The Charlemagne Youth Prize is one of the most prestigious European Prizes. It has been awarded annually since 1950 by the city οf Aachen, Germany, to people who contributed to the ideals upon which it has been founded. It commemorates Charlemagne, ruler of the Frankish Empire, who resided and is buried in Aachen. Traditionally the award is given to the recipient on Ascension Day in a ceremony in the town hall of Aachen. In April 2008, the organisers of the Charlemagne Prize and the European Parliament jointly created a new European Charlemagne Youth Prize, which recognises contributions by young people towards the process of European integration.

This year AEGEE has the honour to have not one, but two projects that won the national round in Romania and Slovakia, respectively: “Faces of Europe” and “Summer University”.

Faces of Europe is a photo blog launched by Your Vision for EUrope, a project of AEGEE-Europe. Inspired by the famous Humans of New York, the photoblog aims at making Europe more personal and exploring the human diversity of our continent. They want to collect and spread the faces and voices of people from different social, cultural and national backgrounds.

The first edition of Faces of Europe, running from January until June 2016, was already a success. In the first edition, the team consisted of 16 committed reporters from seven different nationalities. As a result of their works, they published more than 100 stories of many Europeans on Facebook, collected more than 2,500 likes and many messages of support and positive feedbacks from readers. The second edition is currently ongoing.

Summer University, one of the most successful, if not the most successful, project of AEGEE, has proven its value to all of us through the years. The Summer University is an event that takes place in the summer between two to four weeks. Usually, 20 to 50 participants are hosted in different parts of Europe, and they have the chance to learn by travelling, meeting new people, integrating with the culture of their hosting country and as a result they broaden horizons.
Specifically, in 2016 it gave the opportunity to over 4000 Europeans to see different parts of the continent, meet other youngsters and learn new skills and abilities together. Since 1988 more than 100,000 people participated in Summer Universities, which took place in over 260 cities in more than 40 European countries, making it the biggest volunteer-based mobility project in Europe.

In 2013, Europe On Track, another project, which was inspired by the current president of AEGEE-Europe, Reka Salamon, was awarded with the Charlemagne Youth Prize.

This month, from the 22^nd to the 24^th of May, the Charlemagne Youth Prize Winners’ ceremony will be held in Aachen. AEGEE will participate with these two nominations that were received from Romania and Slovakia. Due to the fact that AEGEE has already been a laureate in the past, apart from the winner projects, the CD also received some invitations. So our association will have represantitives who will attend several events, including the Youth Prize Award Ceremony, which always takes place two days before the Ascension Day, the day on which the prestigious International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen is awarded.

Written by Vasiliki Andrioti, AEGEE-Ioannina

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne_Prize

https://www.projects.aegee.org/suct/su2017/cyp2017.php

http://www.zeus.aegee.org/portal/

The Charlemagne Youth Prize is a honorable prize that is awarded each year to youth projects in Europe for their added value to society. AEGEE is not a stranger to the prize, having been awarded several times before, for example for Europe on Track in 2013. AEGEE-Valletta won the national edition of the Charlemagne Youth Prize for their European Planning Meeting (EPM) the following year.AEGEE-Sofia presented the Night of Seven Antennae (N7A) this year and won the first step, the national one. We asked some questions to Ivaylo Bogomilov, the main organiser of the N7A in Sofia.

The AEGEEan: How did it feel to win the national competition of the Charlemagne Youth Prize?

Ivaylo: If I may tell you the truth, it was great stress till the last moment. Everything that you are expecting is really bad, you have this feeling of impatience, but this time it was even worse, because it was not just AEGEE-Sofia’s project, there were six more locals involved – Aachen, Bergamo, Catania, Eskişehir, Kyïv and Leiden. So after a long time of waiting (at least for us), on a Monday, AEGEE-Sofia got the email that we were the winners. It was really great! I was in Catania and I got the information first, so I called everyone to tell them that we won. It was really amazing, I cannot describe it with words. Maybe one of the best moments was when Kristalina Georgieva (Vice-President of the European Commission and the European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources ) shared the news of winning the National Prize and said that she was proud that in Europe and in Bulgaria there are such youth organisations as AEGEE.

