Somewhere in Brussels, near the European Commission, you can find a house that looks just like most other houses in the city from the outside, but contains a lot of rooms, people and ideas on the inside. What house am I talking about? The AEGEE house, which the new Comité Directeur has been calling their home since the 1st of August 2015, when we moved in to start our work. “What is that work about?”, you may wonder, and probably other members wonder too. Read on to find out!

My task, Projects Director, could imply I am spending the biggest amount of time with the projects of AEGEE. Semi-correct. Projects in the sense of this portfolio mean not only the projects ratified by the Agora but also teams and groups of AEGEEans who gathered by the same or similar interest and would like to change something for the better in Europe and beyond.

In this sense I work with the thematic bodies of AEGEE: ratified projects (Democracy in Practice, Eastern Partnership Project, AEGEE Election Observation), unofficial projects (Europe on Track, Your Vision for Europe, Opening Inclusion, Footprint Project), interest groups (Language Interest Group, Culture IG, Health for Youth IG), and while working groups are also distributed among Comité Directeur members, I work with all working groups (Civic Education, Youth Mobility and Youth Employment). Another important part of my portfolio is internal education. AEGEE is a space for learning for thousands of members and truth be told, working in AEGEE-Europe made me realise we should put internal education as a top priority in the work of the CD and of the organisation. I am the contact person towards the AEGEE-Academy, which is independent from AEGEE, but our partnership contract bases the trainings of AEGEE on the Academy. I also work with the Events Quality Assurance Committee on improving our events in AEGEE (and reading super long answers to super long forms [she smiles, ed.]).

Besides the bodies I am responsible for, I am in regular contact with other bodies – because building the thematic work of AEGEE and our internal education strategy involves everyone. I am happy to work with our awesome Network Commission, the knowledge management of the Human Resources Committee and with the Summer University Coordination Team related to the thematic SUs.

In addition I am responsible for two external projects as well, one on the Quality Assurance of Trainings and the GR-EAT project, where I discovered a new field of interest in the topic of non-formal education and the VRC (validation-recognition-certification) processes by writing the guidelines of the project. The guidelines of GR-EAT can help other youth organisations with the recognition of volunteering and the skills you learn during your time in AEGEE!

Last but not least, our thematic work would only stay inside AEGEE if we were not doing our job as ambassadors. I also have a fair share of the external work as well. Being the main contact towards the Lifelong Learning Platform and being in the Management Team of IFISO (Informal Forum of International Student Organisations), the work brings both external visibility and useful practices for our internal work from other organisations. I had meetings with representatives from ODIHR, the Council of Europe, European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee just to name a few. AEGEE is doing great work in shaping society and even if sometimes we see ourselves doing too many different things, this colourful palette of activities is really impressive for many officials!

Besides the portfolio-related work I also checked some points in the Activity Plan we have drafted in the beginning of our term… when I had little idea about how demanding the projects portfolio is going to be [she smiles, ed.]. My Activity Plan points however show the attitude and direction I would like my work to improve AEGEE:  sustainability for our thematic work, better understanding of our history and previous achievements and failures, to offer a learning space to our members and create the strategy of the organisation together with the members and the needs of the locals.

Being the Projects Director means you can never finish reading all your e-mails. My life would get better if I had one of those pens you can talk to and it writes down what you are saying, do you know what I mean? I am trying my best to fulfill everyone’s expectations and wishes and I do not mind the sleepless nights or the usual 14 hour shifts in the office. Being a former project manager/coordinator myself I know the powerful drive that moves all these bodies who believe in their idea – and it is my primary role to give them the support, special contacts, necessary resources.

Being Projects Director also means you get to work with a lot of different teams and their dynamics, amazing ideas, all of them in need of different kind of support. I have spent the first four months of my term merely understanding the teams and learning the best way to support them. I am inspired by all of them, the ideas and energy they bring and the relentless work they do for AEGEE.

