Now that the Comité Directeur 2014 – 2015 has been elected and was already introduced to you, it’s time for the Comité Directeur 2012 – 2014 to make new plans for their future. The AEGEEan spoke to Luis, Lucille, Anna, Miguel, Pavel, Kathrin, Beáta and Pavel to ask about these plans, but also to give them a chance to reflect on their time spent in Brussels.

Luis Alvarado Martinez (President)

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Luis: I have been accepted to study for nine months in the College of Europe with a full scholarship, so I will go back to do a Master, which I didn’t have before. What I will do in between those studies is still unknown. I plan to keep being involved in other big civil society platforms such as the European Youth Forum and to be engaged in different participatory and political processes too.

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Luis: Well, I have been promised an invitation to enter the newly refreshed Les Anciens. I have no plan to be actively engaged in the network. As me and my Comité Directeur have always been saying, the active involvement, political processes and active development of AEGEE should remain in the hands of the young, fresh and motivated generation. This way, AEGEE is able to ensure a high level of energy, creativity and idealism in its work.

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Luis: The laughs in the office, good moments with members of your team, the results of your work, people thanking you for what you do, the never ending brainstorming of ideas and initiatives and the satisfactional feeling of getting a good job done.

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Luis: Lack of privacy, a messy house, the full time working weekends, collecting bills and the unnecessary stress and drama. [he smiles]

Lucille Rieux (Secretary General) 

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Lucille: First of all, resting and taking things slow for a month or two. After that, I’m also looking into jobs in Brussels, as I’d like to stay here a bit longer. After doing EVS and two years of Comité Directeur, I believe it’s time to find a real job that will enable me to get some money to plan things out in my life. I plan to travel too, and in a longer perspective I want to discover and experience different kind of organisations working with creative innovation and young people, which could inspire me to create something on my own too.

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Lucille: This is a question I cannot answer yet. I won’t cut the link right away, and I could imagine working on a project or in a position I really enjoy, but at the same time, I also feel the need to open a new page in my life, and get to know other associations and other forms of engagement in the civil society.

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Lucille: I will probably miss the flexibility and work style of this CD, which gave us space for creativity and leadership. It’s great to work on a variety of topics and also to be able to go from thematic work, to an official meeting and leaving for a training the same week. I’ll probably miss working with the six other specimens [she laughs] that spent those two years with me.

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Lucille: Writing Comité Directeur minutes [she smiles]

Anna Gots (Financial Director)

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Anna: Definitely to stay in Brussels: find a job here, maybe study a bit more, master my Dutch skills, engage in other voluntary activities… I have plenty of options in fact [she smiles]. In general the plan for the next year is to slow down the level of stress and responsibility if possible, make more room for creativity and more time for dreaming and developing myself.

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Anna: For now I see myself solely as a supporting or advising person for the new generation, only if asked of course. The general feeling is that my time has been, and it’s time to leave a space for the new leaders and new dreamers. But who knows, maybe I can still find some challenges in AEGEE, big enough to keep me active!

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Anna: The amazing team, flexibility and diversity of my working days and being ‘boss’ at the Agora [she laughs].

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Anna: Cleaning the house, travelling with Ryanair in a big group, the registration desk at Agora and reporting General Subvention [she laughs].

Kathrin Renner (Vice President and External Relations Director)

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Kathrin: I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks, and then most probably I will start a Master in Brussels and look for a part time job at the same time. I would like to develop myself into a bit of a different direction though, more business oriented, collect a couple of new experiences and see a different environment.

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Kathrin: I will probably stick around for a couple of months in the beginning to support the new Comité Directeur whenever they ask for it. Also, a lot of my friends are members in AEGEE and I will miss seeing those faces regularly. At the same time, I will probably not take any active position anymore. It’s time to make room for the new generation and start a new phase in my life [she smiles].

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Kathrin: My six team mates, because even if we fought and hated each other at times, in the end they are very precious to me, and I will miss especially our stupid jokes and bickering. Also, of course, being able to shape our own ideas into plans and implement them, developing and experimenting with different strategies, setting our own agenda and being our own bosses.

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Kathrin: Collecting bills, sharing the house with up to twenty people a weekend and not having my own space, and being a slave of my inbox.

Miguel Gallardo Albajar (Projects Director) 

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Miguel: I only know one thing for sure: I want to stay in Brussels. It’s the first time I want to stay in a city after my planned period finishes, so I will follow this impulse of settling down, which is surprising my family and friends. I like the city and its culture, I have a circle of friends and more, so now I just have to find a job and a new apartment.