Describe the Night of Seven Antennae, the project you submitted.

The “Night of the Seven Antennae” project was a live streamed conference on the 18th of April 2015 that connected seven simultaneous events happening in seven different parts within and outside the European Union, providing the participants of the event with a five-hour-long live steam, where they could discuss and share relevant findings of their respective three-day conferences focusing on the topic: Europe in me – me in Europe.

The topic of the event in Sofia was “Europe needs youth!”. For three days, Sofia became the place where young people had the opportunity to explore their daily life habits and contributions to society. The event gathered a lot of Bulgarian youth organisations, young people from all around Europe, informal and youth groups, which had the chance to talk about the world, in which they live and of which they dream, and to share for which kind of Europe they would fight for. The event gave an opportunity for discussions with decision-makers, stakeholders, with leaders in youth and  the NGOs sector. The event not only shows structured dialogue in practice, but also shows the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle.

The Night of Seven Antenna was a precious initiative, what was the best moment of it?

For sure the N7A was an amazing event. As a main organiser from AEGEE-Sofia, I know how much effort all locals put in to realise the event. So, there were a lot of amazing moments; it will be really hard to mention just one. The most memorable moment for me was 10 minutes before the live stream, we had to do tests for sound and camera and everything – I remembered how my heart was beating. However, the worst was that our participants were still not at the place where the live stream would take place, because they were running late from the sports tournament. But three minutes before the live stream, everyone was there, so in the end everything went well. [He smiles, ed.]

Still the impact of the event was really great, so I hope that we will not stop expanding on its success. In the Europe, that we are living in now, we need more events like The Night of Seven Antennae, just to remember what Europe is all about.

When will be the final selection? Is someone going to Aachen?

It will be from 2nd till 5th of May and there will be a whole three-day-program in Aachen. I heard that on the last night the party will be organised by AEGEE-Aachen, because they are the best at this. The awarding ceremony will be on the 3rd of May, so be prepared to cross your fingers.

It is really a pity, but only one person can go as the official, representing Bulgaria. But I know that a lot of AEGEE people from all over Europe will come for the award ceremony.

What are the new projects of AEGEE-Sofia?

We have a lot of plans for new projects. For now we know that we will have an amazing Travel Summer University  (Bulgaria: Lost in Time and Space), also two Local Training Courses and we will again organise our local forum, “The Egg”. If you still did not hear about it, last year we won the award for best youth project in Bulgarian, given by the Ministry of Education and science. As for the other projects, we will keep them secret, at least for now [he winks, ed.].

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

As every year, the European Charlemagne Youth Prize (ECYP) took place in the city of Aachen, under its 7th edition. After Europe on Track’s major success last year, some AEGEE members gathered in Charlemagne’s city in order to know which project would be its successor. Youth unemployment, selfies, remarkable guests, journalism and the situation in Ukraine have just been some of the major highlights of this event that took place in late May.

1. Our Europe takes the legacy of its predecessor, Europe on Track

Peter Laugesen (Our Europe), with VP of the European Parliament, Anni Podimata

Denmark was the winner of this year’s edition of the Charlemagne Youth Prize, with the project Vores Europa (‘Our Europe’). This project consisted of a 12-month long journey taken by Peter Laugesen and Elena Askløf, who travelled through 24 European countries and interviewed young people about their expectations and wishes for Europe. They published radio podcasts, films, articles, interviews and pictures on their website, and even took up a experimental Skype session in collaboration with 21 Danish schools, involving 2,800 young students whom the creators talked to. It was a truly outstanding project, self-funded by its own creators and it was certainly one of the ‘favourite ones’ to achieve the biggest prize.