If you ask me some event highlights… well, countless. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to experience so many different places and meet so many different people. This is the thought that keeps me happy after long travels and happy to go to work the next day.

One special highlight could be – probably because I have just arrived back from the Network Meeting in Wrocław: the birthday party of AEGEE-Wrocław where past and present met and the people who kept the antenna alive got to celebrate AEGEE-Wrocław turning 25 with 50 new members. I was touched, remembering how it is to work so hard for a small local with no money and no fixed events, only a few really dedicated people. Believing in AEGEE and working the hardest you can in order to fight for what you believe in, this is the kind of AEGEE we should all be proud of and the AEGEE I want to see more of. Thank you AEGEE-Wrocław for an amazing Network Meeting and many inspiring moments!

Some funny anecdote of my life in the house? Just one? Living and working together, can you imagine how many funny moments we have in the house? Just to recall a few, I can spend whole nights drinking tea and discussing crazy visions for AEGEE with Aleksandra, burst out randomly singing a Justin Bieber song any time with Anna or get our quiet retreat and talk about literally anything and everything with Svenja. From early morning until late at night we keep each other company either in the office or in our room which is a safe haven for endless chocolate supplies and stuffed animals. We are adorable weirdos, aren’t we?

You can read her interview part one here and part two here.

Written by Réka Salamon, Vice- President and Projects Director 2015-2016

The Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) was officially established as a supporting committee of AEGEE-Europe in the Spring Agora Enschede in 2012. ACT’s most important task is to help the Network implement the Action Agenda. The Action Agenda is one of the most important documents created within AEGEE. It contains actions to be taken by locals in order to progress in each of the four thematic areas AEGEE is currently working on -Spreading Europtimism, Youth Employment, Youth Mobility and Civic Education.

Becoming an ACTie is a great way to actively help AEGEE make a greater impact on the aforementioned areas. Marcos Mato from AEGEE-Leon, PR responsible and member of ACT, has had a very fulfilling experience as an ACTie, “I really recommend every member of a local to join a European Project or Body, it’s really nice to work on achieving the same goal with people from different countries” he says.

ACT works in close cooperation with the European Level bodies of the Network, particularly with the Network
Commission. Each member of the Committee is in charge of a part of the Network, working directly with the relevant Network Commissioner to maintain a direct approach to locals. Direct contact with locals is crucial to the fulfillment of ACT’s objectives. “We are trying to establish and maintain a direct contact with locals because we know that nothing beats one-on-one communication. Sometimes locals need some small adjustments to turn their existing activities into ones that fulfill the Action Agenda; we help them with this” explains Miljana Vulevic, ACT’s Vice-Speaker.

ACT is currently working on improving the exchange of best practices among locals. “During our meeting in Brussels, we came up with the idea of making a Best Practices Collection, a publication where all the extraordinary events that do fulfill the Action Agenda will be gathered and sorted. We also have a Facebook group, ACTive AEGEEans, which serves as a platform for discussions, exchanging best practices and seeking advice when needed” Miljana states.

The Action Agenda Coordination Committee is very optimistic about the upcoming period. According to Marcos Mato, PR responsible and member of ACT, “EPM Leiden is going to be really special for us. There, the Network Commission, working groups and ACTies will meet. We are waiting for it to share ideas and start to work in the same direction. I really feel that after this EPM, AEGEE locals and members will start a new, more efficient age”.

2015 has been a great year for ACT, but there is a lot more coming in 2016, “We’ve recently welcomed three new motivated members into our team. Now that there are 11 of us, we are working full capacity; our team is stronger than ever and anxious to face new challenges. Look out for ACT in 2016, we have many great surprises in store for you!”, Miljana exclaims.

Written by Kimberly Townend (AEGEE-Valencia)

At Autumn Agora Kyiv we are going to vote for the European Planning Meeting (EPM) topic and we can choose from five. Joanna Pankowska from AEGEE-Warszawa had a bold idea and proposed the topic “No topic, strong focus (on Focus Areas/Action Agenda)”. If this topic will be chosen, at the EPM Leiden 2016 we will discuss our focus area, instead of a very new topic. We send her some questions to understand her proposal better.