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Miguel: Well, I do not want a traumatic break up, but I will not have an imporatnt position anymore. But, it’s quite likely that I will be trying to be useful in one or two teams that are struggling now.

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Miguel: Having an overview of all that happens in such a great organisation is a feeling I love, and I have no idea if I will have the same kind of role in my future job. Also, being in all those meetings where important things are discussed, and decided, is thrilling. I will also miss living in the AEGEE house (can you believe it?), with all its randomness and the surprise invitations for cakes and dinner from other team members. And the ritual of watching Game of Thrones in the basement.

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Miguel: Filling the reimbursement forms for my expenses. I did it for three years during my research in Morocco and now two years in Brussels. I am fed up with collecting bills.

Beáta Matuszka (Network and Human Resources Director)

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Beáta: I am currently looking for a job in the corporate world, mainly to get experience and preferably start my own business after that or go back to the civil sphere. But I am already thinking about new crazy adventures, such as taking part in the Transsiberian Express TSU next year or just generally discovering everything which is outside of Europe. (I have never really left our old continent [she smiles])

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Beáta: I still have some unfinished business and I would like to be a bit involved in one project, but definitely not with the same intensity like in the past. The friendships I had during these years won’t fade with the end of my active years, I will definitely keep in contact with my friends all around Europe.

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Beáta: This crazy lifestyle which was way cooler than my Erasmus, this unbelievable experience which is barely comparable to anything else, the never-ending trips, the possibility to meet amazingly enthusiastic and inspiring people on a weekly basis…  I think I will only realize what I am going to miss once I moved back home.

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Beáta: I would say the weather in Brussels, but in the past months it was better than anywhere else in Europe, so I can’t really complain.

Pavel Zborník (European Institutions and Communications Director) 

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the time after the Comité Directeur?

Pavel: Quite simple for me: I finished my study two years ago, so I will work unless I win in a lottery. I don’t limit myself in terms of places, you never know where life will take you.

The AEGEEan: Are you planning to stay involved in AEGEE?

Pavel: I think and feel my time in AEGEE is over. I might stick around for a few more months, but then it is time to move on, make a clean cut and look for new adventures.

The AEGEEan: What will you miss most about being in the Comité Directeur?

Pavel: Being my own boss and having the flexibility to decide what to do when or not do it at all.

The AEGEEan: What is something you probably won’t miss?

Pavel: Hypocrisy, egoism and lack of identification of members with the organisation.

 Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

On Wednesday, 9th January 2013, Luis Alvarado Martinez and Lucille Rieux, President and Secretary General of AEGEE-Europe met Philippe l’Eglise-Costa, the advisor on European Affairs of the President of France, Francois Hollande.

The Comite Directeur had asked for this meeting shortly after M.Hollande’s election to the French presidency. He is characterised by his strong interest in youth issues and his pro-European attitude. In fact, Hollande took up young people’s interests as the core element of his election campaign and once he was elected, he gave a speech about his conviction for the construction of a strong federal Europe.

The appointment was finally set for January 2013. Luis and I decided that during the short time given with M. L’Eglise-Costa, we would focus  on the thorny issue of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 of the European Union which is currently negotiated by the Council. Our aim during the meeting was to defend AEGEE’s position, to stress the need for investing in youth and education, and to save these small budget lines. Our position on this issue was that if cuts are made to small budget lines (like the one of education and youth), the effects will be a lot more painful than in case these cuts were made to a larger budget line. M.Leglise-Costa assured us that France was in agreement with our ideas and the government is doing its best to preserve the education and youth budget. He informed us that currently, the three countries that are considering cutting this budget are Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This interesting information made us realize how important it is to address directly the decision makers and to make it clear that young people are fully aware of the decisions that are made on their behalf, and that they also want to contribute to them.

We managed to convince M. Leglise-Costa of the importance of supporting the work of youth organizations, especially by making sure that the administrative grants in charge of them won’t disappear with the new programme cycle starting from 2014. Another topic we touched upon during our meeting was the possibility to develop a co-management approach to youth topics within the European Institutions.

This meeting was a good opportunity for AEGEE-Europe to propose the idea of  a possible cooperation regarding the European elections project which is being developed within AEGEE. We have presented the objectives of the campaign, and we can count on the support of  M.Leglise-Costa and the French government.

As a general conclusion, we can say that it was time for AEGEE-Europe to get back to the habit of consulting directly with the governments about policy issues, in order to remind policy makers that young people are here and they are willing to bring new ideas to discussion. Most of the important European decisions are still made by national governments with national interests, and that’s why it is important to bring our European perspective to the table.

