Last March, AEGEE-Torino organised Europe Café about Populism. For this reason, they has been chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to Roberto, Gulia and Luca to find out more!

ACT: Which emotions did you have when you know that AEGEE-Torino has been chosen as ACTive local of March?  

Roberto: We were very excited and honored by knowing that our Antenna was chosen for this recognition. We put a steady effort on this activity and I am glad to see that it has been recognized as useful to the objectives our organisation!

Why did you decide to organise that activity?  

Roberto: Actually, this activity as such dates back to some years ago from an idea of Sergio Genovesi. Despite the activity was a little bit neglected, this year, when we had to decide whether to stop it or not, we just gave it another chance and revitalised it because we thought it was worth having also a cultural side in our local!   

What was the result of your activity?

Roberto: We organise the Europe Café on a monthly basis with an average attendance of 15-20 people coming from various parts of Europe (France, Germany, Romania, Poland, to name a few). As mentioned, it is a talk in English open to all those who want to discuss in an international environment. We deal every month with the “hot” topic of the moment: just to give a few examples, we talked about Brexit, the crisis of Schengen, the rise of populist movements,  the impact of terrorism on everyday life. In addition, each time we also have a little focus on the electoral moments in the European countries (General Elections, Referenda, and so on).  We had many good feedbacks: making available a space for relaxed and thoughtful talking gives a real opportunity for free expression to the international (but also Italian) students in our city.

How do you inform your members about the Action Agenda/Strategic plan?  

Giulia: We’re keeping them updated about every activity/news regarding the AA or the SP through our social channels, during our weekly meetings and LTCs.  We are also quite lucky because we can boast the presence of three ACTies in our local, Gabriele Scollo was in ACT in 2015/2016, Marco Daniele will finish his term at the end of July when I will start with mine for the next year.   

Do you have any other activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?  

Giulia: As Roberto said the Europe Café isn’t a sporadic activity, but is a regular spot that every month changes its topic taking into account news reports and participants’ interests. This means that a new challenge is waiting for us each month and this is the strength of the event: its flexibility and constant innovation. Besides, this year’s experience increased and stimulated the interest of our members about thematic activities, so maybe we have something on our plate for the next year!  You will see!

Why should other locals organise activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?  

Roberto: The Strategic Plan is sometimes read as a sort of top-down set of orders and, even worst, generally organising activities related to the Action Agenda is too often seen as a constraint. We need to change that! We should take the Strategic Plan as an inspiration for our activities and the AA as an instrument which can help us to put into practice our ideas and to measure their impact. We have the chance to make a real and measurable impact on society, no matter how little or big, and it shouldn’t be wasted. This is the reason why we should all organise this kind of activities.   

Do you have any tips for organising thematic activities?  

Three fast tips!

First: KEEP IT SIMPLE. If you overdo with the organisation, you will probably not be able to carry out all the details and be disappointed. If you start from the little things however, you will have a lot of room for improvement and development. After all, Europe Café is simply a nice talk with some international friends and it works because it is simple.  

Second: INVOLVE PEOPLE. It is really important to have people involved, not only for the impact itself, but because when people are with you, they help you and your job becomes far easier and effective. In Europe Café, the participants are those who make the discussion great for everybody, our job is just to make it work.

Third: YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN YOUR PROJECT. Always think on why you want to organise your activity and make your cause your landmark. Organising something only because you have to is just not worth it.

In any case, feel free to contact us if you want help and tips about how to organise a Europe Café in your local, we will be glad to help you! You can contact us on our Facebook page or send us an email! (aegeetoboard@gmail.com  or  giulia.melis@aegee.org)

Can you tell us a bit more about your local?

Giulia: AEGEE-Torino was founded in 1992, so this year we celebrate our 25th birthday. We have a long history behind us and among all moments coming from the past we cannot forget 2004, with the Autumn Agora and one of our members, Nicola Rega, as AEGEE-Europe’s President.  Now AEGEE-Torino can count on around one hundred members, forty of them really active. Since three years we’re working hard with the aim of growing up, starting from the local level and now focusing on the European one.  Our efforts led to two strong and stable local events, the “Europe Cafè” and of course the great “Aperitivo linguistico: USE YOUR TONGUE” that attracts each month almost eight hundred students and Erasmus people. In addition six of us are currently involved in European bodies, committees, commissions, interest and working groups.  

