In February, AEGEE-Aachen paid attention to a very actual topic by organising a discussion on Brexit, with interesting results. As a reward, they were chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to them to find out more!

ACT: Congratulations! As we would like to know about this month’s winner, could you tell us a bit more about your local?
AEGEE-Aachen: We have about 120 members, of which around 50 are active. We also have a lot of secondary members all over Europe who fell in love with the polar bear spirit. We have three working groups which are responsible for Human Resources (HRWG), Erasmus students, and Public Relations (PRWG). The HRWG organises debates, members’ weekends, Local Training Courses and a lot more. For Erasmus student, we organise a tutoring program for incoming students and plan various events for them. And of course, the PRWG creates all our awesome stickers, t-shirts and other PR materials.

You organised a discussion about Brexit. Could you tell us a bit more about the activity?
We realized that people are keen on debating about what’s happening in Europe so we set up regular discussions every first Sunday of a month. We usually decide a topic in our Facebook group and the participants look up some general information beforehand to be prepared well. For February, our members selected the issue of the Brexit to be discussed. We decided to talk about the situation in the UK, not only because similar discussions are taking place in other European countries but also because of David Cameron’s proposals to the European Parliament and the pending referendum.

What was the result?
After an intense debate, most participants drew the conclusion that Great Britain is important for the European Union, hoping they will remain in the European Union. The debate Cameron started with his proposed requirements like an “emergency brake” could be helpful and good to seize a suggestion for future development of the EU. On the other hand, the idea of stopping the development towards the “United States of Europe”, thus seeing the Union as a federation with more liberal and powerful national governments, raised a lot of criticism during the discussion. Nevertheless, the participants felt this proposal could have a quite useful impact as the fight about how much the EU should grow together is already going on for decades and needs to be settled.

Why do you think the Action Agenda is important for the network, and what would you say to locals that are thinking about organising something related to the Action Agenda?
There are plenty of new ideas coming up. The structure provided by the Action Agenda is helpful not to lose track within AEGEE and integrate current activities. Locals can use the objectives of the Action Agenda as input and inspiration for events. Also, don’t be afraid of trying out new things or events with few participants. Even small events have their impact!

AEGEE-Aachen has certainly shown to the Network that it can be an example to other locals, what would you say to the locals that want to be as awesome as you?
Well, our biggest fortune is to have such a strong team spirit within AEGEE-Aachen. This also is of great credit to our Human Resources Working Group whose members organise fun events (hiking, cooking) for the AEGEEans of our antenna which really creates an intense bond among our members. Events like the members weekend mirror the polar bear spirit, this April we invited our friends from AEGEE-Lviv and we are pleased that our neighbours from Leuven, Eindhoven and Cologne are joining in, too! We are convinced that if you have a strong team, you’ll be a strong local so we steadily try to keep and improve this unique kind of camaraderie. Furthermore, our members are perfectionists, paying attention to the detail and not easy to satisfy. Combined with our common idea of a unified Europe all of these factors create an exceptional momentum we are very proud of!

Which sentence would describe your local and your event?
Hey! Wir woll’n die Eisbär’n seh’n! Ohhooohooo hohoooo!

Written by the Action Agenda Coordination Committee

London: city of the Big Ben, Buckingham’s palace and since recently… AEGEE! London is one of the youngest contacts within our network. Youngest in its current form that is, because AEGEE-London actually existed before; it was already founded in 1995 but unfortunately died a silent death. Luckily, Eszter Bango (President and Project Management Director)  and Maarten Veldmans (Foreign Relations and European Questions Director ) revived it! AEGEE London is back and stronger than ever, promoting multiculturalism in one of the liveliest cities in Europe.

The AEGEEan: How was the Contact in London initiated?

Eszter: I was looking for an AEGEE local in London when I came to live in London, but to my surprise it didn’t exist. I sent e-mails to other AEGEE-contacts asking why. I met with network commissioner Wieke van der Kroef and AEGEE-Sheffield to get more information about establishing an AEGEE-Contact. Things really started to get rolling when I met with Stefan Nikolic (Vice President, Secretary and Human Resources Director) and Maarten. They helped me get a support letter from the local University, which I could not do myself because I am not a student (I work in London).

Maarten: I am Dutch but I study in London. When I came here in September 2012 I got the same idea as Eszter: starting an antenna here. I checked out the conditions, made a plan and e-mailed the CD. Luis brought me into contact with Wieke, who in turn connected me to Eszter, making the circle round again. We had some difficulties, like the University not granting us the needed support letter. Luckily, my school (London school of economics) did express their support so we could start working. Stefan van Hult helped us get enough board members and from then on we really made progress. We have a great team with a common goal: esthablishing a great antenna and keeping it alive and kicking. The biggest challenge for us is to find Brits in their bachelor studies willing to contribute.

Eszter: indeed, there are not too many British people in London: according to the latest researches only 40% of the london population actually is British. But what does ‘’British’’ means exactly? Coming from a British father and mother? British grandma and grandpa? What about bbc (British born Chinese)? Are they British? We are talking about London her: one of the most international cities in Europe. Perhaps in the whole world as well…

Where do you guys stand at the moment?

Eszter: we are a Contact, we need to sign the statue at Agora in Mannheim and then we are in!

What are your future goals and plans?

Eszter: we really want to get the right people on board. Also, in autumn we are doing a project called Euro scepticism. This is a project that deals with scepticism people might have about Europe and multiculturalism. We will organize discussions, offer a platform for exchange of opinions and host a training course to raise awareness on active European citizenship. We dicuss for example what kind of scepticism there is (hard versus soft, policitical versus economical etc). We also look at the influence of media, economic insecurity, cultural treat and much more.

Maarten: We would love to organize events on the European level in the near future, but for now we focus on mobilising people on the local level. We are still in the start-up phase of course but we are optimistic about the future of the Contact in London. After all: we live in a beautiful, lively, diverse and geographically ideal city.

What makes AEGEE London different from any other AEGEE local?

Eszter: London’s universities have a very diverse student body. This gives us a unique opportunity to not only connect the different London students but also connect London’s student with the rest of Europe.

Stefan: What also makes us different is that we work together with human rights organisations from the Hult business school. We have a great balance between an professional and educational character on the one hand and an informal and fun character on the other hand.

Anything else we absolutely must know about the new AEGEE-Europe Contact in London?

Eszter: The AEGEE-Europe contact in London has an extraordinary strong multicultural character which gives us a unique position in Europe. And London is the heart of Europe and economically flourishing so everybody comes here: “the capitalism  really can live and raise in London”, giving our Contact a great chance of being a strong local!

Maarten: and… we wil most likely organize an introduction party soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Written bij Maartje Natrop, AEGEE-Utrecht

Featured image source: London SNAP