One of the elections that took place in Kyiv was the Mediation Commission. In a twist, four people decided to run on the last minute, but their gamble paid off since they got the trust from the Agora. We asked some questions to know them better. Ana Gancearuc (AEGEE-Chişinău), apart from AEGEE, she likes running, hiking, swimming, photographing, reading and learning new languages. German by adoption, Damien Latacz (AEGEE-Aachen) loves cooking (anything from all over the world), hiking, spending weeks in the mountains during some nice winter treks and eating Ramen. Lisette Kunst from AEGEE-Groningen has an obvious passion for travelling (a common feature in AEGEE), but she also likes horse-riding, spending time with friends, hitchhiking, reading and organising activities for various students’ associations in her city. And lastly, Niels Perriens (AEGEE-Eindhoven) who is running a students’ bar, travels to new places and likes discovering new beers.

Ana Gancearuc (AEGEE-Chişinău)

The AEGEEan: You applied last minute not as a team, but with common goals. Why?

Niels and Ana: None of us planned to apply for MedCom at Agora Kyiv in advance. We all met during the pre-event in Chişinău, and there, proposals and candidatures were discussed. We were very surprised to see there were no candidatures for MedCom and we thought that maybe that’s because people don’t really know what it is and what it does. We knew there are plenty of capable people in AEGEE that could fulfill this task, but apparently they did not apply. Passionate discussions about the MedCom, its tasks, and why noone applied led to a lot of criticism and also ideas, but we knew that was not enough. For these reasons, we decided to take action and run on the last minute, and we will try our best during our mandate to make the MedCom more visible, so at the next fall Agora, people will step up and try to become candidates as well. This whole shared process led to a common motivation and goals. The decision to apply is however a personal one. Presenting ourselves as a team could have given the incorrect idea that we all think alike and that is not the case so far.

During Question time at the Agora, former President of AEGEE-Europe invited delegates not to vote for someone who is not aware of what the Medcom is. How did you take such comment?

Lisette: Although, of course, it stings a bit to receive such comment in front of the Agora, the comment wasn’t what bothered me the most after question time. The thing that frustrated and annoyed me afterwards was that I’d not been able to answer his question 100% correctly. I believe that people who run for a position like this should be capable of showing the Agora that they are fully aware of what they’re signing up for.

Damien Latacz (AEGEE-Aachen)

Despite of trying to make the most of the few hours of preparation after the last-minute candidature, I couldn’t do this and there are no excuses for that. In short, I think that – although he could have made a statement on this in a less direct way – he was right to point out the flaw in my answer and readily available knowledge of the Mediation Commission. Now that I’m elected after all, I take the comment as a good reminder that I need to put in the work to make sure that I have the right knowledge to do a good job in the Commission this year.

Let’s pretend to explain what the Medcom is and what it does to a child. How would you describe your commission to him/her?

Ana: As we all know, we have many locals, bodies and members in AEGEE and even though we all are pro Europeans and fight for our rights, there will always appear small divergences and conflicts between people, or antennae. How does AEGEE solve these issues, who analyses everything and tries to keep up with the procedure? The Mediation Commission, that’s right. These people, who were elected at the Agora, are transparent and visible for the whole organisation and try to keep the harmony within and between locals, bodies and members. We are here to listen to you about any issue you have and need help or a solution in order to make things right and clear.

Lisette: Beside what Ana already mentioned, we are also here to help implement and improve the Data privacy policy to ensure that the data our members give to AEGEE gets handled and protected in a responsible way. If we are called upon, we can also make decisions in cases where an ordinary member doesn’t respect the binding rules of the CIA. In this, we always try to solve conflicts in a friendly way before we consider sanctions.

The implementation of the DPPS is still going on. How would things change for locals and European bodies?

Lisette Kunst (AEGEE-Groningen)

Niels: For European bodies, the usage of and access to information is assessed and fitting Non-Disclosure Agreements are already being signed. The next step is investigating the systems and methods used to make sure the agreements are not violated, even if it happens unintentionally.  Moving things to the new Online Membership System in the future might make things easier in this regard, so it’s important to make sure that this system works in accordance to the DPPS. Locals have a lot of decision power over their handling of their internal confidential information. In most cases, they will do things in certain ways because they have always been done in that way or because it is easy. At no point they will think about privacy issues. We want to change this, not by enforcing rules, but by creating awareness. For example, Non-Disclosure Agreement templates will be created and locals can start using within their members.

What are the three fundamental things that everybody should know about the DPPS?

Damien: First of all, that it exists! The Agora votes it and you can find it in the CIA. It is not some document made for obscure reasons, it’s there to protect us, members. AEGEE is always using more and more online service: cloud storage, online voting, etc, and it is up to us to keep our structure adapted to these new technologies. Secondly, and probably the most important part of the DPPS, is the classification of datas in three different categories: external data (accessible to all), internal data (accessible only to AEGEE members) and internal confidential data (in a way, data which is accessible only to certain members or in some specific circumstances). Making people aware of these categories and how to handle them is also part of our job in the MedCom. And finally, the DPPS applies to AEGEE-Europe, so mostly Bodies are affected by it, it does not change much in the life of an Antenna. But a local can of course decide to follow it as well. This way, it would improve the Data Privacy of our whole network!

