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Stories for the future of Europe
Join us in exploring the possibilities of the future! Share your future perspectives, discover other people’s visions, and engage in a dialogue on what Europe and the world may look like in the future. We collect, share and distribute your visions in our stories database.
Share your visions of the future!
Your ideas matter – shape the future you want! Share your visions of tomorrow and join us in creating a narrative that inspires citizens, policymakers, and foresight experts. Together, we can co-create the future.
Write your future story and answer a few questions
Find out what others think by exploring other contributions
Take a look at the #ourfutures dashboard for some numbers
Your story, and those of others, are presented to EU policymakers
Stories - find your inspiration!
Stories do shape futures. Dive into the video tutorials to explore how future narratives are born. Further below, browse trough a series of inspiring, thought-provoking stories around challenges and opportunities of our futures.

Share your visions of the future!
Get inspiration from the Storiesfrom2050 project
A Dreamer in Arcadia - by Umar Sheraz
Nadia yawned as she started poring over her journal and began to think of how to piece together her daily journal. As an anthropologist working on a comparative analysis of food resources and conflict, she had spent the last three months on NANGUN WRUK on an Intergalactic scholarship. She had specifically been chosen as she had been a champion of communal harmony and a believer in change being slow, measured and carefully thought about before being implemented.
Memories on the recovery of a Mediterranean fishing village and coastline - by Totti Könnölä and Matthias Weber
Francesco is once again on his terrace and letting his mind drift along with the sea view. After retiring from the European Commission in 2045, he moved back to the Italian village where he grew up. He has something important to tell Salvatore, his old schoolmate who never left the town but followed the family tradition as a fisherman.
Indicator species - by Octavia Cade
There were too many otters to name. Niall had named them as a child, the few he had managed to see; they were better than the friends he didn’t have at the school he didn’t go to and the home he didn’t want to go back to. As a young man, he’d forgotten the names he had given them, and the river was a place of temptation and absence, somewhere he’d had to be fished out of when it all got too much, and for many years after that, he’d avoided it.
The Waters are waiting for you - by Rachael Lowe
She is leading us with some speed. The light when it strikes her body refracts a rainbow that is whizzing with the speed we are travelling. Tadpole is in her wake, creating his morning song. The music emanating from him is exalted! I feel puffed up with pride, behind him, pulsing to his beats. Can life really feel this good? Aers ripples to a stop. We’re here, in a dry and oxygenated undercurrent atop the seabed. She turns to face us, readying herself for the call. She finds me with her eyes.
Play the videos to learn how future narratives are born and how they can be rewritten
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#OurFutures stories by EU citizens
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Wird ein Traum Wahrheit?
I am now 86 years old and still feel really well. The last few years have not been easy, with the war in Ukraine, the fighting in the Middle East and political unrest in all countries leading people in a right-wing direction. Plus politicians who only had their own power in mind. It was difficult, but the common sense of the majority of people has led to a stabilization and consolidation of the political situation.
It is important that the people have not drifted further apart and that common ground has once again come to the fore.
We can actually be proud of Germany and its poets and thinkers again without feeling ashamed. The economy has become stable and the price hikes have come to an end. Children are getting an education that prepares them for life and makes them strong and intelligent. No one has to worry about falling ill and not being able to pay for necessary medical treatment. And why? - At last, everyone pays into the pension, health and long-term care insurance funds. Politicians are also paid according to the performance principle and are not rewarded with adequate pensions for poor performance or mistakes. It was a tough fight, but it was worth it.
Oh yes, and pensioners are no longer a burden, but their lifetime achievements are recognized.
Un espoir de bonheur collectif.
A European future capable of managing international crises with clear and precise objectives. Perhaps a new constitution less oriented towards a liberal economy (which doesn't mean freedom at all) but more towards respect for individual freedoms in relation to multinationals, more ecology, more autonomy in terms of food self-sufficiency. A greater capacity for energy autonomy, too, by being inventive in this area. Mass investment in research in this field would be an option. Regaining our pharmaceutical sovereignty would be reassuring. It would also be reassuring to see a return to social progress, and to stop blaming the weakest members of society (women, the unemployed, immigrants, etc.), who are not responsible for the crises we're going through. The culprits are the economic system (mainly liberal) and over-protected professional politicians. Limiting personal fortunes might be an interesting way of avoiding an oligarchic drift.
Dette vil næppe være min fremtid, men ...
For anything to get better, we have to start small. That means everything starts with yourself, with taking responsibility for your life, living a decent, responsible and considerate life in all respects. If this happens, it will also mean that the people elected to political responsibility will be able to fulfill their duties for the benefit of all people and all aspects of society. And there is nowhere, in my opinion, where change and improvement is more needed than in this area if democracy is to survive
Klimaneutrale Bildungsfreundliche Zukunft
I imagine that mobility will become much more individualized - there will be cars/small aircraft that drive autonomously and can be called up at any time from wherever you want to go. Of course, the vehicles are climate-neutral and connected in such a way that there are no traffic jams or delays.
Our education starts from an early age (even in kindergarten), there are appropriately small groups/classes. The teachers are well trained and can respond well to the children. So that they learn to enjoy education and feel self-efficacious and open up the world on their own. In school there is no more learning to forget but more knowledge to apply and how to learn. Because developments are very rapid. There won't be one profession that you learn for life.