Are we tired? Absolutely not! We still have a lot of new ideas and projects in progress. To be continued…

Characterise your local in one sentence.   

Luca: Organised mess brings great results and happy people!

Written by Elena Efremova behalf of Action Agenda Committee.

With only a few weeks left, European Planning Meeting (EPM) Zagreb is approaching. The conferences and workshops about this year’s topic: Europe under Siege – Populism and Anti-European Agitation. What we will see is the result of the work of two AEGEE members: Eirini Kyriakidi (AEGEE-Athina) and Florian Hauger (AEGEE-Heidelberg). The EPM content managers are working together with the Comité Directeur and local organisers since last November and they will give us a small preview of what participants should expect. 

The AEGEEan: Present yourself.

Eyrin and Florian: Hey, we are Eyrin from AEGEE-Athina and Florian from AEGEE-Heidelberg, as your Content Managers. We are responsible for EPM Zagreb’s thematic conference “Populism and Anti-European Agitation”. Both of us are political science students, local board members and incredibly AEGEE-addicted… oh, and we figured out that the EPM preparation turned us into an old couple. [They smile, ed.]

 
Why did you decide to apply as the content manager of EPM?

Florian: Developing a strategy of how to react on anti-European populism has been one of my best projects since I joined AEGEE in spring 2015. It is an important issue we need to talk about. This is why I decided to propose it as an EPM topic and apply as the content manager.

Eyrin: I wanted to be more active on the European level of AEGEE. Later, the open call for the Content Managers of EPM was announced and I knew I had to apply as soon as I saw the topic! It is an issue that is all around us, not a simple policy on a few papers.

 
What are your previous experience in Populism and the topic of EPM in general?

Florian: Populism and Anti-European Agitation affects both my studies and my work as a parliament employee. I did some research and read quite a lot political science literature on populism. Understanding dynamics and organisation of populist parties or movements is both incredibly interesting and frightening.

Eyrin: I am currently in my last semester of Political Science and International Relations. Therefore, Populism and Anti-European Agitation are more or less part of my everyday life, since I always end up studying about this topic or reading something relevant.

Can you give us a sneak peek of how the content will be? In what will you focus more?

Since Populism and anti-European agitation are deeply interconnected, we couldn’t possibly think of them separating from each other when it came to speakers and workshops. However, our intention is to present many points of view for the same issues, so one could say that we are focusing on the pluralism of opinions.

 
Who are going to be external speakers? What will be more or less the content of workshops?

We are very happy to confirm the engagement of Claudia Chwalisz of Populus UK, LEAP-President Marie-Hélèn Caillol, Gordan Bosanac from the Centre for Peace Studies and Marko Grdosic from the Advisory Council of the Council of Europe. Most of our upcoming workshops proceed to populist mindsets and intentions while others focus further on their strategies, tools and actions.

 
How did you decide to develop the topic? From which perspective will you treat it?

Since the chosen topic is highly controversial, it is absolutely crucial to start with an academic introduction. Lectures and panel discussions will cast light on this subject from diverse points of view.  However, since we both have a political science background, we have already taken into consideration the diversity within AEGEE. So there is no need to be afraid that it will become too much of a lecture! We can actually promise to keep it interesting and engaging for every single one of the participants.

 
How are you connecting the topic with the strategic plan?

Our task is to issue the topic of populism and Euroscepticism and discuss strategies of how to react to its latest developments. The audience will decide if this is put it into action. If you ask us, the new focus areas European Citizenship, Equal Rights, Youth Development and Civic Education could match quite well with topic-related objectives.

 
Who is the CD appointed member?

Maarten de Groot. He is doing a great job and we are incredibly grateful for his support. Thank you, Maarten! You rock! We would also like to thank Viola, who was appointed as a Content Manager at the beginning but had to resign for personal reasons. Thank you for your hard work!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona