Mobility, especially youth mobility, is critical for members of AEGEE due to its many events all over Europe. It therefore comes as no surprise that there is something like the Youth Mobility Working Group (YMWG). What is surprising is that the main task of this working group is often not facilitating mobility, but raising awareness about the possibilities of youth mobility. Here to present the new team of the Youth Mobility Working Group and its goals is Elena Efremova, PR Coordinator of YMWG.

Elena Efremova

The AEGEEan: Could you introduce the team of the Youth Mobility Working Group?

Elena: The new team of Youth Mobility Working Group consists of ten people: seven official members, two assistants and… one advisor! Daniel Llamazares is our lovely Coordinator, I am the PR Coordinator (İlayda Berberoğlu is the PR Assistant), Maria Smirnova is the Policy Officer, Kristina Reshetova is the Project Manager, and Maribel Martin Herrero is the Fundraising Responsible. For the main objectives we have three people: Berfu Ozer – objective 1 (establish a group of supporters), Asier Rodríguez – objective 2 (train 100 members) and Klaudia Chlopas – objective 3 (establish 5 long-term agreements providing mobility service). Moreover, some weeks ago, Maryana Semenyak joined our team as an advisor, and Joanna Pankowska is our appointed CD member.

Read the full activity plan, here.

Why is youth mobility so important to your team?

In the XXI century, it is impossible to imagine living in one place; tickets for buses, trains or planes are so cheap, and movement has become an inseparable part of our daily life. To be in AEGEE means to travel a lot. There are a lot of possibilities, but not many people know where to find this information and how to use it. The main goal of the Youth Mobility Working Group is to help people inside and outside AEGEE to travel and develop.

Every member had their own reasons to join the team. Someone was convinced by Daniel (it’s impossible to say “no” to him when he smiles), someone wanted to teach other AEGEE members how to get visas and show that it is not hard (yes, our girls from Russia and Turkey have requested many visas during their life and didn’t die). But all of us want AEGEEans to travel more, it doesn’t matter whether they want to go to events or study abroad.

Daniel Llamazares

What, specifically, are you going to do this year to try to reach your aim of easing the mobility of youth and students in Europe?

We have a lot of plans! You can read them, in detail, in our activity plan for the upcoming year [she smiles]. We plan to organise some activities connected to Youth Mobility, for example the Mobility day, create guidelines about visa and grants processes, reativate some online AEGEE platforms for sharing mobility information. We don’t want to be passive, not only will we make boring, but useful, materials “what to do in your local in order to …”, but we plan to motivate locals and people to organise something!

As PR coordinator, I wish to increase visibility of the Youth Mobility Working Group. We need more likes on our Facebook page! So, I kindly ask you to like our Facebook page and invite your friends to do the same. We will have a new logo (we’re already working on it with the Public Relations Comitee) and you will read a lot about us! Our big wish is to see that the Action Agenda of the Youth Mobility Focus Area will be fully implemented in one year.

Do you, and how do you, think that conferences or other events about mobility, like ‘Borderless Europe: Blessing or Burden?’, hosted by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca earlier this year, helps further your cause?

Conferences like that are very important not only for AEGEE. It means that twenty or more people who care about mobility talk about existing problems and try to find solutions. These conferences bring politicians and youth together, and we hope that in the future we will have more events like it.

Maria Smirnova

What do you think are the biggest obstacles to youth mobility?

You expect me to say visas or money? No. Is visa a real problem? In three years, I have made five visas! And believe me it’s not so hard! You only need to know which documents you need and follow instructions. Yes, it takes time and money, you are not totally free. It’s a field where AEGEE can make policy and advocacy, it could be the biggest challenge for AEGEE-Europe.

The main obstacle is the lack of information. People don’t know where to find information, sometimes people don’t know how to use what they know. When AEGEE was established in 1985 border-less Europe (integration and cooperation) even though we can’t compare mobility issues back to that time, as of course we lost already many barriers however young people are still facing many obstacles and unfortunately not many AEGEE members are aware and know how it works when it comes to practical moments.

As the PR-responsible, what will you do to increase awareness about the plans and achievements of the working group, as well as awareness about the working group itself?