AEGEE-Europe and the Comité Directeur will certainly keep going into this direction, and we hope to have the chance to meet German and Dutch representatives in the next month.

Written by Lucille Rieux, Secretary General of AEGEE-Europe

Besides the busy life of the Comité Directeur (CD) members focused on the development of our association, The AEGEEan had the chance to ask the CD members some personal questions. Have a look and get to know the CD personally. 

1. What is the item from your home you could not live without when moving into the CD house in Brussels?

Anna Gots (Financial Director): The pinky calculator from Espe (Remark from The AEGEEan: Esperanza Rodriguez Medina, the President of Audit Commission), which she presented to me at the Spring Agora Enschede.

Miguel Gallardo Albajar (Projects Director): I always travel with my Swiss army knife. It can be very useful during the transition barbeque to look really prepared for anything in front of some of our stakeholders.

Beáta Matuszka (Network and Human Resources Director): I was thinking for a while, as usually I am not really attached to anything, but then I realised what was half of my luggage: my Irish step shoes and my Italian/Hungarian coffee maker. It is really unfortunate that I cannot use the first one for a quite long period of time, but I do my best to get back on the track – at least my CD fellows don’t need to stand that I am dancing around in the house in those noisy shoes like Flatley.

Kathrin Renner (Vice President and External Relations Director): I created quite some laughter when I arrived to the house, because as I had the luxury of my parents bringing me with quite a big car, I took everything. The item that caused most amusement was my beloved mirror, white, baroque style. Huge. Yes, I brought a mirror. My second item was Winnie Pooh: I got him from the CD 2010-2011 when I left the house as assistant. Now he had to come back home of course.

Pavel Zbornik (European Institutions and Communications Director): I have a bit geeky answer, I brought with me my external drive where I have all my music, movies and other important data.

Lucille Rieux (Secretary General): I came by car to Brussels, so for once, I was not as limited as when travelling by car. For me it was very important to be able to carry my guitar along with me. I am not a professional player, but having it around makes me feel better, and playing guitar is one of easy ways for me to rest my mind and disconnect from everything just by playing a bit. I also figured out that it could be nice for my housemates to have some live music once in a while. 

Luis Alvarado Martinez (President): My favourite item is my Ipod with my music.

2. What do you drink in the morning, coffee or tea?

Anna: Tea.

Miguel: I am more for milk with cereals… but if I have to choose, it will be tea.

Beata: Oh, definitely coffee! I love special coffees, their taste and smell, so sometimes it’s not just addiction, but state of art.

Kathrin: It depends on the mood, but mainly tea.

Pavel: Black tea.

Lucille: I am a tea-addicted, easy to decide.

Luis: Depends how much I have slept the night before.

3. How well do you speak French? If yes, how would you translate the following sentence: “The next year will be the best time of my life.”

Anna: Well, my French is zero level so far. Therefore, in order not to cheat, I’ll leave this sentence to my colleagues for proper translation.

Miguel: I have been living in francophone countries for several years, so even if my Spanish accent is still strong, I do speak French rather well. Writing it is another matter, as I haven’t had many opportunities to properly study French. Let’s give it a try: “L’année prochaine serait le meilleur temps dans ma vie”

Beata: I am deeply in love with the French language, unfortunately sometimes I feel that this feeling is not mutual. I was learning for some years and I have general and economic language exam, but the level I can speak now is similar to Joey’s from the Friends: 

“Phoebe: Well this looks pretty simple. Ok repeat after me: “Je m’appelle Claude”.
Joey: (…) “Je de coupe plough!”
(Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583457/quotes)

Kathrin: Well, I can understand some, but when I try to speak I mostly mix it up with Spanish. Therefore, according to tradition: “El año que viene será el mejor año de mi vida.”

Pavel: In French I can say “Je ne sais pas” and there my knowledge ends.

Lucille: I think my French level is quite good, but I still lost a lot of my fluidity in the last years.
I am half kidding, because I think I lived too much time outside of France, and now I sometimes have trouble in building correctly the sentences in French, because I am used to other languages structure…But still, I can manage the translation: L’année a venir sera sans aucun doute, la meilleure année de ma vie.

Luis: I did my Erasmus in France and of course having Lucille near allows me to practice a lot, but of course there is always room for improving!: “Le prochaine année sera la meilleure de toute ma vie.”

4. What piece of furniture do you like most in the CD house?

Anna: My bed. 

Miguel: No doubt, the barbeques in the garden!

Beata: The tiger counts as furniture already, I would choose that. 

Kathrin: My bed. 

Pavel: I don’t have yet any particular piece of furniture which I like more or less, it is just furniture.

