On the weekend from the 7th to the 10th of May the main event of the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of AEGEE was held in Brussels. During three days, 70 members of the association gathered to celebrate various events. It all began on Thursday, when they were guided by members of the local antenna, AEGEE-Bruxelles/Brussels, around the city center. The visit included a stop by the Grand Place and the Manneken Pis.

On Friday morning the most formal part of the event took place, visiting the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and having talks with representatives of other European institutions and organisations, including the European Youth Forum, Euractiv, the Association of Friends of Franck Biancheri or OBESSU (Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions) among others, and with the participation of MEPs. Proposals were discussed and voted in the areas of European integration, democratic innovation and non-formal education and mobility. The document prepared serves as a guide for future actions of AEGEE. In the afternoon there was a visit to the Parlamentarium (the visitors’ centre of the European Parliament), and to the Museum of the European Union next to the European Parliament.

Saturday and Sunday sessions were held at the Cervantes Institute in Brussels. This time they were more oriented to reflect on the history of AEGEE, its identity, its achievements, its present and its future challenges. Amongst the participants were also members of the Comité Directeur (CD) of AEGEE-Europe, and also members of Les Anciens, the Alumni network of AEGEE, with whom interesting experiences were exchanged. Other topics discussed were the concept of an European Republic, a better link with Les Anciens or multilingualism, which is set as a priority by the European Commission for the upcoming years. French was recently abolished as operational language of the association mainly for practical reasons, but that does not mean that there will have to be a step back in the field of multilingualism.

In the evening hours the participants, members of locals from Lisbon to Baku, could taste typical Belgian fries, its chocolate or waffles, and participate in typical Brussels celebrations and fairs. It is to be noticed that Saturday 9th was the EU Day, with a lot of events all around the city. On Sunday afternoon many participants could discover that Brussels, the “heart” of Europe, is a city of an international atmosphere, institutions, lobbying and networking.

In short, a dignified celebration for an association with European values and ancient past, exciting present and promising future.

Written by Ferran Arruebo, AEGEE-Barcelona

Although the Comité Directeur Head Office is situated in Belgium, Brussels to be precise, until recently the country had only two AEGEE antenna, namely AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles and AEGEE-Leuven. On the 28^th of November this changed, when a new contact in Louvain-la-Neuve was announced. The AEGEEan spoke to Nada Lakkis to find out more about this new Belgian contact.
Before we start talking about the contact and its future, first it is time to look at the history of the city of the newest Belgian contact. It all started in Leuven, where the Catholic University at first only provided lectures in French, one of Belgium’s official languages, but started to provide lectures in Dutch, the other official language of Belgium and the language spoken in Leuven in 1930. In 1962 the French and Dutch sections of the university became autonomous, but Flemish nationalists demanded a division of the university and expressed their resentment at privileges given to French-speaking academic. In June 1968 this dispute was solved by turning the Dutch section of the university into the independent Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, while the French section was moved to the French-speaking part of the province, where a campus called Louvain-la-Neuve was founded for the Université Catholique de Louvain. The city was later build around this campus, although the university still owns the site.

Seeing that Louvain-la-Neuve is completely built around the university, it would come as no surprise that it is full of students and therefore a good place for future AEGEE members to get in contact with AEGEE-Europe. Nada Lakkis was one of them. She found out about AEGEE through her friend Lana Tomic. “She told me about all the experiences she had the opportunity to go through with AEGEE and this made me want to join the adventure. I lately found myself passionate by the kind of European dream we have the chance to experience here, during our university time, with the mobility programs and other EU-linked cultural opportunities. This interest made me want to get involved in a student union or project related to Europe, but this is when I discovered that such initiative was sadly lacking in the, however very international, student town of Louvain-la-Neuve.”

Nada turned to AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles, who answered her and the idea for the founding of a new contact in Louvain-la-Neuve quickly rose. “After discussing it with enthusiastic AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles and Comité Directeur members, I was glad to find support for the plan, which I immediately implemented by finding a motivated team of students”, said Nada. Right now, the core of this team is made up of eight active members, but the complete group consists of fourteen members. Although still a small group, they already have some plans for the upcoming year! “We would like to start with the organization of conferences in the university, in collaboration with other institutions here, as we think this is also a great way to make the association better known among students”, Nada states. Next to these conferences, the group wants to organize cultural activities and a visit to the European Parliament.

However, the plans aren’t limited to activities only. “We are definitely going to use social media, as this is probably the most powerful tool for any kind of promotion nowadays.” The new contact already has some great plans, and luckily also a lot of support from AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles. “I think their enthusiasm and sympathy has somehow been a catalyst for the initiative and now that the contact is created, they’re still willing to assist us. I sincerely appreciate it, and I’m looking forward to meeting new locals too.”

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

After eight successful Y Vote conventions all around Europe, finally the time came to gather for one last meet up – and what place would be more suitable for this than Brussels?

By this time all AEGEEans probably know how it goes: 40 young people, finding time and motivation, came together with the desire to learn more, share their views and opinions, discuss hot topics and exchange experiences, with a few Belgian beers on top of it this time.