The story of Our Europe might seem familiar to many of you… yes! Many of us recalled the Europe on Track project of AEGEE-Europe, which won last year’s Charlemagne Youth Prize. Looks like the recipe for success in a ECYP candidature is very simple: involve young people from several countries, talk about their concerns and reach the policy-makers with audiovisual material and social media.

2. Youth (un)employment, the hottest topic

The three winners: Denmark, the Netherlands and Cyprus

One of the biggest topics addressed by the Danish Our Europe project was with no doubts youth unemployment, which has reached staggering figures in countries such as Spain or Italy. However, this topic was the main issue by several of the 28 projects presented. Both the second and third place winners of the ECYP, the Netherlands and Cyprus, had youth unemployment as their focus.

On the one hand, JouwDelft & Co., the Dutch national winner, hosted a European youth congress in November 2012 which aimed to find local-scale solutions to reduce youth unemployment in Europe and brought young active citizens and policy advisors from several countries together. The outcome of the conference was a resolution on these recommendations, which was issued to the European Parliament in November 2013. On the other hand, Youth Dynamics is a Cypriot youth organisation that hosted a training course in April 2013 that involved seminars, presentations, workshops and discussions based on the same topic, gathering 26 participants from nine EU countries.

3. EBM Valleta, our AEGEE Representative

Mariella getting the award in Aachen

Mariella Rapa (AEGEE-Valletta) was the representative of AEGEE in the list of nominees for the final Youth Prize, representing the European Boards’ Meeting that took place in Valletta in February 2013, which gathered around two hundred AEGEEans under the topic of ‘the future of Europe’.

Previously interviewed by our journalist Cosmina Bisboaca (AEGEE-Torino), AEGEE-Valletta stated that it was “a very big honour” to be the National winner in Malta, especially taking into account that other strong organisations such as JEF Malta submitted their projects too.

Chucky Bartolo told Cosmina the reasons why EBM Valletta decided to run for the Charlemagne Youth Prize: “The organising team that worked on the EBM spent a lot of their time and energy to make the event as great as it could be. Knowing that we had worked so hard to make an event like this meant that we were able to recognise that the EBM was worth submitting. Inspired by the success of “Europe on Track”, we submitted the project for the Charlemagne Youth Prize”. Despite not making it to the ‘final three’, Mariella got the National Award out of the hands of Anni Podimata (vice-president of the European Parliament), and showed the pride of the whole local for being among the 28 finalists.

4. Youth at the back… but not afraid to ask

The 28 national winners of the Charlemagne Youth Prize were afterwards invited at the Charlemagne Forum, which gathered several ‘top’ guests. Unfortunately, the young representatives were forced to be sitting in the back, whereas the jury and guests were right on the front, sitting comfortably and having snacks and drinks next to them. For many, that was the vivid image that young people were merely playing a secondary role in this Charlemagne Prize, but we were not afraid to take the driver’s seat, ask questions and confront the opinion of the older experts… even if we had to stand up and there was no microphone available for us at first.

Especially significant was the speech given by Luis Alvarado Martínez, president of AEGEE-Europe and representative of Europe on Track as the ECYP winner of 2013, who encouraged the organisers of the Charlemagne Youth Prize to involve young people more actively: “It’s them who should be sitting on the front”. Moreover, he suggested the idea of them selecting the winners of the ECYP – after all, what is a ‘youth prize’ if it is not selected by youth representatives?

5. ‘Top’ guests… taking AEGEEan’s selfies

“A selfie is the picture you take yourself, right?”

Besides Ms. Podimata, who was replacing the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, there were other remarkable guests among the visitors in Aachen. One of them was the former president of the European Central Bank, mr. Jean-Claude Trichet, who was taking part at the panel discussion of the Charlemagne Forum. But specially striking was the appearance in the middle of the Forum of Herman van Rompuy, president of the European Council. During the question round, two AEGEE members (Anna, from AEGEE-Barcelona, and Erik, from AEGEE-Bratislava) were sending their questions to the pannelists, when all of a sudden people started to applause. Van Rompuy arrived, the question round was interrupted and he gave his speech where several topics such as the previous Sunday’s EP elections were tackled.

