“The Focus Area of Climate Emergency aims to educate young people and empower them to practice active citizenship in order to contribute to the green transition, understood as the individual and collective measures that need to be taken to prevent an environmental catastrophe” (aegee.org)

The (almost) middle of their term seemed like the perfect moment to take a look at this Working Group, which takes our planet very seriously, and aims for a greener and more aware AEGEE. Not only are we meeting an incredible group of extremely motivated people, who are not afraid of a “Spanish invasion” (good thing, considering a Spanish person is writing this!), but also one that knows very well what it wants and how to get it! Read this article to know more about them, their time together, their plans and expectations, and as a bonus, some words of wisdom!

First things first! Let’s meet the members of the Working Group!

Our team consists of 6 awesome members, plus the coordinator and our CD appointed member: 

Mandy Wierda (AEGEE-Amsterdam), a very nostalgic person who likes to ask for Christmas baubles that tell a story, as a present, is our video master, and, actually, our actress master, as she appears in every monthly video. 

Sophia Wiegard (AEGEE-Dresden), lovely like the snow in December, she is the biggest fan of Harry Potter we have ever known. She takes care of the training sessions and is the best looking member for the “hottest” news about climate change. 

Giampiero Sorrentino (AEGEE-Napoli), comes from a place very close to the lemons land, but instead of being bitter, he is very sweet! He loves writing, so he is our representative when it comes to writing articles and getting new ideas for our weekly posts. 

Asier Rodriguez (AEGEE Bilbao & AEGEE Barcelona) – oh well, this is the beginning of our Spanish invasion (of course, there’s nothing bad to say about it). He can transform the wind and coldness of his region to a sunny moment during our meetings. He is also helping with training, and is the main leader of making the future Climate-Culture Database and collaborating closely with the Sustainability Committee and its recipes booklet. 

Cristina Arnés (AEGEE-Madrid), she is the only person who should have more than 24 hours in her personal life: she is studying, taking many online courses, applying to internships around the world and still has time to spend at local level and the Working Group. She is our health manager in terms of climate and nutrition, but her knowledge does not stop there, as she also likes to participate in training about everything she is interested in.

Viki Várvölgyi (AEGEE-Budapest) – a group would not be the same without someone like her – cute, car lover and our designer master! She is good at making posts and she is always willing to help, and as a fun fact, she puts soy sauce on every meal. 

Laura García (AEGEE-Vigo & AEGEE A-Coruña) (Coordinator) – my goodness, the third Spaniard… and it is the coordinator. Oh well, she makes the most out of each and every day to take care of the whole group. She can be small in size, yet keeps tons of passion and love for the climate and every animal or plant you can imagine. She is half-Galician and half-Napolitan organizing external projects with StC and WG, and the link for the amazing future Thematic Areas project.

It is gonna be a year soon since you guys started working together. How has the experience been so far?

It has been an amazing experience; we cannot believe we are already reaching the middle of the term. It is true that not having a live meeting during all these months has maybe prevented us from having an even closer relationship. Nevertheless, we carry on well despite the physical distance between all of us. We even made an informal Christmas meeting to relieve the tensions, as well as a sustainable Secret Santa, which actually helped us engage even more as a team.

We have had so many interesting meetings and have dealt with various topics while organizing webinars, movie-watching days and even panel discussions! Nevertheless, the best is yet to come, and we have amazing plans for the upcoming months. Stay tuned. 

How has your work been affected by the pandemic and perhaps become more relevant?

It was difficult to assume that we will not be able to do anything “live”, either live meetings or events… But, afterwards, we created a great environment within the team, despite everything being online. 

The most relevant part could be that we are all learning on how to raise awareness via social media: some members are learning how to use Canva or how to make videos, how to use IG properly… It’s nice that we can develop our media and design skills that are also really important for our daily life and for getting a job nowadays, as well. 

Which areas have you found challenging and how did you overcome it?

As mentioned above, the most challenging part was to face a situation in which we need to do everything online, and in a moment in which people are already tired of being in front of a computer for additional hours (after online work, online lessons…). We try to do our activities in the most dynamic way possible, avoiding the “lesson type WS”. Also, using IG helped us a lot to spread our word. 

Additionally, we all joined this WG since we wanted to actively participate on this topic within AEGEE. However, it’s still difficult to become an expert on such broad and deep topics as the ones we want to handle and help spread along the network. That is really challenging, although we keep exchanging knowledge among all of us, for the sake of the team as a whole.

Is the working group meeting the expectations/goals/actions you envisioned for it at the beginning?

Actually, yes. We can probably say that the actions have overpassed the expectations. The team is working well, with a lot of motivation, even with the pandemic situation and all the limits we have, we created a great friendship and confidence between each other that makes the tasks easy. We all complement each other and have similar visions of what we want to do as a WG. 

We promoted a calendar internally which includes all the materials and tasks we committed to achieve and develop in our term, and we are keeping up with the expectations expressed in our Activity Plan. We hope that we can keep going this way all along!

What are your plans for 2021?