Maybe the fact that this was the last convention made us a very active and ambitious group of people. The atmosphere was always exhilarating and saturated with fresh ideas, orchestrated by excellent trainers who led inspiring sessions and workshops. We, the lucky participants, were pampered by great sunny weather and had an important task ahead of us: we had to go through all the recommendations that participants from previous conventions had been working on, and try to connect, transform, enhance and further incorporate them into the Student Agenda for Europe. Tough and mind challenging!

But wait a second: let’s first remind ourselves the previous Y Vote 2014 conventions.
It all started with the kick off convention in Valladolid: “Ignite the youth spark!”, followed by: “Bridging the EU democratic gap” – Las Palmas, “Youth unemployment” – Agrigento, “Austerity vs. Solidarity” – Berlin, “Gender equality” – Paris, “The role of the EU in the world” – Vienna, “Education, research and mobility” – Krakow and “Pluralism of media” – Cluj-Napoca.  And finally, the Brussels convention on the topic “More Europe, but which Europe?”. Want to know more about what made this last convention so special? Read on about the highlights!

A convention in the heart of the EU

Not only were we able to experience the “EU capital lifestyle”, but we also had a privilege to hold our debates in the European Parliament. First, the traditional debate with Members of Parliament(MEPs) was organized, followed by a discussion with NGOs(Non-governamental organizations),  who presented different innovative forms of democratic participation. Having discussions in the place where much of the decisions that affect our daily lives are made left a big impression on all of us, because it felt more realistic and transparent this way.

Education as a key matter
Although during these five days we discussed many different topics, it seems that we always returned to one subject – education. During the convention, a lot of problems about the current  education systems were identified and addressed.

According to Kostas Tsole (participant from AEGEE-Aachen), some of the problems that seem to reappear in our European society (e.g. lack of solidarity and a selfish approach towards solving problems in a strongly interdependent society and economy), might be due to education and the way we were “shaped” to think, accept and process information. Next to this, Régis Dumoulin (participant from AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles), stated that through education, which is expected to provide us with the right tools to be able to make the right choices, truly responsible citizens are being raised. The key is to teach “how” to think, rather than “what” to think.

It is important to underline that the concept of education was seen as the starting point to reshape our society in several conventions, even without consulting the drafts made during the “Education, research and mobility” convention.

One of the conclusions we think is vital to spread around our network is certainly the idea of “proactivity”. We include the definition of this term below and invite all of you to think about it!

PROACTIVE: (Of a person or action) creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened.

Empowering young people: YOU(th) got the power!
This event definitely helped all of us to change the image of the community we live in. For some, it renewed their faith in Europe or ignited their enthusiasm again. For others, change came from within: it was truly astonishing to see how learning from others and simply exchanging helps you grow as a person. As Mauro Bellani (AEGEE-Bergamo) states, this convention prompted personal development of all of us: “I’m impressed how the Y Vote conference can change yourself! After the conference you feel more “complete”. If earlier your idea about your status as European citizen was quite unclear and confusing, after meeting new people you can learn how to add value to your opinion and what you can do to start being and remain active.”

In addition, all the workshops were great facilitators that allowed us to make our own conclusions about what “our” Europe needs. Furthermore, reading and revising the existing recommendations, made us take a step back, look at the results of all earlier Y Vote 2014 conventions and shape one final outcome. “Having those recommendations in my hands and knowing that actual policy-makers would read them made me feel empowered! And that is not an easy-accessible feeling”, says Alba Perez Barrera (AEGEE-Valladolid), although we are sure this feeling was widespread amongst all of us!

Conclusion(s)?
A lot of them! But here are the most interesting ones, ranging from very concrete to more abstract.

This convention gave us the opportunity to get information about the EP Elections in a very accessible way, through some attractive tools to play around with, such as the VoteWatch (www.votewatch.eu/), MyVote (https://www.myvote2014.eu/) and a very interesting online debating platform which has been getting a lot of attention from MEPs (www.debatingeurope.eu/), as Juan Vallés (AEGEE-Zaragoza) points out.

For Tessa Speelman (AEGEE-Utrecht), this experience was an eye-opener: it made her realise that we all have different views on the EU and its future, but we share common values and ideas. Our future is in Europe and we, youth, should never stop dreaming, participating and influencing the European decision-making.

After this final convention, we all went back home, glad for having taken part in it, and extremely happy to have met such amazing people. Because, at the end of the day, it is always about the people you meet. And this, we believe, is one of the strongest messages of AEGEE.

What are the next steps?
The EYE 2014 event was held  in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, gathering more than 10 000 young people concerned about the European Union. And, after a tour bus in the UK, the Y Vote 2014 team is leading another tour in beautiful Spain! Stay tuned, follow daily news through the Facebook page and don’t forget to vote – starting from today.

Follow daily news through Y Vote 2014 Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/YVote2014?fref=ts

Written by Hana Hudak (AEGEE-Paris) and Tessa Speelman (AEGEE-Utrecht)