There will be no more truck colonies with enormous consumption, the electricity will come from renewable energies, at every house, garage, crash barrier, etc. Electricity can also be easily stored induvidually. Natural disasters are becoming fewer again, the weather is stabilizing.
Le temps qui passe
The morning sun filtered through the dense foliage of the trees lining my Parisian apartment. Once a gray, noisy avenue, my street was now a verdant oasis, where birdsong replaced the roar of cars. The transformation of Europe had been radical.
In 2025, we were on the brink of a climatic precipice. But a global awakening had taken place. Europe had embarked on an ambitious reforestation and sustainable development project. Cities were redesigned, and nature reclaimed its rights. Gasoline-powered cars disappeared, replaced by electric vehicles and efficient public transport.
My day began with a bike ride along the old tracks, now transformed into winding cycle paths through parks and forests. Lunch consisted of fresh, local produce grown on rooftops and in community gardens dotted around the city. The afternoon was devoted to work, but even the offices were green and bright, with open coworking spaces and soothing views of the surrounding nature.
Life in 2050 was slower, more conscious. We had swapped the frantic race for a pace more respectful of our environment and well-being. Europe had become a model of sustainable development, a society where technology and nature coexisted in harmony. And every day, I was delighted to have contributed, in my own small way, to this transformation.
Meine Zukunft
People in government must prove that they have a basic knowledge of their position and are not appointed according to party affiliation. Laws that are passed must also be applied and not become ineffective with thousands of exceptions. As far as transport is concerned, it would be good if there were still a certain individual share, but for the most part via a well-developed public network that also takes into account all so-called marginalized groups (the elderly, the disabled, the financially disadvantaged).
Leben in 2040
As I'm getting older, I want to live as lightly as possible. Less work in the garden and more relaxing on the terrace. Everything should be as easy to reach as possible, i.e. shopping facilities, doctors, hospital, swimming pools, physiotherapy practices, etc. There are also plenty of "meals on wheels", as people hardly ever cook for themselves anymore. Cabs should be free so that people are a little less dependent on public transport. Everything should be easily accessible on foot or in a wheelchair.
Familie
I would like it to be easier to build and convert houses. That young families are given more support so that they can have a secure home. I also hope that my children are better supported by the state in their own child planning and that they feel financially secure during their parental leave
The EU collapsed. NATO ceased to exist. The trial of liberal leaders who had destroyed the EU economy
The EU collapsed, with only a few Old World countries remaining. NATO ceased to exist. Parties concerned about national security and the self-identity of their countries came to power. The trial of liberal leaders who had destroyed the EU economy to please transnational corporations took place. Many Eastern European countries found the strength to recognize the sanctions against the Russian Federation as destructive for them. And so they made peace with Russia, and many even sent requests to join the Eurasian Union. After the trial of liberal politicians of the 1920s, Germany began to recover economically. The Nord Stream gas pipelines were restored. Under the leadership of Germany and France, the creation of the European Armed Forces began. The construction of the New Silk Road was completed. Some countries returned to the idea of
2040 début de la sobriété énergétique
on january 1, 2040, the european union will ban all individual vehicles, whatever their mode of propulsion. Subsidies have been distributed
European citizens to invest in bicycles, be they 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers or family sedans. All cities are pedestrianized, and to get from one city to another, or from one country to another, numerous train and streetcar tracks have been created. The entire agricultural system has been overhauled and intensive productivity banished. Sobriety is on the march
Realistische Dystopie
In 2050, the earth will not be a better place than it is today. People will still be fighting senseless wars and hatred will not have been overcome in either the real or the virtual world. Resources will become scarcer in some areas, but intensive research has found ways to largely compensate for this. The division of the world has also changed. Countries that used to play a leading role in the economy and politics have, in some cases, become insignificant players on the brink of regression from industrialized to emerging economies as a result of bad decisions by egomaniacal politicians. Neither their energy supply nor the shortage of skilled workers can be brought under control. Religious beliefs will play a greater role and minorities will often dictate to majorities how they should behave. Woke-ness will largely eradicate feminism, so that everything women have fought hard for for decades will dissolve into nothing. We are abolishing ourselves, human dignity, human rights and democracy because we make everything equally bad and insignificant out of a misunderstood understanding of tolerance. Only the stupidity of humans will not die out, but will become even greater, while the AI secretly laughs and is happy not to be homo "sapiens".
Nur geträumt
Humanity has come to its senses. We now have enough agriculture in Germany again and can feed ourselves, are independent and free. Asparagus is only available in asparagus season and strawberries only in summer. And tomatoes taste like tomatoes again. We get them directly from the farmer in the farm store or in small corner stores where we like to stop for a chat with the neighbors. Where there used to be huge supermarkets, there are now large playgrounds for our little ones, free-range enclosures for man's best friends and hospitals. We have leveled and renaturalized many highways or converted them into local recreation areas. We are currently in the process of dismantling residential silos with more than five storeys and creating new living space. This will keep us busy for some time yet, after which we will turn off the alarm clock and wake up from our dream.
Stories
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