Lucille: As you might know, the house is not in its best shape, and there are barely good quality furniture around, but well, I’d say I love the water boiler.

Luis: My bed.

5. If you would have the chance to move the CD house to any other place in Europe, where would that be and why?

Anna: I still believe that the place of CD house is definitely in Brussels. Though in case there were other options, I would have moved it to the country, where visa regulations are not that strict.

Miguel: Well, I think that even with the weather and grey sky, there is no most suitable place for AEGEE to be located than Brussels. However, instead of Schaarbeek I would love to have the house closer to the city center, in a cosy neighbourhood walking distance from the center.

Beata: Hm, I am not the best person to ask, because I would definitely say Ireland, but I don’t even want to explain this, everyone already knows my reasons behind. Or I would move it to the UK – same weather, but better surrounding.

Kathrin: Barcelona or Lisboa! Somewhere where the weather is better, the sky is less grey and living is less expensive for sure.

Pavel: We were in August in Grand Canaria and it is not such a bad place for the CD house.

Lucille: I guess somewhere sunny wouldn’t be bad, I think the weather definitely influences a lot on our mood, so I’d very likely move it to a southern country, let’s see, Portugal, Spain or Italy…or a central city wouldn’t be bad either, like Budapest or Berlin. 

Luis: Las Palmas GC, of course because of the weather.

6. Is there a CD appointed person for your lovely rabbits in the garden?

Miguel: Well, Kathrin feeds them (a lot) and I chase the cats off the garden in my free time. Apart from that, they are not included in the task division so I guess it is more of a common task.

Kathrin: I guess my motherly instincts have taken over and currently I am the one that feeds them most.

Luis: Miguel because he is the biologist.

(Remark from The AEGEEan: The other CD members also answered that Kathrin is taking care of the rabbits.)

7. Personally, what do you wish to achieve within the next year? 

Anna: Personal growth: new knowledge, new experience, new challenges to overcome; learn myself better in order to improve; find out what I want to do further; become more confident; learn how to live with somebody and how to cook.

Miguel: If by the end of the next summer I have some spin-off adventure planned (a trip around the world, an interesting job opportunity, a challenging project to carry on) I will be more than satisfied. But right now it is too early to know what and how. The year will be long and full of learning, so whatever I imagine now will differ much of the real happenings in the summer 2013. And I like it this way.

Beata: This year is a really outstanding possibility to learn those things I never imagined I have the possibility to try out in my life. What I want to achieve is all rather connected to AEGEE, I would be more than satisfied if I realised all the dreams and ideas I started my year with and maybe a bit even more.

Kathrin: A lot of things. First of all, my tasks as External Relations Director as such come with challenges which I am really looking forward to. External representation and negotiation with partners are fields where I can learn extremely much in terms of networking, professionalism, communication. Then, of course, I am looking forward to playing my part in managing the team dynamics, coaching the others and being coached, learning together and pushing each other to new limits.

Pavel: Enjoy Brussels, not to be slave of my inbox and have non-AEGEE activities.

Lucille: I am sure this year will be a great opportunity to expand my comfort zone, just because living together with your team of co-workers, who also turn out to be your friend, is not a simple story.  I am sure I will become more self-aware of myself and my habits, whether they are nice or less nice ones, becoming more open-minded but also enjoying the potential of group thinking! Of course, after this year, I hope I will have a clearer idea of what is it that I want to carry out in my future, because I consider this year as a chance, to actually explore different topics, different situations. If in one year, if I have a clearer picture of who I want to be and what is it that I want to make a real change about for the next years, I will be extremely happy.  

Luis: Finish the term proud of the job we have done and given to the association and having grown a lot.

8. What is your favourite type of chocolate/beer/ice cream?

Anna: Very dark chocolate (90%) or a bit lighter one with the walnuts.

Miguel: I like beers with character, so I am escaping the mainstream beers like Heineken whenever I can. Here in Brussels it is like a paradise for me, as they are proud of the beers and they really have a variety.There are more beers than opportunities for tasting them all. No stress!
Regarding chocolate, I like it dark and bitter. Combined with red chilli is great if the proportions are right.
Ice cream-wise: I like them all, but I prefer not to combine fruit-based ice creams with milk-based ice creams.

Beata: I didn’t have the possibility to taste the Belgian chocolates, so my favourite one is still the Cadbury (Brussels has one year to change my taste). Regarding the beers: I didn’t really buy that many kind of beers in Belgium yet but I went to a Belgian beer festival in Budapest in June and I fell in love with the Mongozo banana beer. But I prefer rather ciders than beers (e.g. Asturian sidra or Strongbow). Ice cream? Well, in Budapest there is a nice place where they make rose-shaped ice cream (near the Basilica), but the Möwenpick’s ice creams are also not bad. 