In fact, Mr. Van Rompuy embarked in a small inter-generational dialogue with our AEGEEans Luis and Mariella, when they asked to take a selfie with him. “You mean, the picture that you take yourself, right?”, rumour has it that he asked.

6. The situation in Ukraine in the Charlemagne Youth Prize

Once Herman Van Rompuy had arrived at the Forum, Luis asked him about the situation in Ukraine, and he gave an answer paraphrasing Tolstoy (“we, Europe and Russia, have one thing in common – Christianity”), that our member of AEGEE-Bratislava, Erik Redli, reported perfecty in his article at Foreign Students.

Those were not the only remarkable guests of the week – in the Charlemagne Prize ceremony, there were the prime ministers of Moldova and Ukraine, Iurie Leanca and Arseniy Yatseniuk, right on the aftermath of the Ukrainian elections. In fact, the event gathered a few hundreds of protesters from Ukraine and Russia in the main square of Aachen, protesting against the war – but from different sides. Both were divided into two blocks and the police had to intervene, as reported by our friend from OneEurope Yuliya Kosharevska, even though there were no major incidents.

7. AEGEE-Aachen and OneEurope, a top cooperation for a ‘top event’

A journalists’ “newsroom” moment

Under the special request of the city council of Aachen, AEGEE-Aachen organised a ‘side event’ for journalists who would cover the Charlemagne Youth Prize for their national media and other internet platforms, in order to give more visibility to a prize which has proven to be of a major importance. Our ‘polar bears’ seeked the cooperation with the OneEurope magazine, who also reported actively about the happenings in Aachen and brought their expertise in journalism.

The atmosphere between AEGEE and OneEurope members was great and it truly felt like a real newsroom sometimes. Moreover, AEGEE-Aachen provided a wonderful social programme with a city tour around the city, a party with the national winners of the ECYP… and the members of OneEurope could experience for the first time what a European Night was. Congratulations, AEGEE-Aachen, and thank you for such an effort!

And next year… it can be you! This year’s Charlemagne Youth Prize event has proven that a project that gathers young people from several European countries, that deals with some of the ‘hot’ topics in European youth and also involves policy-makers and advisors can be eligible to win. It is acknowledged that we have taken part in many AEGEE projects with a big potential that comply with these same characteristics. So, what are you waiting for? Maybe the next Charlemagne Prize could be in AEGEE’s hands again!

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona

After last year’s success with the Charlemagne youth prize 2013, when AEGEE-Europe won the  final selection with the project Europe on Track, this year again there is an AEGEE-project running for it at the European final in Aachen: AEGEE-Valletta won the national competition with the EBM 2013  “Preserving the present, saving our future”. We have interviewed Martha Misdus, Vice-president of AEGEE-Valletta,  and Chucky Bartolo who had the idea to submit the project.

The AEGEEan: What was the reaction of the members when the announcement about winning the national selection was made?

Martha: To be honest I was the new bearer and having the privilege of spreading the news within our locals was as exciting as it was honourable. For obvious reasons, the reaction was a positive one and gladly received by the whole team. Seeing that constant work is translated into continuous achievements builds an ever stronger team encouraging more team work and investment in human resources.

Why did you decided to submit the EBM to the Charlemagne youth prize 2014 ?

Chucky: The organising team that worked on the EBM spent a lot of their time and energy to make the event as great as it could be. Knowing that we had worked so hard to make an event like this meant that we were able to recognise that the EBM was worth submitting. Inspired by the success of “Europe on Track” as another AEGEE-project that did so well last year, we submitted the project for the Charlemagne Youth Prize.