We will continue our ongoing projects (many social media promotions, challenges, WS…) and we really hope we will be able to have a live meeting at the end of the term, as a nice goodbye, and prepare the Report and Measurement of our year together, and a good KT for the next team. 

We plan to do a Thematic Week in March because of the World Water Day (March 22), test the Pilot Project “Thematic Areas”, in which we aim to put together different locals with different backgrounds and EBs interested in the climate emergency topic, among many other activities and actions! We are still looking for more of them to get involved, so as to achieve the best results possible.

What are your words of wisdom to your fellow AEGEEans? A little thing for them to get to know the Working Group better.

Through this Focus Area, AEGEE educates young people and empowers them to practice active citizenship to contribute to the green transition, understood as the individual and collective measures that need to be taken to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

In collaboration with the Sustainability Committee of AEGEE-Europe, we are striving for a greener and more aware association in which our fellow AEGEEans can do their best so as to make a difference and stand for a more sustainable future, and actually helping us all achieve it. 

We are not playing with the earth, we are damaging the earth, so just look for alternatives in your life, spread the word, and overall, believe in it. 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Running for a position as European Body can sometimes look scary: you need to dedicate a lot of time, you have responsibilities…

If you really like a topic, do not be afraid to volunteer for it! You will get a lot of experience, you will meet awesome people to work with, and you will develop many skills while doing something you like. 

We would like to underline that being here is so great, and we could not be happier with this decision.

“Social Equity Focus Area aims to make young people aware of discrimination based on place of origin, gender, sexual orientation, and disabilities, and take action to promote equity from an intersectional perspective. Raise awareness, position itself and take action to tackle discrimination from an intersectional perspective, with the aim of promoting social equity” (aegee.org)

It has been 6 months since this working group started working together! Despite the many challenges, its members have never lost sight of what they signed up for, and have worked actively on fighting inequality in all its areas. Straight to the point, in this article, you will find everything you need to know about our fighters for equality!

First things first! Let’s meet the members of the Working Group!

Hello! The group consists of Marga Arbina from AEGEE-Oviedo (our amazing working group coordinator), Florina-Marieta Neagu from AEGEE-Iași, Panka Seres from AEGEE-Budapest, Francesca dell’Oro from AEGEE-Bergamo, Isabel Santos from AEGEE-Valladolid, Dora Varjacic from AEGEE-Zagreb and Inés Vázquez from AEGEE-León. Also, we have Elena Efremova as our CD appointed member and Spyros Papadatos as our Policy Officer. 

It is gonna be half a year soon since you guys started working together. How has the experience been so far?

It’s been 6 months of working together in creating the basis for the focus area of Social Equity. We have faced some challenges like the Covid situation, and some resignations, but we have also had great times organising activities with some locals and in Agora, and our Sunday live meetings are proactive and funny at the same time. 

How has your work been affected by the pandemic and perhaps become more relevant?
Well, we can’t go to offline events and deliver workshops there so that’s something we are definitely missing. However, online events have their perks, as they are easier to access, but they don’t have the same results. Also, the pandemic has increased inequality in a lot of aspects so there are many things to do to help to achieve equity. 

Which areas have you found challenging and how did you overcome it?

In the team we don’t have a lot of experience working with the topic of disabilities so that has been a challenge but now we have an assistant (Vasiliana from AEGEE-Thessaloniki) who has a lot and is helping us with that. Also, Spyros, our Policy Officer, is working on a policy paper related to this topic, as it is necessary to raise awareness about how little we know in general about it. 

Is the working group meeting the expectations/goals/actions you envisioned for it at the beginning?

We’re only at the half of our term so we haven’t achieved all of them yet, but we are happy with the progress we are making, and we are confident that by the end of our term we will have fulfilled our goals, or at least, the majority of them. 

What are your plans for 2021?

We are looking forward to EPM 2021, as the new action agenda will be drafted and we have a lot of plans and things prepared. Keep an eye on our social media to see them ;)

What are your words of wisdom to your fellow AEGEEans? A little thing for them to get to know the Working Group better :)

Being in a working group is a very rewarding experience, and it’s the perfect opportunity to contribute to the much needed change in society, in your spare time while you meet amazing and inspiring people!

EPM Barcelona, with the theme “No one left behind”, concluded on the 9th of February 2020. But unfortunately, 31 January 2020 left behind a crack in what AEGEE stands for; the day of Brexit. 

The Big Ben will not bong for Brexit, after projected costs spiralled to half a million pounds (half of that money was already collected through racing online donations though, Ed.). For those disappointed from this impossibility, the government confirmed that a clock counting down to the second the United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31 would be projected onto the bricks of Downing Street as part of government plans to mark Brexit.

The beginning of this statement from a youth-led organisation like AEGEE-Europe aims to highlight two different perspectives that BREXIT has already or will definitely bring to reality. The first one is, of course, the most precious thing that we all have and that can never be taken back: the Time, analysed by the different feelings it can produce.

With all its facets, during last months’ unsure developments, time has been a resource that was passing by fast enough to postpone the fateful day of leaving the European Union, especially for those that still professed themselves as remainers and seeked another referendum. 