Medcom should be super partes and able to solve conflicts, but how much, according to you, members of the commission should be involved in other projects (both on local and European level) to avoid conflict of interest?

Niels Perriens (AEGEE-Eindhoven)

Lisette: We believe that the current CIA standards that Medcom members should not be members of the CD, JC, Audit Commission, Netcom, the Chair Team, boards of Working Groups or Supporting Committees and boards of Antenna or Contact Antenna are enough to ensure basic impartiality. Aside from this, we have an internal unwritten rule that if our own local or a local or European level project that one of us is involved in raises an issue to us, the member involved abstains from voting and discussing, regardless of the nature of the issue.

In an ideal world, Medcom should never be activated. What is your advice to locals and/or members that you have not involved?

Niels: Stick to the rules and keep communicating! That should keep the MedCom from being activated. That being said, we don’t mind getting involved in an early stage in our capacity as mediators, as it might prevent a possible activation later on.

Damien: I fully agree with Niels: communication is key when it comes to avoiding conflicts. Always saying what you think with complete honesty greatly reduces the risk of conflicts. Many cases arise after people misinterpret each other or feel unconsidered. You can also ask MedCom for some advice in case you feel a current situation could evolve into a conflict. We would be happy to help.

Written by Erika Bettin AEGEE-Verona

Something is in the air. A sense of unrest that seems to me has been lingering for the last year or so. We have all read about various protests and conflicts in Turkey, Ukraine, Bosnia, Venezuela, and many other places, and these events have really made me think.

I will say right away that I do not consider myself an expert on world affairs. Sure, I follow the news and I try to stay updated with major events as much as I can, but quite frankly, this is not my primary area of interest. I get my news from media sources I consider reliable, and I listen to my friends who are directly involved in these situations, but I do not feel confident in saying that I know all the in-depth facts. However, from all that I read and heard recently, I started wondering about where our world is going. Are we progressing, or are we holding our development back?

I’m not blindly idealistic, and I think it’s normal that there are conflicts of interest in this world, but it is up to us to decide how we want to approach these conflicts. As a pacifist, I believe that violence is never the answer. It would be nice if we as a global society were progressive enough to realise that in the long run, violence only causes damage, even if you “win” the battle. It would be nice if problems could be solved constructively, to minimise damage, especially for innocent people who should not suffer the consequences of a battle they didn’t want to fight.

But this is not how the world is working right now. It’s 2014, and as much as I would like to believe we have learned from past conflicts and wars, the truth is that as human beings we follow certain patterns, almost in a vicious circle. When a human being gets a taste of power, it’s an intoxicating, exhilarating feeling. But power is a tricky, dangerous thing. It can bring out the good in you, but I think that almost inevitably, it will also bring out the bad in everyone. Let’s not fool ourselves, we all have a dark side, and I think that whoever you are, if you get in a powerful position, you will take advantage of the perks that come with a position to some extent. Maybe it will be relatively harmless, but maybe, as it seems to be the case with certain politicians, your power will blind you, and your actions will harm innocent people who are in a less powerful position.

It shouldn’t be like this, of course. Ideally the role of politicians should be to represent the interests of people who elected them, but is that really the case? We tell ourselves that we live in democratic societies, and in theory we do. But in practice? I am not so sure.

There is a quote from Bob Dylan’s “Union Sundown” that rings true to me:

Democracy don’t rule the world
You’d better get that in your head
This world is ruled by violence
But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

We are caught in power struggles between people with different interests. They convince us that their interests are our interests too. They divide us. They make us fight each other. But what are really my interests? My interest is living in a productive society, not a society where people are dying because they have different opinions on certain matters. I think that no matter what your political opinions are, you can agree that senseless deaths are tragic. Look at it from a human perspective. People who die in these conflicts are not numbers. They are someone’s family members, someone’s loved ones, just like you are. They are people with hopes, dreams, and ideas, just like you are.

Even though a lot of people tend to characterise me as a “people person”, I don’t think I would necessarily say I love people, but I do understand them. Even if they come from different backgrounds or even if they have different opinions, I understand what we have in common, what is universal to all of us: the experience of being a human being.

And so I’m following the news, and I’m talking to my friends whose freedoms are being stifled, who are worried about their safety, who are concerned about their immediate future. At this moment, uncertainty is their reality. Once upon a time, it was my reality too. When I was a kid, my country was in a state of unrest. Luckily, I was too young to remember most of it, and I didn’t lose my loved ones. But there are some things that stay with you forever. When I see a movie from the early 90s, sometimes I think to myself: “Wow, these actors were filming this, and people were watching it in cinemas, while people around me were dying.”

And now, I am the one going to cinemas and watching movies, while people in other areas of the world are dying. I can concern myself with things like where to go out on weekends, or what TV show to watch when I’m bored. But some people have bigger concerns in their daily lives right now. And I feel privileged that I don’t. But when you think about it, isn’t that ridiculous? The fact that I feel privileged for not having to worry about people shooting at me or trying to restrict my rights? I want to live in a world where peace is not a privilege, but a right.

Written by Antonija Parat, AEGEE-Zadar & Network Commission