The AEGEEan: “No topic, strong focus (on Focus Areas/Action Agenda)”, this is a very unusual topic. Tell us more about that.

Joanna: As much as we agree on the importance of discussing current European affairs in AEGEE, we believe that the European Planning Meeting is not the proper place to do so. We would like to avoid adding an extra thematic part to the EPM, and instead we propose to concentrate on our Focus Areas. What is important, is that it will not stop us from discussing important issues during the EPM. Quite the opposite! We just want to make sure that, when we discuss, we give it a specific angle thought our four topics, so in the future we can truly say we are focusing on our focus areas in AEGEE.

Why did you come up with this idea?

It wasn’t me who came up with the idea, but I was the one to collect signals. What are the signals? First of all the result of Progress Meeting which took please in Asturias.  We concluded the session with an idea to propose such a topic, in opposition to making a proposal, so we might first try the new format. I also went through archives of EBM-REFORM-L mailing list and the ideas that are there (from the years 2011-12) are very much in line with “No topic, strong focus”. Also the survey, the results of which you can see in the pictures, indicates that there is something wrong with the current format. Last but not least, the direction AEGEE-Europe is heading in the last months, namely the new Working Groups format and bigger thematic focus are also a signal that it might be a way to go.

Why do you think we should discuss it during EPM?

The focus areas, namely Civic Education, Mobility, Employment and Europtimism, have been here already for some time, but can we really say we had a structured discussion on them during those year? Can we say we, as a European Students’ Forum, have an opinion on then? It is high time to focus and be consistent for once.

Would you take on the role of Content Manager?

Civic Education Working Group would like to take this responsibility and  possibly share it with other Working Groups.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Just like we did for the last Agorae, for Autumn Agora Kyïv we want to provide you again with a short and easy summary of the proposals submitted. In this fifth and last round, we will be explaining you three proposals, namely ‘Presenting proposals only at the Autumn Agora’, ‘Electing the Working Group Coordinators’ and ‘Financial Rules: AEGEE Social Responsibility Fund’.

Each Agora, we modify our statutes with proposals, which are discussed in prytania. The number of proposals submitted changes each Agora: in Autumn Agora Kyïv there will be 15, in Spring Agora Asturias there were also 15, in Autumn Agora Cagliari there were 8 and in Spring Agora Patra 12. According to the proposers Gloria Llopart, Claudio Gennaro and Salvatore Maraventano on behalf of the Juridical Commission, having so many discussions about proposals are taking away a lot of time that can be spent on discussing our external impact: projects, position papers, etc. The proposals ‘Presenting proposals only at the Autumn Agora’ will therefore change the moment that AEGEE members can submit their changes to the statutes and make it only possible for the Autumn Agorae and Extraordinary Agorae

You can read the full proposal here.

In Spring Agora Asturias, AEGEE-Europe has adopted a big change in its thematic structure: the Working Group Reform. Now, there are only four Working Groups, related to the Focus Areas of the Strategic Plan (SP) in order to enhance the thematic work and the implementation of the SP within the association. Each group is lead by an appointed member, the Coordinator, who chooses the Policy Officer along with six other AEGEE members (at least 4 locals should be represented). The group will present an Activity Plan during the Autumn Agora, an Interim Activity Report during the Spring Agora and an Activity report during the following Autumn Agora. Wilmer Bouma on behalf of AEGEE-Enschede presents the proposal ‘Electing the Working Group Coordinators’ due to the extreme importance that the Working Groups have for the thematic work of the association. At the moment, the selection of the coordinators is done by the Comité Directeur after launching an Open Call to the Network, but if the proposal will be accepted, coordinators will be elected at each Spring Agora.

You can read the full proposal here.