In just a few weeks time though, 2020 started with pretty different signals and the last UK general elections made even more clear that there’s only a result possible for this entire affair, the United Kingdom leaving the EU political family on the 31st of January. With no further delays whatsoever, this time. 

While the so-desidered bong will likely not happen, for many citizens it was a matter of national pride rather than a symbolic happening, justifying thousands of pounds donated in few hours to mark as loud as possible this fateful event. 

Time has been indeed a factor from the day that the referendum took place and now more time will be needed to comprehend the potentially negative upcoming impact that new generations from all around Europe could suffer from, in terms of educational opportunities, job markets and human connections that makes this Union a place to stay, to improve yes, definitely, but not to Leave. 

The second perspective is exactly represented by the consequences of BREXIT.

Previewed, studied, challenged by the strongest Brexiteers, we find ourselves reflecting on what this unforgettable event will determine for our lives. Whether we focus on the hopeful European DNA that a member State like the United Kingdom has maybe never completely developed, or on the strong opposition that Scottish citizens have made clear with their votes, or even on the opportunity that the upcoming Conference of Europe might offer to progress, surpassing this British crisis, we feel to bring our attention to the aspects that this event highlights as extremely relevant for the vision and the mission of AEGEE-Europe, the European Students’ Forum.

Starting from our vision, AEGEE strives for a democratic, diverse and borderless Europe, which is socially, economically and politically integrated, and values the participation of young people in its construction and development.

The values and the ideal goals that come to our minds reading this can only confirm that BREXIT is a significant step-back in the process of a more borderless Europe, where economic and political integration is strongly challenged by populism, nationalist leaders and not open for a concrete youth engagement.
New electronic visa procedure will probably take place, costs will raise up for those interested to visit or move to UK, less chances to develop common initiatives with European countries and youth-organisations like AEGEE will be the new norm. 

AEGEE creates as well concrete spaces for dialogue and learning opportunities, strengthens mutual understanding and brings Europe closer to young people.

Many examples of virtuous campaigns and activities have been developed, such as Y Vote Project to develop, empower and involve new voters for the 2019 European Elections. And Again the Agoras twice a year, study visits, regional training courses and an upcoming the European Planning Meetings, the event that prepares the way for the next years of this youth-led organisation.

We are just quoting examples that ensure the vital spaces that young people desperately need to express themselves, to engage in long-term goals and to create meaningful connections with fellow peers coming from all over the Continent, well beyond the 27 (now it is official) EU Member States. While procedures would be more complicated to travel and join these specific moments, UK Citizens will hopefully still be able to keep this bond alive and continue improving their critical skills, in order to become more aware and empowered citizens. 

We have already introduced several perspectives that BREXIT includes and those deserve a structured reflection. One of the main reasons this entire political mess became a concrete event has for sure been the lack of good informational campaigns prior to the referendum, when wrong economic and refugees data were published and a limited effort from Cameron’s government to provide valid reasons to vote Remain, for all those citizens that didn’t have a clear idea in mind, made the real difference.

It is not our duty at this point to discuss further the reasons behind this result.

While we are absolutely in need of discussing the effects that may change the reality we are currently living in. Both the situation in Northern Ireland and Scotland could bring unexpected events to reality. Young scottish who had the opportunity of leaving for an Erasmus+ experience are among the strong remainers that are pushing for another referendum to leave, this time, the United Kingdom. While there is little chance that the government will allow another public consultation after the vote in 2014, the factors to be considered have changed and the EU might see, one day, Scots joining as its 28th Member State.

To conclude this European statement, we should consider the symbolic vote of the House of Commons, the one that left open doors for a future negotiation between UK and EU for the continuation as full-member of the Erasmus+ program. It appears to be a logical choice for Downing Street, not to take compulsory long-term obligations before leaving officially the European family. What we can predict is that EU institutions will not give away that easily this specific agreement without ensuring that EU students, youth workers and the general workers as a whole will receive the same benefits and fully granted rights. 

Finally, we can probably agree that Brexit has become for a while a curious telenova to follow. Incomprehensible moves, delays after delays, unsure political stands from the main opposition party marked a historical event, and only history books will manage to clarify whether it was a great decision for their future or a crucial turning point for the other 27 countries to make progress for a closer and more United Europe. 

Till the moment a specific chapter of a future history book will be printed, our commitment for a democratic, diverse and borderless Europe will continue, starting from the inputs that we might give to contribute to the success of the Conference on the Future of Europe. 

“The future of Europe is our future”. At the end of the day somebody call it Europe, but we call it Home!

It has been known for a while now that the world population is expected to increase to over 9.7 billion by 2050. To illustrate, this is more than twice as many people as when AEGEE was founded in 1985 and more than triple than when my mom was born in 1964. Can earth provide us with enough natural resources for 9.7 billion people, without dramatically disrupting the biosphere?