The first goal, as I already said, is to increase visibility of the working group. Members of AEGEE should know our team and what do we do exactly, how to contact us and which information we can and should provide for them. Moreover, PR responsible should help members of the team to promote their ideas. PR, Project Manager and Main Objective Responsible people will work together to achieve our goals and implement the Action Agenda.

Is there anything that I did not ask, but that you would like to have included into the interview?

Dear AEGEE community, this working groups exist to help you to implement the Action Agenda. Don’t hesitate to contact us! We are looking for antennae, who already won grants, and people who know how to get visas. Your knowledge about it is of great help for others! Moreover, if you need workshops about mobility issues we are also happy to run them for you!

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

AEGEE-Europe has always fought for a border-less Europe, being also among the first Pan-European associations who promotes Youth Mobility with the aim to encourage students and young people to be active in their society. However, recent changes in the Visa Directive made by the European Council, in which the Directive should be binding only for students and researchers, without the pupils, trainees, volunteers and youth workers have made it harder for AEGEE-Europe to reach its goal of free movement, but not impossible. We talked with Svetlana Danchenko, AEGEE-Ösnabruck, one of the home-based CD assistants to tell us more about the Visa action plan. We also talked a bit with Holger Schmitt, Network Director of AEGEE-Europe, to help us understand the situation better. 

The AEGEEan: To begin with, how would you describe the current situation of the Visa policy?  

Svetlana: Although Schengen opened borders for a lot of Europeans, Visas in Europe still exists between a lot of countries. Therefore a lot of AEGEE members especially from Eastern Europe as well as AEGEEans going to some Eastern European countries face a lot of problems during the Visa application process including while applying for Visas for AEGEE purposes as recent survey has shown. Therefore, we discussed to focus our efforts on those most relevant countries Ukraine, Russia and Turkey wanting to enter the Schengen area. At AgorAsturias we discussed further steps and what the focus of AEGEE should be to provide further action to facilitate Visa for our members from those countries.

Considering the fact that the Visa Freedom Working Group was abolished during the Autumn Agora Cagliari in 2014, did you still manage to give support to those members who needed a Visa?

Svetlana: Usually, the individual support to those members who need a Visa is done by incoming or Visa-responsible from incoming antenna. One of the primary goals now is to create the updated Visa Invitation Letters including the ones which could be used for receiving multiple entry Visa and share the experiences of obtaining such Visas with antennae including incoming Visa responsible and interested members.

Do you plan to revive the Visa Freedom Working Group, how and why?  

Svetlana: Although during Agora Cagliari the Visa Working Group was abolished due to not fulfilling the criteria, the discussions connected with its abolition as well as the extremely intensive voting session during the Agora showed that Visa issues however, are still extremely relevant for AEGEE members. Due to reform of Working Groups accepted by AgorAsturias the current idea is to revive to Visa working direction as part of the Youth Mobility working group which is one of the AEGEE focuses according to the strategy until 2017.

Which are the recent changes brought to the Visa facilitation?

Svetlana: Since CD Assistants responsible for updating Visa guidelines were chosen (in December 2014 after abolition of Visa Working Group at Agora Cagliari), our work was focused on understanding the needs of AEGEE members concerning Visa issues, setting priorities, updating the existing Visa guidelines and revising information left after Visa Working Group and attracting attention to Visa issues. During AgorAsturias we reached a lot of new people interested in Visa issues who highly contributed by bringing new ideas. Currently, together with Holger Schmitt, three CD Visa Assistants and interested people, together a team of 9, we are actively working on the future of AEGEE Visa facilitation policies.

Are there any further plans to improve the Visa facilitation?  

Svetlana: The future short term plans include updating Visa invitation letters as well as creating multiple Visa invitation letter as well as better awareness about Visa issues. The long-term plans include creating lobbying responsibles in capital cities antennae and increase in Visa facilitation lobbying on the AEGEE Europe level. Also we want to use the new Mobility Working Group to create a further platform to share the best practices between Visa responsibles and between experienced AEGEE members.

What do you think is the current position of AEGEE-Europe regarding the Visa facilitation, taking into account the proposal of the European Council in February to revise the Visa Directive and exclude the volunteers from it? Are there any future actions to be taken to solve this? 