The other projects were submitted by strong organizations such as JEF Malta and NSTF. Did you expect AEGEE project to win the national selection?

Martha: Although very proud of the work that went into the EBM, we also knew that we were up against some tough competition. Winning the national selection is a very big honour and not something that we have taken for granted!

Do you think the project will make it into the three final European winners?

Chucky: Obviously possessing a crystal ball either to know from beforehand the future or else to alter it and to accommodate it to one’s own wishes is more than desirable, alas, impossible. We however feel that it should rank among the top. Not only did we put all our efforts to make this project possible but we actually managed to realise them to produce a successful result both for the history of AEGEE-Valletta as well as a contribution to our national pride. The fact that we have already made it so far is the best expression of appreciation anyone could ever grant us.

As mentioned before, while being proud of the event and very happy with the result at a national level, there will be some stiff competition for the first three places. That being said, we as AEGEE-Valletta have done our very best and hope that this is reflected in the final outcome of the European winners! Additionally, what is most important to us, is that we made both AEGEE-Valletta and AEGEE as a whole visible on a Union level, demonstrating that our organization cares for and actively promotes the European ideals amongst students and youths alike.

The AEGEEan: What are the plans of the antenna now? How about the Summer University?

Martha: Our antenna is always busy. In fact, I can proudly assure you that we defeat the general cliché that Southern Mediterraneans are a lazy lot! Currently we are geared in organizing a TSU with AEGEE-Agrigento, hoping it would rank among the top, where participants could treat themselves to the Mediterranean Sea.  We are also in the middle of a EuroArab Project, a Youth in Action programme fully organized by our antenna having delegates from the Arab part of the continent such as Tunisia, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, and also from Spain, Croatia, Greece and Italy. This is being organized with the EuroArab project of AEGEE, hence not exclusively by us, but we are obviously responsible for all the logistics. Not to mention also the various local events we organize for our members at the university of Malta, as well as maintaining the reputation of being the official Erasmus Organisation  for those lucky ones who study in our beautiful island.

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino

Last time The AEGEEan spoke about the Europe on Track (EoT) project was in October, when the open call for the project manager was issued. Réka Salamon (AEGEE-Aachen/AEGEE-Debrecen) was choosen for the second time to be the coordinator of the project, together with Rocío Leza (AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles) and Turgut Tosun (AEGEE-Ankara). Last year the project won the European Charlemagne Youth Prize, so the AEGEEan was interested to learn more about the second edition starting this April.

EoT progress meeting in Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar 2013

Europe on track was the most successful project of AEGEE-Europe in 2012. Six young ambassadors travelled around the European continent by train: from Belgium to Spain, Italy and the Balkans. The ambassadors were divided in two teams, each of them following their own route. There were three topics on which the ambassadors interviewed the young people they met: youth participation, sustainability and enterpreneurship.

Last October Réka Salamon was chosen for the second time to be the project manager. “EoT is probably one of the greatest achievement of my life. It is like my baby, I hope I don’t sound too emotional.” – she said. “I saw all the potential and the success it achieved, but I also saw all the flaws, so I will do my best to correct them in this edition with the rest of the Coordination Team.”

Topics of EoT 2014

This year the topics are going to be very different. “While choosing the main topics of this year’s edition, we wanted to take into account not only general youth issues, but also current events so one of the main topics is going to be ‘Mobility’.” – explains Réka. “We believe the newly ratified ‘Erasmus+’ program is going to have a great impact on youth for the upcoming years, so with the coordinators and Comité Directeur (CD) we decided this would be one of the topics. We also want to focus on the active involvement of young people in the decision-making processes on a higher level and help the Y-Vote project to spread the word about the European Parliamentary Elections. Thus we decided to choose this as the second main topic of the project.”

Next to these topics the ambassadors will also touch upon other topics on which AEGEE will be working according to the new Strategic Plan, like ‘youth mobility, youth employment, civic education and even EU neighborhood policy’.