Remarkably, people in the Western world consumed almost 50% more in 2000 compared with 1975, and every aspect of modern life in Western cities involves energy nowadays. In other words: we are using more resources per person as the population is increasing. If we keep on consuming more and growing in total numbers, the sad and simple fact is that we will have toxic-air, water, and soil; besides facing global warming. But there’s hope (and a lot of work to be done). Nature is resilient and societies can adapt. A transition to renewable energy, more resource efficiency, and a transition to something other than our consumer economy can make it possible to keep up with the needs of 9.7 billion.

As cultural and societal shifts are crucial for this, the influence of young, educated people such as AEGEEans is key! Except for reconsidering your own lifestyle, AEGEE locals are at the heart of population growth, namely, in cities. As most of the world’s population lives in cities and the percentage is expected to grow to 68% of the world’s population, this is where the transition to renewable energy and sustainable lifestyles must be realised. Here are 7 things you can do in your daily life and in your city:

• Buy less stuff (instead, spend your money on services & experiences).
• Choose to buy more sustainable products (use the Sustainable Brand Index, check it out at https://www.sb-index.com).
• Separate your waste well, if your municipality recycles.
• Use public transport & avoid flying when possible.
• Choose your energy company wisely, meaning an energy provider that uses renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
• Vote for local and national politicians that set sustainability goals.
• Give workshops on sustainability with your AEGEE local (contact the Society & Environment Interest Group for workshop material at seig@aegee.eu).

Europe on Track is a project by AEGEE-Europe, run by young volunteers who aim to raise awareness, to create a space for discussion and to capture the opinions of youth in Europe on important social issues. Now this is, in a nutshell, what every edition of Europe on Track aims to achieve.

Each year, the topic of Europe on Track is different, and this time the theme was “Europe on Track 6: Which Track? Looking for the Future of Europe through Youth Participation”. Throughout the whole duration of the project the Project Team and the Ambassadors worked hard in order to both identify and discuss critical issues in Europe and empower young Europeans to be the actors of today’s democracy.

The sixth edition of Europe on Track began already one year ago, when the new project team was selected. After thorough work dividing the portfolios, selecting the hosting cities, setting up the routes, choosing the Ambassadors and much more, EoT was officially launched on the 11^th of March in Istanbul, Turkey. There, a training of 10 days took place, the longest one in the history of the project, which translated into the most prepared Ambassadors in the history of the whole project.

The end of the training marked the beginning of the routes, and Team Blue headed to Bergamo whereas Team Red travelled to Ankara. It would be after an intense one-month-long voyage that all the Ambassadors met again, this time in Brussels, for the closing event. However, they would not be the same people as when they took that first train in the colossal metropolis of Istanbul. What they learnt, and attempted to share with the rest of the world, was more than words can describe: the colourful canvas of perspectives on current issues in Europe; the diversity of problems faced in each country; the dreams and concerns of youth in different corners of the continent.

Words cannot describe what Europe on Track 6 meant, but numbers may provide a more accurate description. What made Europe on Track 6 so special?

Everything started with

1 project team consisting of
10 young volunteers working for
1 full year with the support of
200+ local volunteers

Everything was made possible thanks to

6 Ambassadors selected out of
413 applicants from over
83 countries

The teams visited
20 cities all over Europe in
10 different countries for the period of
1 month while travelling with

40+ trains

Ambassadors reached a total of
1011 participants  
80+ hours of workshops in multiple events and conferences

Finally, we cannot finish this article without thanking Interrail and the  Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union for supporting us, and of course, all the AEGEE locals and local volunteers that made this edition a huge success.

There are many ways to make a change and make the voice of youth heard in society. And Europe on Track is certainly my favourite one.

The European elections in May will decide how the EU will develop over the next five years. Do we want the member states to continue backing off from the European project, or do we want them to work together to face global challenges as one entity? The Brexit referendum has shown, that those who – like us – believe in open borders, common market and joined foreign policy need to get up and vote! In the last European elections, only 28% percent of young people voted, and that is not enough. We do have a voice if we all speak up – but not if we stay home and complain.

None of the member states can stay global players by themselves. The EU parliamentary elections are the only way in which EU citizens can have a direct influence on EU politics, which is why it is so important to not let this opportunity slide by.

As AEGEEans we want to fight for a borderless and democratic Europe, which is why we in the Y Vote project work on informing young people about the elections and motivating them to vote. Way too many Europeans do not know how the EU functions and what the EU elections are about. We need to change that!

The European Parliament elections are our way to shape European politics independently of national elections. A chance we only get once every five years. Still, in most member states the elections don’t get much media attention yet, although it is only little more than a month until we are asked to cast our vote. One reason more for us and many other AEGEEans to spread the word and make people aware of the choice they will have in May.

As the Y Vote project, we are organising seven conventions, plus a final conference in Torino. At the conventions, the participants learn about the EU as well as the elections and write recommendations for policy makers about topics from the EU Youth Strategy. We already had conventions in Cluj-Napoca, Warsaw, Passau, Düsseldorf, Tartu, and Utrecht – the last one will be in Sofia in March. You can find the recommendations on our website. The final conference in Torino is coming up in April, where we will merge the recommendations from past conventions into one youth agenda!