Holger: AEGEE-Europe has always been advocating for the right of free movement in Europe. We believe in a unified, diverse and border-less Europe and therefore we are following closely the so-called ’Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and un-remunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing’. The Council Proposal from January 2015 is quite disappointing for AEGEE since it changes the scope of the directive to not include volunteers, pupil’s exchange and au-pairing in the Directive and also not providing further facilitation concerning the question of Visa fees. Since volunteers are also one of the focus groups of AEGEE we started a Visa Advocacy Campaign in January sending letters to all Permanent Representations in Brussels as well as translated versions to most EU Ministries of Home Affairs or Justice (depending which Ministry) is in charge to decide on the question in the Council of European Union. We had several responses from the Ministries from Germany, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Furthermore we had meetings with representatives from Luxembourg and Slovakia in Brussels to discuss the scope of the Directive. It seems that pupils’ exchanges will be in the end adopted in the Directive, but the questions of volunteers remains disputed among different Member States and in the negotiations of the EU Parliament. The issue for most countries is that the status of volunteer is not clearly defined on a European level and has different regulations in different countries, which is why it is unlikely to reach a consensus about them. Also, the question of abolition of Visa fees remains difficult since most Ministries of the Interior see Visa to be essential for the interior security and see the need of fees to cover the cost of the bureaucratic processes. The article on this issue written by Policy Officer on Youth Mobility, Alfredo Sellitti, you could also find in AEGEEan Magazine from 4th February.

From our point of view the costs could be lowered or abolished by less bureaucracy and more efficient processes, but this is going against the interests of the member states for more security. We presented on all occasions the results of several studies proving the positive impact of increased mobility for the local economy and the level of education and participation of citizens. However the security question remains in the centre of concerns of the Interior Ministers who are negotiating the Directive with the Parliament. At this point the negotiations will continue until 2016 under the EU presidency of Netherlands and Luxembourg, so AEGEE needs to further strengthen the advocacy ambitions in the next year to raise awareness to our position about volunteers and Visa Fees. It will be important to further target Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany which play a crucial role in the negotiations. Another task for us is to further promote the Erasmus and EVS programme in third countries such to provide better chances to get Visa for studies and research in the Schengen countries.

It will be up to the new Mobility Working Group and to the next CD together with the newly formed Mobility Network of the European Youth Forum to continue our efforts to reach the best possible result for Visa facilitation through the Directive.

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

When AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg wanted to organise a Network Meeting (NWM) several people doubted it could become a success due to being far away and because of expectations of visa issues. However, Mayri Tiido from the Comite Directeur, Monika Duda from ACT and Maria Arends from the Network Commission helped the antenna with the preparations and sessions and the NWM was organised in such a great way by the antenna that it lead AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg to become Local of the Month. The AEGEEan interviewed NetCom Maria Arends to hear about why the antenna was nominated and the organisation of the event.

The AEGEEan: Why did you choose AEGEE Sankt Peterburg as NWM host?

Maria Arends: First of all, AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg submitted a very good and detailed application. Really everything was included, strong motivation (they wanted the NWM to take place in Russia to prove that it is not impossible to apply for visa and that there is nothing ‘scary’ about Russia), a good budget, explanation about the visa support they were going to provide… So first of all, there was no reason to not choose them based on formal aspects. Then, me being an idealist as well, such great and intrinsic motivation really touched me. Even though some people told me that it might not work out very well, I decided to pair up with AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg and prove everyone wrong!

How did the event go?

Very well! There were many fresh and motivated AEGEEans who, I think, learnt a lot about our wonderful organisation. The sessions went smoothly, we walked a lot with -10 degrees (but we had fun doing it) we had a very nice three-hour-long city tour through the main sites of the inner city of Saint Petersburg, though it is such a big city that you can never see all sites, and we had an amazing pubcrawl with shots of vodka and other kinds of spirits, which was interesting. Apart from that,the organisers have provided us with good food and an amazing accommodation in a hostel, which we had all to ourselves, it was so good to actually sleep in beds!

You work with AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg on a day to day basis, what is good about the antenna? How do they work? 