The last proposal is ‘Financial Rules: AEGEE Social Responsibility Fund’, which is proposed by Ander Guerrero Ruiz on behalf of Comité Directeur. The Social Reponsibility Fund (ASRF) is a special fund created to help members who have a difficult financial situation to go to statutory events. This fund is already a praxis, but was never regulated in the CIA. The proposal therefore aims to clarify the rules and criteria to be eligible for receiving the fund. A whole new section will be added to the General Financial Rules in order to explain the correct funcioning of ASRF. Every member of an Antenna or Contact Antenna as well as members of Contacts travelling to the Agora where they will sign the Convention d’Adhésion can apply by filling in the form to cover the costs of Visa, Agora or EPM fees and a partial reimbursement of the travel cost (that can reach 100%). Delegates will not be allowed to apply, unless it is proven that the local cannot cover the trip. The same goes for members of commissions that are eligible for travel reimbursement according to the CIA. Applicants need to send to the Financial Director, after an Open Call is issued, a series of documents to prove their financial status with a letter signed by the president of their antenna and the financial status of the antenna. Applications will then be reviewed by the Financial Director with the collaboration of the Speaker Team of the Network Commission and the Network Commissioner of the Antenna, Contact Antenna or Contact where the applicant is member of, and by the FATF, which will be the responsible for the final decision. Applications will be reviewed based on a point system and in order to be eligible, applicants need to receive 12 points or more based on criteria such as the events visited, the number of years in the association, the income etc.

You can read the full proposal here.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Last but not least, we introduce the proposal Reforming Working Groups, Policy Work and Action Agenda execution, proposed by Mayri Tiido, Ivan Bielik and Paul Smits from the Comité Directeur. If accepted, this proposal will radically change Working Groups as we know them.

When, during Autumn Agora Cagliari, the Visa Freedom Working Group, was deleted, it was clear that Working Groups are not working anymore. The problem was highlighted already during a survey launched before the Agora where all (former) members of Working Groups could give input. A Progress Meeting was organised by Mayri Tiido and Ivan Bielik from the Comité Directeur, which was useful to investigate the problem, but no conclusion was reached. This is one of the reasons that pushed Mayri Tiido, Ivan Bielik and Paul Smits (respectively Projects and Communications Director, Human Resources Director and President of AEGEE-Europe) to write a proposal to make some (huge) changes.

The proposal Reforming Working Groups, Policy Work and Action Agenda execution aims to change the current Working Groups (namely Culture WG, Human Rights WG, Sport WG, International Politics WG, Education WG, Enviromental WG, Language WG) from struggling bodies to bodies who will work. The idea is to merge the work of Policy Officers and Working Groups on the Strategic Plan fields. Basically, for every Focus Area of the Strategic Plan there will be a Working Group that will start its term on the 1st of August, having all of its activities approved by the Comité Directeur. Internally, it will create activities related to the Strategic Plan and externally it will represent the position of AEGEE-Europe in its field.

Each group will be lead by an appointed memeber, the Coordinator, who will choose the Policy Officer; along with six other AEGEE members (at least 4 locals shall be represented). The group will present an Activity Plan during the Autumn Agora, an Interim Activity Report during the Spring Agora and an Activity report during the following Autumn Agora.

This proposal aims to solve two problems in our Association: the functioning of the Working Groups and the fullfilment of the Strategic Plan. During the last Autumn Agora, only 30% of the Strategic Plan was fulfilled, which is a worrying sign of the lack of  committment of members and locals towards the thematic part of our association. At the same time Policy Officers cannot be in charge of a specific field by themselves. With the new Working Group, the proposers hope to increase the participation in the Strategic Plan and its fields with a new functioning organ which can support locals, create activities and be an expert in the respective field of action.

All the existing Working Groups won’t disappear for good, but they will be transformed into Interest Groups. They can be created upon request from an interested AEGEE Member and they will be open to anyone. Each Interest Group will have two moderators who will send a report to the CD every two months and an overview to every ordinary Agora. In case of a lack of moderators, CD has the power to dissolve the Group.