Besides this, we developed a voting app so people living abroad can check how to participate in the elections. Since every country has different electoral laws, it can become quite tricky if you are not residing in your country of citizenship. To pay the app developers, we launched a crowdfunding which was very well received and we thank everyone for their contribution. Should you have missed it, some of the perks, including our t-shirts, are still available. You can get in touch via info@yvote.eu and we will figure out a way to get it to you.

Furthermore, we encourage everyone to organise a local action! Take part in motivating and informing people for the EU elections! Check out the ideas and materials that we gathered for you. Several locals are already planning something, but more is always better!

Also, we want to support AEGEE locals to build a better connection with their municipalities. This can help get rooms, speakers or other support for more events in your city – check out our guide on how to get in touch with your mayor!

The Y Vote team was chosen in November 2017, so almost one and a half years ago! This has a long journey for us, and working in different cities, only talking via Skype, and staying motivated for so long can be hard sometimes. Especially applying for funding and getting rejected from many open calls is disappointing, but in the end we managed to have 8 conventions with funding and that is really awesome!

We received amazing feedback from the past conventions and hope that our last events will be just as great. In the first half of 2018 we closely worked with the AEGEE-Europe project “YEP – Why European Parliament” to increase the knowledge about the European Parliament – you can find its results on our website. Here, we tried out our workshops about the EU which many participants enjoyed, since a lot of them didn’t know much about how the EU is run before. The increase of knowledge about the EU is 50% according to our impact measurement.

But as mentioned before, the project is only half as good if not many others would contribute. We are eight volunteers in the team, which leaves us with very limited resources. This is why we are very thankful to all the local organisers who made our events possible. Also we get very excited when we see that many AEGEEans are planning events in their city for the upcoming elections, from panel discussions, to pub quizzes, election parties, presenting the Y Vote app, talking to people on the street and more. If you are one of those great people, please let us know! Maybe you even want to share your story on our website?

Have you ever wondered what kind of impact your phone has on the environment or how you can be less wasteful and get the most use out of your phone? We use phones every day, and we want to help you spend less money, generate less waste and help preserve the environment.

Phones require a vast amount of resources to be produced and are gathered and shipped from all over the world. The plastics and metals which are needed, e.g. for the chips, battery, and casing, have unfortunately a very negative effect on the environment.

There are many different types of materials within your phone and as these are too many to list, you could write a master/PhD thesis about this. There’s a lot of information to be found on the internet, but for a short summary check out the flowing report by Fairphone [1].

Here are a few facts about the environmental consequences of phone production. The average lifespan of a mobile phone is around 2 years [2]. The estimated e-waste for 2018 is 50 million tons with an annual growth rate of 3-5%, “which is about three times faster than other waste streams” [3]. A big problem is the lack of transparency in the supply chain, as major phone companies don’t (want to) know where their materials are coming from and can avoid responsibility. Another big problem is planned obsolescence. It’s economically beneficial for businesses if you buy a phone every year or two, so phones and software is not made to last.

Now you know why you should save your old phone, but how do you do this? First and foremost don’t buy a new phone for fashion reasons, your old phone is just as beautiful. Be proud of how long you can last with a phone instead of being proud of having the newest.

Is your old phone getting slower, then these tips might help!

Save your battery!

• The less you use your battery the longer it will last, so dim your screen, turn of GPS, and get rid of that app which is always draining your battery.
• Don’t continuously keep your phone on a charger.
• Keep your phone away from heat.
• The most crazy tip, don’t use your phone as much. Read a book, or talk to the person next to you.

Save your memory!

• Get rid of unnecessary apps.
• Delete your old photos and videos.
• Empty your download folder and empty your cache (Google it to find out how).

If everything else fails, reset your phone. Just like a computer, resetting and reinstalling your operating system every couple years is a great idea for performance and preservation of your hardware. It’ll feel like you have a new phone.

Ok, do you really need a new phone? It’s ok, it happens, but let’s think about how to get a phone which will serve you as long as possible!

• Get a phone which is guaranteed to get the next Android/iOS update or two, usually flagship models are supported for a longer time compared to other models.
• How easy is it to repair the phone? Check the internet and consumer guides for information about this.
• Can you replace the battery? The battery is the first thing which will degrade in quality.
• Does it have enough memory for you, or does it have a slot for an SD card? Think about your future needs.
• Check the company’s stance and practices surrounding environmental sustainability. Some companies are more open and conscious about their impact.
• Finally, recycle your old phone! Bring it to an electronic waste pickup point, give it to a friend, or give it to charity.

We hope these tips help you and that you learned something. Please share this knowledge with your friends and family, because change happens through all of us.

References

1. https://www.fairphone.com/en/project/understanding-materials-mobile-phones/
2. https://www.greenpeace.de/sites/www.greenpeace.de/files/publications/20161109_oeko_resource_efficency_final_full-report.pdf
3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.01.018

The Eastern Partnership Project of AEGEE first started in 2011 and was built upon the EU’s project of Eastern Partnership which was created in 2008-09. Since then, it has reunited young and talented students from the European continent, EaP countries and even from Turkey and Russia around a common goal: to encourage and to empower youth, to raise awareness about the European Union in the Neighbourhood and about the EaP countries in Europe.

