who are poorer
and we believe that it’s our
responsibility to take good care of them
so the question would be how are we done
can we be happy everything was resolved
and here I would say definitely not in
your generation we’ll go through such a
transformation through such a change
that for us it’s even difficult to
imagine it right now because we have
invented algorithms and the machines
which can work for us but we have not
figured out yet how they will work in
the future with the humans how it would
work with this new social media platform
with these opinion bubbles to which the
algorithm of this social media is
pushing everyone was and how to make the
democracy work in the system we
accumulated tremendous amount of wealth
on this planet but we are absolutely
unfair in how we are distributing it how
is it possible that today in 21st
century you can have 62 people on this
planet who owns more property more money
more wealth than half of the human
population and then how about the piece
we are so proud about it here in Europe
but we know that it’s still a task upon
which you have to work every day just
look around our borders and look how our
political systems are coping with the
big problems with the current sometimes
strange mode in Europe we have again
extremists we have anti Europeans we
have racist we have radicals in our
societies and thanks to this new media
platform they are getting the coverage
they couldn’t dream of dream of just few
years ago and then of course we are
strong in industrialization we have
automation robot eyes ation digitization
but at the same time we have a people
who are in social distress and by the
way we are still using more than 80% of
the fossil fuels in our and
she mixes as we used 40 years ago so
these are all the challenges which will
be very much forming the future of
Europe and future of planet so we need
my age the number one question was
geopolitics will there be a war how
these two worlds east and west through
cope together for you it will be how to
cope and combine these new technology
with working democracy how we can use
the technology really for the benefit of
the mankind how we can combine that
drive for better future for the creation
of more wealth with responsible
environmental policies and how can we
make this world fairer and better place
and therefore when you ask me the
question to prepare for the discussion
with you and for the lecture of today
how’s the Europe how the world will look
in 20 years
that’s actually the question I should
ask you because it was very much depend
on what you want to do with your life
with your community with your country
with your continent how are you ready to
engage in local debates in community
work in volunteering in really showing
the good example how are you ready to
fight for our European values are we
ready to speak up against something
really bad happening in our environment
are we ready to elect good people who
really deserve it and who would think
about the future and about the positive
developments of our countries and the
continent I myself I believe that the
Europe will continue to be the best
place on this planet to live in as it is
today the cleanest first the best place
on this planet and I also believe that
we will continue to build fairer and
fairer society that will be responsible
with our mother earth and I also believe
that we will see in a European more
countries than we have right now because
we know that in Europe if export
stability we always get positive pay
back but if we want exports
ability we might be very much exposed
the possible instability which is coming
from our neighborhood so therefore I
truly believe that we in Europe will
remain to be the world leaders in how to
make our world cleaner place we will be
number one in clean energy we will be
number one in how to integrate these
renewables into our energy systems I
really believe that by 2030 each third
car on our roads will be car which will
be clean with zero or low emissions I
believe that we will have the best
infrastructure for not only charging
these new clean cars but also for
connected and automated driving which
probably you or your kids will bring a
new question do I really need the
driving licence or I just use my hip and
the self-driving car will take me where
I need and I also believe that we will
continue to be responsible to the poorer
people in the world because we know that
the world the economy is in a position
to really make sure that everyone on
this planet would have enough and would
have a decent decent life how are you
going to cope with all of that I have a
full confidence in your generation
because you are first generation what we
call digital natives and I’m sure that
your parents do the same as I do with my
three kids there is a problem with a
smartphone give it your son he will fix
it in a minute if you are frustrated
with the Apple TV or with any of the
technical stuff you had at home mother
calls her daughter’s to help her to fix
it so we know how this works
there is only I would say one warning to
tell you you have from time to time to
get the eyes of the screens to look
around yourself to check if there is not
some other source of the news if the
news which the algorithm are feeding you
Facebook Twitter Instagram or whatever
social media you are on if it’s really
objective one if there is no some other
opinion if you shouldn’t be
we’re of the discussion which is going
on in this topic because when we get our
selves framed closed in this opinion
bubbles as we have seen in some very
famous elections or referendum campaign
then our democracy is getting limited
because you do not have that healthy
debate that healthy exchange in between
the political opponents political
parties or even within civic societies
because you simply have the people who
are hundred percent convinced that this
is just eternal truth forever therefore
we need to work consciously on being
objective getting the information from
different sources being engaged being
active and to talk to the people because
I still believe that this is the best
way how to communicate in the future I
believe that you are excellently
equipped for this new world which
sometimes for our generation is simply
too fast is too technologically driven
and it depends too much on these new new
media new gadgets new new technologies
but you are different and I know that
because as I said I have three millennia
Millennials at home first you are not
afraid of the fast past change you
embrace for you its natural environment
and I see that if you do not find
inspiration in the country you live in
you change it you are not afraid to
travel you are not afraid to study
abroad you are not afraid to look for
the job in another country or to just go
for the weekend if with your friends and
and spend a good time somewhere in
completely different different plates
and therefore I’m glad that our
generation could make the whole Europe
your continent that’s your home you are
free to travel you are free to study you
are free to work and therefore I believe
that it will also feel these
responsibility not only for your
community for your country but also for
your continent and in many cases what I
have witnessed and what I have seen is
that you
are not in expectations you do not
expect to be given a job you are very
good in creating the new ones and if I
look at what are the top 10 professions
which currently all the human resources
departments are looking for these are
actually the professions which didn’t
exist 10 years ago so if you are in IT
if you are in biomedicine if you are in
data analytics if you are in any of
these technical fields you’re absolutely
guaranteed that the companies the firms
will be fighting for you but you even
probably would not be interested in that
because today you can create your own
ideas you can create your own job and
therefore I think that for these
fast-changing this world and huge
development were the digitalization
where the sharing of knowledge is
bringing us to the new place and the new
possibilities will be something which
your generation will be able to embrace
you are excellently equipped with
languages I remember how tough was it
for us to learn English to learn French
because there was no Google Translate
there be no video tutorials you had the
dictionary you had a teacher and you had
to study hard and on top of it you never
knew if you would use the language in
the real life or not for you it’s
natural to speak in different languages
and you don’t see there’s a barrier you
see it as a link you see there’s
something which connects you connects
you to your to your friends and I also
am absolutely convinced that from the
fact that you know so well your friends
from other countries that you can
compare the lives that you shared so
much time and moments or here in the
schools or on your travels across the
Europe that you would feel something
which is this European sense of
belonging that we actually are one
continent which has a big responsibility
not only for us but for the planet and I
absolutely convinced that the next
decade would be crucial from how from
the point of view how the world would
look like who would be winning
presenting convincing with the arguments
with the results the rest of the world
would be China or the United States or
would it be Europe and I believe that
world needs the European lifestyle world
need European social responsibility
Europe nay the world need Europe’s feel
of fairness and the world need also our
technologies our bright people our
people with a great linguistic skills
and that feeling of empathy when you are
talking to the people coming from the
other continent so with all that little
list of tasks I really would like to
wish you lots of luck I would like to
wish you good choice of your
universities and I would really play
with you
please be engaged be interested being
formed and these active as you are today
when you are organising these talks were
the people like me are extremely glad
that you are ready to listen that you
want to share your views that you want
to share your impressions about how the
society is evolving because in few years
you will be not only the young people
you will become the young leaders and
the Europe and the world with very much
depend on you to which I really would
like to issue that good luck all the
best and thank you very much for your
attention
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