Firstly, they have meetings on a frequent basis, which definitely helps them. Also, they organise a lot of events, and a lot of members of their antenna go to other events in the Network. For the upcoming Network Meeting in Hamburg, I have seen a few applications. This definitely helps them to stay motivated. Furthermore, they have a newly elected board, which is great! Of course they are also organising the Transsiberian Dream together with AEGEE-Moskva this year, and they do not get stuck in thinking about their problems, but rather take up a challenge (during the NWM they have proven that for example with fundraising). All in all, I think that AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg is a really great and active antenna, which organised a really great event! (and I think all of the participants would agree with me.

The AEGEEan interviewed  Dina Sharonova the initiator of NWM and ex-President of the local, Anastasia Kachesova the current President and Anna Smirnova the  responsible for visa section on NWM.AEGEE-Sankt Petersburg to hear more about the antenna and the event. 

The AEGEEan: How did the organisation of the event go?

AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg: Organising an event always requires a lot of great team work. Just a week before the NWM, we had some difficulties with a place where sessions were held, but we successfully passed all challenges.

Why did you apply to host the NWM?

One of the main reasons was the willingness to prove that it’s possible to organise an official AEGEE event in Russia, despite all difficulties as visa procedures or absence of university support. It was also important to us to show our participants and local members that a Network Meeting can be as fascinating as informal events or parties. We suppose both tasks were completed successfully.

What do you think of the participants that took part in the event? Were they active?

The program of the NWM was very intensive. We had doubts that it would be difficult for participants, many of whom were newbies in their locals. Fortunately, the participants were brilliant! They were active, easy-going, interested in topics and discussions. They filled the NWM with an awesome energy.

What are the best memories you have from the event?

There was a section about Russia&Europe on the threshold of EPM Burgos’ agenda. Due to the current political situation and mixed attitude in mass media we anticipated a lot of problems about this topic. But participants of this discussion were respectful and open-minded. We were pleased to find out that the common point of view was that the division between Europe and Russia is artificial and brings nothing positive for both parties.

How many members do you have in your antenna? How many of your members are active? 

There are 70 members in AEGEE Sankt-Peterburg and 20-25 of them are active.

What do you organise in your antenna?

Every year we organize Summer University, at least one winter event and an exchange with other antenna. This year AEGEE Sankt-Peterburg and AEGEE Moskva present SU “Transsiberian Dream vol. 7 Far East Movement”, which goes backs to the roots, because it was originally made by our two cities. Transsiberian Dream is always legendary, but this year it is going to be something special!

What is special about AEGEE Sankt Peterburg?

AEGEE Sankt-Peterburg is the most northern-located one, that’s why the NWM was called winter NORDIC magic. Also we’re active despite a few number of members and quite distant location. We live in the most beautiful city in Russia and we are open to all new ideas.

How did you collaborate with NetCom Maria Arends to prepare for the NWM?

It was a perfect collaboration! Maria assisted us in filling Quality Assurance Committee (EQAQ’s) form, creating the thematic section of the program, kindly answered all our questions and was one of the trainers during NWM. She was the person on the European level who believed in the success of a NWM in Saint-Petersburg. AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg would like to express Maria our appreciate for her help! We’re a nice team.

We have been told you gave a nice workshop on visas, what was it about? 

We understand that there are probably few locals which can raise awareness about visas and spread information. Usually, AEGEEans only have common idea about visas. The key to success was that all participants had their own experience with visa applications for the NWM. They figured out how different this procedure can be with the same rules of law and the same conditions and how important is to keep attention on this topic.

What do you think about the Visa Freedom Working Group having been closed?

It’s a reflection of a tendency of lack of interest for this topic. Usually Europeans think that the visa topic doesn’t concern them, as they mostly didn’t face it. However, this question does exist and we tried to show the importance of this problem to our participants during workshop.  Also as we discovered during the NWM, laws and procedures are completely different in all countries even though it is not supposed to be, so it would be nice to have a Working Group in AEGEE, which will inform and support members, as well as stand for our rights.

What experience do you have with visas?

Usually AEGEE Sankt-Peterburg provides free visas and special support for all participants. We are glad to open up countries and places, which AEGEEans probably would never visit without AEGEE and youth cooperation. On the other hand, all members of AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg gather official papers and visit embassies or consulates at least once a year and fill the application forms for their own travels.

Have you done anything in your antenna after the NWM?