The EU’s EaP Project aims at encouraging better relations between the EU and its new direct eastern neighbors, after the enlargement in 2004 and 2007, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

I think the first objective of the Eastern Partnership Project of AEGEE was to give a youth’s perspective to the project, which was lacking in the first program that did include as priority contact people-to-. While the EU project was very technically orientated, the AEGEE project aimed at making it less ambiguous and discussed it between young people. As a result, the project mainly focused on getting young people to know what EaP was, have discussions with Eastern Partnership youth on what they want from the EU, and have debates on what this EU project is about. An example can be following Euromaidan in Ukraine, the theme of “building democracy” for the Agora 2015, Observation mission that was organized in collaboration with AEO, advocacy for visa free travel, or for youth to be heard better within the EU project. Our project allowed AEGEE-Europe to join important umbrella organizations such as the EaP Civil Society Forum to accomplish this. EaP Project board members had decisive roles in these organizations and allowed AEGEE’s goals and values to be represented and influence decision making.

We still continue the legacy of the project by participating in Human Right Days, or youth debates on what Eastern Partnership is. However, as the EU’s Eastern Partnership evolved including more youth and higher mobility, including free visa travel for half of the EaP countries, our goals and mission evolved as well. The main problem seemed to be that the EaP countries still appear underrepresented. The EaP project can feel like the diplomacy of the EU is well represented in its neighborhood while that of the EaP countries remains wanting for more. This is a problem that could also rise within AEGEE: we are one of the only European networks to be so large and inclusive that we include voices from not just beyond the EU borders, EPM-Yerevan is one great example, but also beyond conflict lines.

AEGEE is the key to Europe also because it provides a platform for communication and exchange between young people from all of Europe. It develops a culture of peace and equal opportunities beyond just the EU borders. The EaP project values this transcontinental identity and wants to make sure that non-EU members have a better platform to share their experience, knowledge and culture.  

It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t speak about the EU’s issues like Brexit, the upcoming European elections, etc., but first, some of these issues could be better framed to include everyone. Second, a large part of the continent remains untapped which gives us a huge opportunity to enlarge our network and allow for more young people to discover AEGEE and contribute to shape the Key to Europe. Lastly, we think that although the EU has a lot to offer in regard to its neighborhood, we believe that there cannot be any long term political and economic developments without a real partnership of equals. This means that the young voices from Eastern Europe need to be heard and positively influence the West as they too have experience that can help resolve issues that we face.

For this, we need to change people’s mindsets. There have been massive events that took place recently, but we hear about it only when it is linked to a “revolution” or “war”. Why don’t we speak of South Caucasus as the inventors of wine (6000 BC), having millennium cultures, creative minds with modern sense of fashion, and the best night clubs in Europe? Who has followed the Armenian news post-revolution? Who has visited Belarus or Azerbaijan? Who has experienced getting a visa?

Our aims now, therefore, are to encourage knowledge about the region through the voice of the local youth. This means also giving a voice to those who don’t have access to AEGEE because they are not living in the capital. Events and exchanges promote people-to-people contact and allow youth from all over the network to meet, but most importantly, encourage the culture to be a bit less EU centric and more inclusive. The recent study trips to Georgia, the new antenna in Batumi and Kutaisi, and the exchange that will follow this year on diversity and inclusion with AEGEE-Tbilisi and AEGEE-Amsterdam have this aim.

Finally, as the objectives changed, the target regions changed as well. Russia is also part of AEGEE’s EaP Project because in Russia as well, there are a lot of barriers, a fear to visit, and the idea that except for St Petersburg and the Kremlin, there is nothing else to see. Transib’s and Tyumen’s NYE events show the diversity of Russia, and our project aims at encouraging this. Therefore, we decided to organize a study trip on the theme of diversity to encourage the discovery of the different languages of Russia (Yep, there are several), its history, and culture.  

What particular projects are you currently working on?

The Eastern Partnership Project + is currently working on a lot of amazing projects and events, both internal events, as well as projects in cooperation with other bodies and/or Locals.

For example, we’re currently planning our first live meeting in 2019 which will take place in April in Kyiv. Furthermore, we’re planning the next edition of EaP+ Action Week, the online consultation during the EPM Fair in Izmir, and workshop proposals for the upcoming Agora in Bucharest. We’re also putting a lot of effort into ‘Minorities in Russia’, a project dedicated to Russian ethnicities. The first step, an interactive map, is ready and you can check it out at http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/fr/map/minorities-in-russia_277297#3/56.27/93.34  

Another big and exciting event will be the exchange between AEGEE-Amsterdam and AEGEE-Tbilisi

We plan on cooperating with some of this year’s hosting Locals of the spring Network Meetings in the near future. We’re always open for collaboration and it is a pleasure to see our team growing and more people getting interested by our project.