EoT Route 2014

The draft routes of the travellers

These are not the only changes in the program. Of course the routes won’t be the same, even if a lot of locals who hosted the project last time applied again. The responses and the final route showed that the Network is interested in the project and wants to participate.

Germany, Italy and Greece were the three countries with most applications from locals. With three applications from Greece, the plan is to bring one of the team straight to Spring Agora Patra, and because Greece is starting its semester of Presidency of European Council, ending in Patra will be even more meaningful. This year the plan is to send a team of ambassadors to Riga and to Kyiv as well, due to the great interest from the locals and to the possible impact an EoTconference can have in these cities.

However, there were also surprises as well, Réka tells us: “We didn’t receive any application from France”.  The teams still need to cross it though, since there are stops planned in Spain.

The biggest Challenge

When asked about the biggest challenge of the previous EoT she replied: “The most pressing issue last edition was time. There wasn’t much time available to plan and implement the idea we had for the project. In this edition it is definitely an advantage that we had almost half a year to plan and arrange everything. Also the locals won’t have the pressure to organize someting on a very short notice.”

Apart from the timing, the last time, the project lacked external financial support to cover the costs of ambassadors for taking nighttrains and making reservations. This year the CD and the Coordination Team found a solution. “Last time we had the InterRail passes and we relied upon the network” (for food and accommodation ed.) Réka explains. “This time we have applied to the Open Society Foundation for grants. Now we can also financially support the locals and travellers for the costs of their accommodation.”

Selection of Ambassadors

A thing that raised some controversy last time was the fact that there was an opportunity for non-AEGEEans to participate in the project. Réka explains the reasons for this decision as follows: “in AEGEE we tend to live in our own ‘bubble’, seeing things from one certain perspective. These people can bring a fresh new insight and a different kind of approach to the project and the discussions.”

“But because after all, the ambassadors who, at the time, were not members of any  local eventually joined AEGEE, the Coordinators and CD decided to again open the applications for non-AEGEEans in this year’s edition.” (However the downside is that you know less about these participants and it has been proven difficult to check the skills and experience they put forward in their application, Ed.). You can meet the ambassadors of the project in the following link.

Réka Salamon is known to be involved in many projects and committees and she’s never hid her plans to run for the Comité Directeur during Spring Agora Patra. Being so involved in AEGEE and at the same time preparing her candidature could be difficult but Réka is sure she can manage. “I have learned how to manage my time effectively and even if April is going to be the most intense month for the project, I believe that if everything is going to be ready on time, I don’t see any obstacles in the way of my candidature for President of AEGEE-Europe.”

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

On May 7^th 2013 AEGEE reached another milestone in its history when Europe on Track – Capture the Future of Europe won the Charlemagne Youth Prize for best European youth project. An achievement with great international significance and which, when you look at it in a broader perspective, provides us with a variety of promises and opportunities. Mathieu Soete: “Getting this kind of high-level external validation is quite exceptional”.

The winners of the Charlemagne Youth Prize with Martin Schulz

A big reward
Luis Alvarado Martinez, present on behalf of AEGEE at the awarding ceremony in Aachen, tells winning the prize immediately opened doors. “We had the opportunity to publicly ask Dalia Grybauskaitė, president of Lithuania and winner of the International Charlemagne Prize, to stand for young people in the current EU budget negotiations and we were invited by Martin Schulz to a meeting in Brussels. We have used this opportunity very much to put youth on the agenda of the European Parliament and to have a dialogue with influential people”. In the days after the victory, Europe on Track appeared in numerous publications all over the continent and AEGEE was congratulated by many external partners.