You can read the proposal here and follow the discussion about it in the forum here.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

You might have heard about protests against fracking already. Romania is the most recent case of big protests this week, where an American gas company has started to explore their big reserves which may consolidate the country’s role as the largest gas producer in Central-Eastern Europe. But at what cost? What are the negative effects of Fracking?

Since the industrial revolution, our energy consumption has increased unceasingly. For many years this energy has been mainly produced by combustion of fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. After exhausting most of the natural conventional reserves around, every day many European countries look for more and more costly importation trades. Prices are reaching never-seen values, beacause of this new extraction techniques -with extra costs- have now started to become profitable. One of these methods is hydraulic fracture: ‘fracking’.

Photo by: ebachetti

What is fracking about?

Shale gas is natural gas in sand or shale horizontal-layer formations. It is usually trapped, so conventional vertical drilling does not work. To make it easier to understand, imagine this: you have a cake and you love icing. So you first go for the top of the cake and since it is easy to reach, you eat all the icing pretty quickly, but you want more.

All that is left is a thin layer right in the middle, and if you drill a hole down into the cake you will only intersect a tiny little bit of icing, but if you have the capability of going down till that layer of the cake and then go sideways: you are in business. The current fracking method combines horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracture. The hydraulic fracture makes it possible to get the horizontal layers of gas out, by injecting huge quantities of water mixed together with sand and some chemicals under incredibly high pressures to crack over the rocks which keep the gas trapped, allowing to pump it up to the surface.

Why is fracking that controversial?

• As we said, huge quantities of water are transported (an average of 7-8 million litres, similar to a daily consumption of more than 60.000 people)  and pumped into the ground, with a significant environmental cost.
• Together with the water, thousands of litres of chemicals (some of them very toxic and potentially carcinogenic such as benzene) are also pumped underground to facilitate the process. Even though the majority of the fluid is pumped out again, some of the chemicals stay behind (or might even flow somewhere else). This used water is so contaminated that it cannot even be cleaned in a treatment plant nonetheless, often -after the gas source is exhausted- the used liquid is pumped back inside and ‘sealed’.
• Not only these chemicals, but also gases like methane, may dissolve in water and trickle down through the soil and reach water sources. In some cases concentration of chemicals is so high that water may become flammable!
• The methane that might be released in the process is also a greenhouse-gas, and one with a much, much bigger negative effect on global warming than CO2.
• There are worries that the fracking process can cause small earthquakes due to the aggressive techniques of cracking the underground layers. And there have been cases of small tremors following fracking in different countries like the USA and the Netherlands.
• Last but not least, fracking is another a commitment to hold on to the use of fossil fuels a non-renewable energy source, instead of investing on cleaner energy production.

And in Europe?

Last October, the European Parliament voted in favor of an amendment which imposes impact studies before any shale gas or other unconventional drilling method  is used in a EU-memberstate. Until now this was for every Member State decide themselves. Now the amendment’s fate is in the hands of the European Council, who will make a final decision whether or not make it an EU law. Further proposals for legislation on shale gas are expected to be announced in January by the European Commission as part of its 2030 energy and climate-change strategy.

However this new method of gaining energy is really attractive for the EU as it is now strongly dependent on fossil fuel supplies from Russia, Norway, North Africa and the Middle East. Some governments like the ones from the UK, Poland and Ukraine have publicly expressed their support and interest in a development of fracking. This despite the fact that there are more and more protests and anti-fracking movements all over Europe.

Should EU reconsider fracking? Would you like to know more about this technique? Do you know or would you like to know more about your country’s situation? Then join the next EnWG Social Skype Meeting Sunday 15^th at 19h (Brussels time). Fracking will be the topic this time! There will be a short documentary/video and right after there will be an informal discussion where everybody is welcome!

Written by: Pablo Laborero (Speaker of the Environmental Working Group)