First we had the local board elections. Now we are in the active process of organising Transsiberian Dream vol. 7 in cooperation with AEGEE-Moskva to make this SU unforgettable.

What are your upcoming plans for the antenna?

We’re going to participate in the Restaurant Day in February, have an exchange with AEGEE-Minsk and fire on our Summer University. Soon we will visit AEGEE-Moskva in the capital of our country to make the organisation even better.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Zaragoza

A few days ago, the Council of the European Union published its proposal for “a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing”, resulting from the meeting in Brussels on the last 9th of December.

The Council of the European Union, who was under the Italian Presidency back in December, made a further step in the legislative process which will lead to an update Directive on visa issues. In fact, back in March 2013, the European Commission (EC) published a Proposal for revising the existing Directive 2014/114/EC (dated December 2004) on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of studies, pupil exchange, unremunerated training or voluntary service, and Directive 2005/71/EC (Dating October 2005) on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of scientific research. The aim was to improve the legal framework applicable to third-country nationals, including also the remunerated trainees and au pair.

In February 2014, the European Parliament (EP) voted its first reading, serving as a mandate for the negotiations with the Council.

Despite its title, and the premises in the same text (point (2) of the Proposal: “[The Directive] should therefore simplify and streamline the existing provisions for the different groups”), this proposal was embarrassingly inadequate compared to the EC and the EP proposals.

In fact, already in the Article 1 (a) and in the Article 2 (1), the Directive makes a clear distinction between third-country nationals who apply to be admitted on the territory of a Member State for the purpose of research and study – for which the Directive shall compulsory apply –  and the ones applying in the frame of “pupil exchange scheme or educational project, unremunerated training or voluntary service”, for which “Member States may also decide to apply” (the Directive, ndr).

This reduction of the scope of the Directive, compared to the one proposed by the EC, is of huge concern. In fact, if we bring it to our association, it may mean that non-EU members may have burdens in participating in events taking place in all those countries who won’t extend the scope of the Directive to others than students.

The second biggest concern regards the fee for applying for a visa: not only is a fee foreseen, but, in its document,the Council does not foresee any limitation, but rather gives a suggestion for it not to be “disproportionate or excessive”. Again, the limit of the Council is clear: we all know how difficult, demanding and expensive it is to apply for a visa (if we didn’t apply directly, we for sure know stories from our friends in the Network), and this document proceeds in the exact opposite way than the Erasmus+ legal framework, where the learning mobility of individuals is one of the main actions to pursue the Programe objectives.

The list doesn’t stop unfortunately. Reading further in the document is clearly stated that “The competent authorities of the Member State concerned shall adopt a decision […] as soon as possible but no later than 90 days of the complete application being lodged”. Can you imagine applying for an Agora three months in advance to make sure to get the visa on time? Moreover, this provision extends considerably the “60 days” EC proposal, and even more the “30 days” framework suggested by the European Parliament.

The last remarkable point comes regarding the visa holders for studying and research considering to spend a period of time (up to 6 months) in another EU Country: despite the already long procedure spent to apply for a visa, the third-countries nationals may incur in a renew procedure for the second Member State, who is allowed to start further verification on documentation and purpose of stay.

Luckily, this is not the final version of the Directive. According to the Lisbon Treaty, this document has to go through the Parliament, who has the right not to validate it as such, but to propose modifications that will need to be then approved by the Council.

Of course, this doesn’t mean at all that there is an easy path ahead. Unfortunately, this document shares the fear to further concede facilitation for mobility in Europe. Let’s not forget that the Schengen agreement has been quoted and pointed out as one of the main factors allowing free movement to terrorists, and the happenings in Ukraine, Turkey, France, Libya (and the list may unfortunately go on) are misused and misreported to create a growing terror mood in Europe which is disruptive and mining the concept of United Europe.

That’s why AEGEE, together with the European Youth Forum and in all the possible platforms, is and has to continue campaigning for Youth Rights in Europe. An official statement has been presented, and a Policy Paper on Youth Mobility will be presented at the next Agora Asturias to be ratified.

Youth rights are at a stake, and we, European citizens, need to do as much as we can (and a bit more) to make sure we build up the Europe we want to live in.

You can read AEGEE-Europe Reaction to the Council Proposal for the Revision of the Visa Directive here.