Externally, we’re also planning some nice things. After the super successful study trip to Georgia, we have decided to use our gained knowledge to stick to the idea of study trips and organize some more. In term of advocacy, we would like to support a collaboration with the EU-Russia CSF

Have you been cooperating with other AEGEE bodies and projects, for instance, Network Meetings, Summer Universities, New Year Events etc.?

Sure, we have successfully cooperated with several bodies – ERWG, ECWG, CEWG, Migration interest group, Language interest group, Gender Equality interest group and HRC for Human Rights Days, AEGEE-Academy for a workshop at an SU, Politics interest group for several activities (as one of our members is also active there). We are open to new cooperation with different bodies and locals, feel free to approach us!

Eastern Europe and South Caucasus are definitely sub regions that are constantly ‘in the news’: upheavals, velvet revolutions and protests, foreign policy changes, numerous different cultures… Can AEGEE as a youth organization contribute towards a civil society in EaP countries, and how?

AEGEE can and should take part in it on many levels. We aim at empowering young people in the region by means of civic education and by encouraging critical thinking. As a multinational organization, AEGEE contributes to conflict resolution by supporting a culture of peace and diversity, collaborating with umbrella organizations like CSF. It provides young people with the opportunity to develop a strong network of people who care and who can make a change.

Anything you would like to add?

We’re happy to receive members who believes in our mission and goals, have the will to develop their skills, especially from the EaP countries. Right now, we are specifically interested in HR and IT as we want to upgrade our website. However, our team would be happy to answer any questions if you would like to join or are generally interested in the project. You can contact us on our Facebook page or by e-mail at aegee.eap@gmail.com.

Mental health awareness is one of the YDWG’s objectives for 2018/19

When it comes to physical health, everybody seems to be concerned about it and tries to live an acceptable lifestyle. Nevertheless, the mental aspect happens to be quite forgotten.  We had a talk with Desireé Van Langen (member of the Youth Development Working Group), and Sara Þöll (member of OBESSU), to take a deeper look into the importance of mental health, and how these young organizations are trying to contribute towards improving the youngsters’ situation.

Raising awareness on dealing with mental health issues was established as one of the YDWG’s priorities during the Yerevan’s EPM of 2018, since stress and burnout have become a global epidemic affecting up to 25 percent of students and professionals. In order to accomplish this purpose, the focus group has set up a Mental Health Taskforce in which they work on materials and sessions about burn-out, stigma  reduction, promotion of self-care and positive mental health, and laughing workshops.

For the moment, only AEGEE-Tbilisi (Georgia) has given a Mental Health Awareness Workshop, and the participants said that they were  inspired and motivated. The YDWG plans on organizing at least 50 activities in approximately 30 antennae, everything oriented to promote positive mental health and provide wider resources of information. One of these sources is the Informational Handbook For The Promotion of Positive Mental Health, a free guide written by Georgian psychologists Maia Khositashvili and Tamar Jananashvili, that will be published online on the YDWG’s social media webpages. Regarding their accounts, February is their Youth Development Action Month, so they have a Facebook event with daily posts that includes relax challenges.

It is also noteworthy that AEGEE was one of the organizations signing OBESSU’s project Mind our education, a campaign that demands an adequate environment to fully access education which begins with the appropriate psychological support. According to their survey conducted among their members, around 66,7 percent of students confessed that school environment is highly stressful, and therefore this can lead to poor day-to-day and formation conditions. Taking into account that OBESSU is an organization that fights for students’ rights, this topic defined one of their aims for 2018 and was registered in their policy paper. They also participated in the mental health panel organized by Mental Health Europe, and are working on spreading their word throughout Europe which stands as proof of the increasing importance that youth working groups are giving to this topic.

All in all, remember, mental health is the base to a happy life. If you are struggling with mental health issues, know someone who is suffering from this, or just want to enlarge your knowledge, you should follow the YDWG accounts.But most importantly, don’t be ashamed of seeking  help from professionals and those who love you.

AEGEE stands for borderless Europe and no Europe can be  “borderless” with a barrier in between them. This barrier is not the barrier of roads, not the barrier of trees, not the barrier of Alps but, the barrier of us humanity known as discrimination. Equal Rights Working Group strives to break this barrier and make the Europe truly borderless. Here is an interview with Antonia von Richthofen , a policy officer from Equal Rights Working Group (ERWG) giving us information how ERWG works and their recent stand against rise of nationalism and discrimination throughout Europe.

How long have you been in AEGEE and in AEGEE-Dresden in particular? Why, would you say, someone should join AEGEE whatsoever?

I joined my local AEGEE-Dresden in December 2016, right after taking part in our event Develop Yourself 3, which was an amazing experience for me and thus it didn’t take me long to get addicted to our organization. I’d describe AEGEE in a few words: having fun, gaining skills, and of course: leaving your comfort zone! The challenges and adventures I already had in only two years are endless, and something I wouldn’t want to miss! Next to important friendships and crazy fun parties, the deeper level of AEGEE is what got me – and probably all of us. All those diverse possibilities on deepening your knowledge, getting valuable skills, voicing out young people’s opinions, fighting for a borderless Europe and Equal Rights. The richness of experiences is truly unique, and I am very thankful to have come this far – who knows what is still ahead!