Kathrin: Dark chocolate for sure/Castel Red, a dark cherry beer I discovered in Belgium and Ginger ice cream that you can get in a cafe in Passau.

Pavel: I’m not a big fan of chocolate or ice cream so I’ll answer about beer only. Belgium has many different types of beer and I would say that I mostly enjoy Lambic.

Lucille: I love milk chocolate, white beer and of course, chocolate ice-cream.

Luis: White chocolate always! Any beer will do! Yogurt ice cream!

9. If you would have the choice to learn the native language of one of your CD members, which language would it be and why?

Anna: I guess I would go for French, it sounds very good.

Miguel: I wish I could learn German just by wishing it, because it is a very useful one, but this has not been a strong enough reason to motivate me to learn it. On the other hand, learning to speak Russian has always been in my mind because of all the territory that it opens for traveling and discovery. And well, how cool it would be to speak a language like Czech or Hungarian!

Beata: I already started French and Spanish in high school and continued during my university year, it would be great to improve them. But if I had all the time of the world, I would learn all of them, I really like to feel confident in a country and one of the ways is to know the language.

Kathrin: French, because now I realise how useful it is. Spanish, because I can speak it already, but I would love to speak it perfectly. Czech because I always wanted to be able to speak a Slavic language. Hard to decide.

Pavel: It would be Spanish and Russian which at some point I started to learn, but didn’t get so far.

Lucille:  Haha, I haven’t yet heard Pavel speaking in its native language, so I don’t know how Czech sounds like. I think it would be cool to know how to speak German, because it is a very useful language, and Germany is a country I’d be happy to explore. I should see with Kathrin if I can trade some French stuff for her German skills.

Luis: I would ask Anna to teach me Russian or maybe Kathrin to teach me German! Hungarian would be way too hard!

Written by Stephanie Müller, AEGEE-Heidelberg

On 11 August 2011, the European Commission proposed 2013 as the “European Year of Citizens” to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the European Union Citizenship under the Maastricht Treaty in 1993.

European civil society organizations and networks, members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Liaison Group have created a civil society Alliance aiming to advocate on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for a broader understanding of European citizenship within the proposal to designate 2013 the European Year of Citizens.

For a long time, we have been advocating for citizenship to become a transversal dimension of European policies. This proposal is an important step forward in the building of a citizen-friendly European Union that would no longer be reduced to merely economic preoccupations. Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned that, in the framework of the European Year of Citizens 2013, the EU citizenship tends to be confined to an individual rights-based approach and does not tackle the

Europeans’ sense of belonging to the common European Union.

Considering that the main objective of Commission’s proposal to designate 2013 as the “European Year of Citizens” is to raise awareness on union citizens’ rights, with a view to facilitating the exercise of the right of free movement and residence, AEGEE-Europe together with the other members of the Alliance ask the European Parliament:

• to broaden the focus of the European Year 2013 and give European citizenship its full meaning and scope by taking into account the new prospects opened up by article 11 of the treaty on the European Union for citizens’ participation in the democratic life of the European Union.

• to ensure that the preparation and implementation of the European Year 2013 is given appropriate financial means, since the current budget proposal of one million euro would only allow for top-down communication measures and not for tangible actions and does not foresee co-financing for citizens’ and civil society organizations’ initiatives;

• to call on the Commission to closely involve civil society organizations in the preparation and the implementation of the 2013 European Year, since they have a key role to play in carrying forward the European project so that it fully meets the expectations of its citizens.

Since the very beginning AEGEE-Europe has been involved in the creation of the alliance. The European Civil Forum (where we are also board members) is taking the lead of this alliance for 2013.

In the next few months, several Working Groups will be created on the themes of: Participatory citizenship and civil dialogue in the context of crisis, economic social and political citizenship, and citizenship for non EU residents and their mobility (Roma people).

On the 10^th of September 2012 AEGEE-Europe was represented by its Secretary General Lucille Rieux and President Luis Alvarado Martinez.

The Comité Directeur is researching all the different ways of getting the AEGEE network involved in this alliance. In the following months you might receive emails from CD asking you to get involved on the different national coalitions, asking you to help translate the manifesto to different languages, participate in international projects etc.

So stay tuned with the European Year of Citizens´Alliance 2013!

Written by Luis Alvarado Martinez, President of AEGEE-Europe and member of AEGEE-Las Palmas