Written by Alfredo Sellitti, AEGEE-Salerno, Policy Officer on Youth Mobility

Starting any visa process in AEGEE is like a lottery – you never know how organisers will behave, how attentively the visa officer will look at your documentation, and what will you get in your passport in the end.

After Agora Skopje we all had a sad experience in visa issues, when no Caucasian locals were able to attend the Agora because visa procedures were not followed by organisers. Afterwards it was discussed many times why it happened and how to avoid this. Everybody was sure that the Agora in Enschede would be non-problematic at all in terms of visas. However, let us see what happened in the end.

Communication with the organising team was very fast, some single complaints from participants about organisers not answering e-mails were not surprising – in the last couple of months before the Agora, the team was simply overloaded with e-mails and tons of work. We all were pleasantly surprised when it appeared that the organisers put so much efforts into visa issues that they even had agreements with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands; all visa applicants going to Agora Enschede were allowed to obtain visas with the copy of invitation letter, and all foreign missions in visa countries were informed about the upcoming event.

However, in all this positive attitude there was one little drawback – participants were not timely informed about those agreements and they did not get proper instructions what to tell their embassies; i.e. that their applications were associated with that agreement with the Ministry. Thus, calling an embassy and asking if they can apply just with a copy of invitation letter, logically because of the rules of the embassy, most participants got a negative answer. What did we get with this? Panic, of course. If you were denied a visa at least once in your life, you become paranoid about visa issues and extremely careful in terms of documents. Taking a risk to apply with copy of invitation? No way!

However, fast reaction of organisers, provision of copy of the agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and first successful visas among participants helped to overcome all fears, and mass applications to embassies in different parts of South-Eastern Europe were started. The result – all applicants received their visas, there were no denials, and everybody happily packed their luggage, slowly moving to the Netherlands.

Due to good work of the organising team and the Visa Responsible, all Agora participants were able to attend the Agora and see that this General Assembly appeared to be one of those wonderful Agorae where you can see the main coordinator smiling, and the whole organising team working fast, smoothly, and still being able to make jokes.

I am sure I will express the overall gratitude of all visa participants to Amarins, the Visa Responsible of Agora Enschede, and the entire AEGEE-Enschede team for all their efforts concerning visa issues, and all their help. Thank you very much for your patience, all your explanations and understanding! See you in Budapest!

Written by Olga Iatsyna, AEGEE-Dnipropetrovsk

Beyond your house, your city, your country there’s a whole new world – full of unknown, interesting and most importantly full of new things. Have you ever thought about those fresh emotions, exciting perspectives and tons of different people that exist beyond your current world? Have you ever had a feeling that you just have to see it all?

Of course you have! You are an AEGEEan – young spirited, a travel addict for whom borders don’t exist, who appreciates freedom and enjoys intercultural activities. Unfortunately, there’s a part of the AEGEE world where borders still exist, constraining freedom of movement, power of spontaneous travelling and will of staying at a friend’s house somewhere in the middle of Europe for one more day, just because the visa is expiring in the next 24 hours. Violating visa dates could result in not getting another one for many years, so fearing the consequences, another extraordinary evening in the company of friends seems less attractive.. Well, nothing left to do but pack and go back home.

But, let’s start from the very beginning. Imagine yourself in her shoes.

Young, full of energy, willing to see the world, open for new experiences and excited about meeting new people. People are people all over the world. Some kind, some not so much; Some interesting, some dull as painting going dry; Some funny, some without an inch of humour; you know that beforehand, but still you’re so excited about meeting people that you would never see if you didn’t leave the nest!

You have been an AEGEE member for almost a year now, and as odd it may sound, you’ve never attended an event outside THE borders. You don’t really know why. Maybe because you hate bureaucracy and collecting all those dull papers that take so much energy and enthusiasm out of you; maybe it’s the fear of getting another denial stamp into your passport.

Emotions take over when after a few weeks of waiting an email finally gets to you. Do you know the feeling of excitement, joy and a little fear, all mixed with each other? The one that makes you want to jump up and down like crazy and hug everyone around. Yep, this is it! The anxiety of getting the letter that states: “Hello, we are happy to inform you that you have been accepted for the project…” But not just any project, the project of your dreams. The one you have been wanting to attend already for a while – your first international AEGEE project outside of your country.