What does ERWG stand for and what are their objectives? What is your personal role there? And What have you, and ERWG, achieved so far?

The abbreviation ERWG stands for Equal Rights Working Group of AEGEE-Europe. This group works on one of our Focus Areas: Equal Rights and strives to achieve certain objectives each year to make AEGEE more inclusive. We want to stress the importance of these topics, especially in today’s world! Fighting for equal opportunities, fair treatment and against harassment, discrimination, hate and injustice is a huge deal for all of us. Be it women’s rights, LGBTQI rights, migration problems, religious disparities. In the Working Group we want to help putting these issues back on AEGEE’s agenda, giving valuable input for example in booklets, toolkits, events or campaigns to push our members to face the world more open-minded. There are still many problems like the above-mentioned ones, also in AEGEE, we cannot ignore that. We are the youth of Europe, we are the future and will shape the world of tomorrow. Thus I see it as being a top priority to not ignore the problems, the discrimination, the hate we have to face daily, but to tackle them and create an even discussion amongst young people.

As high peaked as all this may sound, as Working Group we can only do that much – firstly, we are depending on the one thing that defines AEGEE: its members! The two terms our WG existed now, there were several great actions. As Policy Officer I am regularly writing statements on recent events, however, this is only a tiny bit of our work. Last year we developed a booklet on ER activities, there was a project where members travelled around to discover Prides, there were two big conferences on Equal Rights. This year we have high goals as well, we are managing the content of one Y vote convention in Tartu, we will support a few locals on organizing a TSU on ER, there are cooperations on LTCs with locals and we are supporting the Safe Person Project. By the way – this March there will be our Action Month and we are hoping to engage many locals to organize something in order to promote Equal Rights!

Where does ERWG of AEGEE Europe stand in relation to discrimination and recent nationalist movements in Europe?

The ERWG recently took a stand by writing a statement and supporting the initiative of the International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism on November 9^th calling upon locals to stand up against these worrisome developments in the world nowadays. It was pretty much a first for us, but I believe that what many people tend to forget is: discrimination is a widespread topic! It hits many minorities and genders, but we also tackle concerns like origin, religion, skin color, etc. We clearly condemn any prejudicial treatment of all kinds, and also want to position AEGEE-Europe more opposing towards these issues.

What can you say regarding your position on the recent nationalist movement in Chemnitz?

The events in Chemnitz, Germany in August 2018 were truly unsettling not only for the German state but it also had a big impact on international news. For me and especially for AEGEE-Dresden this was a definite time to speak up, after all, we are the AEGEE local closest to the city of Chemnitz, and thus also deeply inflicted by the terrible nationalistic demonstrations. As AEGEE I believe we MUST take a stand against occurrences like that, let alone because our values of a democratic, borderless, inclusive Europe do extremely differ from the motivations and voices that called many German citizens to the streets this past August and September. As a pro-European youth organization, we cannot sit silently and watch the downfall of justice and tolerance. This goes out for all other bodies of AEGEE, if you ever face a challenge like that! Just a small action can be meaningful already! That is why I value AEGEE a lot, we have some amazing initiatives and projects tackling discrimination and other problems of modern Europe. Be it Y vote to fight against political apathy or the activities through the Migration Interest Group during the Human Rights Day.

What were the problems you faced? Who were your opposition? How did you overcome the challenges and the barriers created by the opposition?

After the events of Chemnitz the topic was of course of high interest in AEGEE-Dresden. Luckily however, our group consists of very energetic, active members interested in politics, thus the decision was easily made that we had to take a stand against these nationalistic movements, as we already did against the so called PEGIDA group in Dresden, too. As a conclusion, including myself, we found very fast a few individuals who wanted to work on the statement, which we published on our website in September.

Something that I noticed after getting active on the European level of AEGEE was that on quite a few parts we are not as far as we might think. There are still many issues that we must tackle within our organization, too. First approaches were made when the Safe Person Project (SPP) was called to life, in order to ensure a safe environment for every member in our events. This project is growing bigger and bigger (recently SMASH was also finally founded) and I believe it will hit AEGEE big time this year. From ERWG’s side, I am also supporting the SPP team, since opposing sexual harassment is one of my key goals as an AEGEE member. That there are still many occasions where we can’t ensure a comfortable and inclusive sphere for all our members, is something me and my WG want to help changing during our term.

What impact have your activities made? Is there any particular image of Europe that ERWG members wish to attain?

As someone who studied Social Science, I’d say that the real impact is only very hardly measurable (haha). However, I still believe that with each and every action, with each and every voice, we might be able to make a change. I believe that bringing the topics up, taking a stand and having a debate is the first step to make a real impact. Broadening the minds of our members, making Equal Rights more present on our Agenda, these are the goals I share with my fellow amazing WG members. I sincerely hope that this focus stays essential in the Strategic Plan of AEGEE in the next period after 2020, too. Finally, all the ERWG and me are striving for a democratic, diverse and borderless Europe, too. [smiling]