Dear winning team, you have given a very fresh and optimistic message about Europe, you used all the multimedia channels for young people, you have worked with many different countries, and you contribute to the EU 2020 strategy.” –Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament

The secret of Europe on Track’s success
Many people contributed to the success of Europe on Track. Of course InterRail and the ambassadors and the team in Brussels, but the locals were just as important. Mathieu Soete, one of the ambassadors: “Towards the end of our journey we could really start to see the enormous added value they offered to the project, organising group discussions, media coverage, and even city tours. Also, when you are changing language and currency every other day, it’s nice to have some stability and local knowledge to see you through the day. So AEGEE-Leuven, -Tilburg, -Enschede, -Berlin, -Poznan, -Katowice, -Praha, -Brno, -Wien, -Bratislava, -Budapest, -Zagreb, -Cluj-Napoca, -Bucuresti, -Sofia, and -Istanbul: thank you, this is also your prize!”

Team Blue in Katowice

“We see it is very important for our projects to tackle things that are currently going on in society in order to maximize their impact” – Luis Alvarado Martinez

Why has Europe on Track won? We can distill several ingredients from the concept  that reveal the secret. Its biggest strength appears to be its ability to voice the opinions of young people about their European future and to inspire them to re-engage with the European dream. And by explicitly linking it to the Europe 2020 strategy, it is very relevant to current European politics. In times where faith is waning and Euroscepticism is growing this must have sounded like music to the ears of European leaders.

A promise for AEGEE’s future
What does this mean for AEGEE? Of course it means visibility, prestige and money, but there is more. Mathieu put it into words: “It means that we still have the knack for developing and executing big projects with European and external relevance. Over the past years a lot of people have said that AEGEE is increasingly turning inwards, but winning the Charlemagne Youth Prize for the second time shows that the recent drive for more thematic content and external representation is starting to show results”. Luis adds that “Europe on Track shows that when we work as one united network, we can achieve big things”.

Team Red Toulouse

The future of Europe on Track, bright but undecided
The cycle of the project has not finished yet; Luis: “We want to use the prize money to produce a youth documentary which we will show in the European Parliament”, and also the survey is still ongoing, but the brainstorming phase for the next edition has already started. Most importantly the conditions of the travelers have to be improved, and the need to extend the project both geographically and in terms of topics and the team is also mentioned. The plan of the CD is to make Europe on Track a self-sustained and annual concept, just like the Summer University project.

Great plans of course, but not everyone sees this put into practice easily. Benjamin Battke, one of the ambassadors of the project: “I think the Europe on Track project will lose its attraction if carried on the same way. Except if the events would be huge, but that would be unlikely in my experience. It would need a very clear and significant objective, which I don’t know yet”. He raises a valid point. Europe on Track has proven to work as an instrument to address European leaders, but how to continue this momentum? Luis: “In order for the project to stay relevant, it has to stay connected with “hot topics” in Europe. By having different themes, and by proving to young people that this project is effective in delivering their message to decision makers, we will be able to make this initiative sustainable”. Topics that are brought to the table are for example Euroscepticism in the UK, Elections 2014 and the accession of Croatia to the EU. Brainstorming has started on the facebook page, where everyone is welcome to join.

“For me, a good project makes people think about their ideas of Europe, however a project that is kept inside the organisation has little chance of winning”. – Mathieu Soete

Benjamin explaining the map

What can we learn from this?
All in all, this project means three things to AEGEE. Firstly as Mathieu mentioned, a recognition of the work we are doing and the path we are taking as a network. Secondly it is a challenge to our network to think about how we want to manifest ourselves in the future, what topics we want to tackle and which messages we want to spread.  And last but not least, Europe on Track serves as an example and encouragement for new ideas. In the end it is our thematic delivery that keeps AEGEE alive, so AEGEE has to carry on providing an inspiring and stimulating environment for new ideas. All our projects have a chance of winning as they have a clear European perspective, and as Benjamin very well said: “I am sure someone in AEGEE already has the next winning idea in mind”.

Pictures on the courtesy of Luis Alvarado Martinez and Europe on Track

Written by Marije Arentze, AEGEE-Leiden