The last time you applied for a Schengen visa, something went so wrong: “insufficient reasons to leave the country” with no further explanation. You truly believe this time is going to be different, because now you’re not just a student willing to travel, but a member of an international youth organization with a potential of determining the future of new generations, at least partially.

Call to the embassy to make an appointment. Collect the necessary documents. Go to the appointment.

Even though the organizers of the project were overly nice and they have already called to inform the embassy about you, you’re still very nervous! The person looking through your papers seems indifferent towards you; he only takes a glance at you and asks a few questions without raising his eyes from the documents.

After an exhausting waiting of 10 days you finally get your passport back and feel over the moon when you see a visa in it.

Preparation, flight. Meeting new people and getting to know the AEGEE world better. Getting more motivated to change things for the better. Becoming close friends with some of the project organisers and participants. Emotional goodbyes with most of them. Continuing your journey with a bunch of other participants to an unplanned location – your newly obtained friend’s place in Rome. Spending magical and amazing three days at his place. Having to leave early because visa expires in 24 hours! Tears of joy and tears of sadness. Fantastic memories to take and new friends in your heart.

Whatever we say, AEGEE gives us whole new experiences and opportunities that can open some doors that were closed before.

Written by Ani Zakareishvili, AEGEE-Tbilisi

Why vote for the Visa Freedom Working Group (VFWG) to win the AEGEEan Choice Award 2012 rewarding the most efficient Working Group of 2011? When the VFWG was taking what seemed to be its last breath last year, Jana Pokorna (AEGEE-Istanbul/AEGEE-Praha) and the rest of the motivated VFWG members picked it up and put it back on its wheels.

The VFWG had to face the rough facts last year that they were, at the time of Agora Alicante, only fulfilling two out of the ten Working Group criteria. However, Projects Director Thomas Leszke believed in the fresh new board, elected just a week prior to the Agora, and the working group kept going, proving that they still had someone rooting for them.

Spreading information about the VFWG to the Network

Even though not being as visible as other Working Groups last year this does not mean that the VFWG was not working very hard. They were picking themselves up and improving the Working Group from the inside, creating a clear structure of the team and the group. The board that had been elected just before Agora Alicante had done a great job but despite this the Working Group had re-election just before Agora Skopje. They continued improving the PR of the Working Group, working hard on the design and especially on the content of their website. Furthermore, they launched a campaign providing as much as possible visa information for all locals, organising events or having representatives in events.

VFWG collaboration with the rest of the Network

Even though they still had to find their way and place in AEGEE the VFWG did make many things happen in 2011. Many projects started; some of them already finished, some of them are still ongoing and some were postponed. The list is long, but some of the activities include a workshop in the Agora Skopje about visa obstacles of young volunteers and “send a postcard to your embassy” project in cooperation with the Network Commission and Russian and Ukrainian antennae. The idea was for the SU participants to send a postcard from the country that they visited to the embassy in their country, a nice initiative but in the end unfortunately no postcards were sent.  However, they were also working on the info campaign, they attended events such as Agorae striving to be as visible as possible while offering plenty of info and help. As for the second part of the year the VFWG focused on providing information for the the Summer Universities booklet, and developed new projects. Since the Agora Skopje they have also been developing the internal structure in all aspects (IT, PR, HR, KT, task distribution, mailing lists etc.) with Guillermo García Tabarés, Human Resource Responsible in the Comite Directeur, and other Working Groups boards.

Hardworking Head Captain in Charge

So in the end what made the VFWG so special last year? Well, first of all they have one motivated and dedicated speaker in Jana Pokorna who is one of the active AEGEE members. She was the Agora Fair Manager at the Agora Skopje, she was content coordinator of the EBM Izmir and she has been the Speaker of the VFWG for almost a year. She describes it as her baby and says “The whole VFWG is special and will be forever, the more I am here, the more I wanna do” about it. However, Jana was not the only one improving the VFWG last year. Together the whole team went back on track faster than one could have wished for ending the year with fulfilling nine of ten WG criteria at the Agora Skopje. They revived the WG and they also helped getting the WG reform approved by the Agora Skopje which improved the system of WGs in AEGEE and which is something that the VFWG keeps working on in 2012.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København