As soon as I heard about the Y Vote 2014 bus tour, Y Vote on the Road!, in the United Kingdom, I knew  that I wanted to participate. I was at the Y Vote convention on ‘Mobility & Education’ in Krakow at that time, which I really enjoyed, so I applied for the bus tour as well. I had never been to the UK before and I was eager to discover the country and get to know its’ people. Even though we should have already known something about the European institutions beforehand (after all, we were promoting the elections), Luis Alvarado Martinez (the President of AEGEE-Europe) gave us a short, but very clear presentation about the institutions and the Y Vote 2014 Project anyways.

London – Political debate

In London, we had our first (and biggest) debate with six Members of European Parliament (MEP) candidates and representatives from the League of Young Voters, European Youth Forum, the National Students’ Union and Liberal Youth. A lot of interesting topics were discussed and interesting ideas were born:

“Many countries take it for granted that they are members of the EU. But if you are not just a member, but also feel European the heart, then you are also able to renegotiate the terms on which the EU exists.” The UK is more eurosceptic than most countries, but this does not mean they should be outsiders. They should be the driving force for a change.

“Every single opinion poll in Britain shows that young people (aged 18-30) are very much pro-EU, while the older generation (65+) is very eurosceptic. But the second group is three times as likely to vote, so it is crucial for young people to be motivated to vote too.” This also goes for extremists: these people are way more likely to vote than moderate voters, and thus extremist parties get more votes than they actually deserve.

“Disengaged voters raise some concern. It is going to be the Youth’s Europe for much longer than it is for the older people, and they should think about that.”

“Referendum? Exiting the EU? Why don’t we renegotiate? The EU has done good things (e.g. the single market, Erasmus, funding programmes), BUT there should be a discussion about reforming the way it works now.”

“We should bring the discussion back to individual stories and what people have brought us.” A lot has been said now on the European level, but it is still the same (local) people living in Europe.

“We do not compete with workers in China on our salary but with technology and such things! We have great (vocational) education, and we should find our place [as the EU in the world]. Nation [in the EU] have to change.”

Bristol – MEP Candidate debate

The day after, on April 3rd, we started our bus tour and headed to Bristol where we had another debate with another candidate for the European Parliament, named Kay Barnard (Liberal Democrats). A few students from the university also came, and we talked about genetically modified food (or GMO) food, youth unemployment, renewable energies, and climate change in the context of the upcoming European Parliamentary elections. It was interesting, once again, and our external participants were also very involved with the topics.

Swansea – Workshop

After a good night out in Cardiff, where we were quickly promoted to VIP guests in the club (if you have seen Jersey Shore, you can imagine what VIP means), we continued our travel to Swansea. Luis had left us in London, since he had to go to another parallel Y Vote convention in Brussels, therefore Beata Matuska (Network Director, Comité Directeur) was leading us from now on.

We put up our beautiful stand with information materials in the restaurant and asked people to join us for a workshop after. In the end we did not get any participants for the workshop. Hence, we did the workshop by ourselves, which, in the end, was also very valuable, since we got to discuss a lot of topics.

Birmingham and Leeds – Participants in the spotlight

The Y Vote bus tour was aimed at getting more people to vote and how would we achieve this, if not with a street action. We gathered, did some ice-breaking games (I am really jealous of people who can remember names within a day…), and discussed possibilities for what we could do on the streets after that. It was harder than we thought, but not impossible to get people to speak on tape. It was very interesting (and shocking), that only very few of the people on the street knew about the EU and the elections. Some voices we heard:

“Ignorance is the reason that no one wants to be part of the European Union. We need the European Union.”

“The people who support the EU do not see the downsides, so it seems they are not telling the whole truth, but at the same time, the people who are completely against it, do not see the positives.”

“We do not really know enough to be able to vote, really.”

We just had a quick stop in Leeds and implemented another street action there. We blew up balloons, played ninja in the city and did a bit of sightseeing before we left for Manchester.

Liverpool – Question time and the NUS National Conference

This was the earliest morning of our whole journey. In Liverpool we split up, so 5 of us represented AEGEE and the Y Vote 2014 Project at the NUS National Conference, the largest student democratic event in Europe with more than 1000 delegates from 300 universities. The others went for another city rally, but this time we combined the fun with thematic questions. On our To-Do-List were things such as “Take a picture with a family”, “Take a picture with a police-officer”, but with each one we had to have a talk about the European Union and the elections as well. We put together a set of three questions that everyone had to ask, which most of the time resulted in interesting conversations that often took 15 minutes or longer.

One of the questions was: “Name three things that you know about the European Union”, and to our surprise, a lot of people could only come up with one thing. In the end, these three questions proved to be very valuable, since we could compare answers instead of going through all the conversations.

Durham – Our last city

Our last day had arrived, and we spent it in Durham, a cute little town located almost in Scotland. There actually is an AEGEE local in Durham, and they provided us with a very nice tour-guide that had set up another city rally to make us move through the city. We split up in groups, asked people about the upcoming elections, and distributed so many balloons, that it felt like every single kid in the city was walking around with one.

To sum up, it was really great to participate in this event. Content-wise, we could have reached way more people and could have worked much more efficiently, for example by promoting our workshops before we actually arrived at the university. It seemed like we appeared out of nowhere and disappeared two hours later. With a clearer plan and more visibility before the event, we could have put our work into more tangible results. The participants were very pro-active and I learned a lot about the UK and how people actually see the European Union – especially that its citizens are not at all as euro-sceptical as we hear. I also learned that technically, there is a lot of information about the EU distributed, but people are not going to search for it themselves. It is really weird to me that students have not heard about Erasmus. Projects like the Y Vote 2014 therefore should not stop after the elections. It should be carried on to keep the European Union in people’s mind, because that is the only way for people to be informed about the EU. Yes, between 22nd-25th of May and after, my Facebook timeline was flooded with voting-related posts, but what about the weeks before? Yes, political parties put up their huge posters two or three weeks before the elections, but do they mention the European Elections, or even Europe on it? Many of them do not.I wish that this beautiful project may continue, and make Europe visible all the time, not only at the time of the elections.

Written by Philipp Blum, AEGEE-Aachen

After eight successful Y Vote conventions all around Europe, finally the time came to gather for one last meet up – and what place would be more suitable for this than Brussels?

By this time all AEGEEans probably know how it goes: 40 young people, finding time and motivation, came together with the desire to learn more, share their views and opinions, discuss hot topics and exchange experiences, with a few Belgian beers on top of it this time.

Maybe the fact that this was the last convention made us a very active and ambitious group of people. The atmosphere was always exhilarating and saturated with fresh ideas, orchestrated by excellent trainers who led inspiring sessions and workshops. We, the lucky participants, were pampered by great sunny weather and had an important task ahead of us: we had to go through all the recommendations that participants from previous conventions had been working on, and try to connect, transform, enhance and further incorporate them into the Student Agenda for Europe. Tough and mind challenging!

But wait a second: let’s first remind ourselves the previous Y Vote 2014 conventions.
It all started with the kick off convention in Valladolid: “Ignite the youth spark!”, followed by: “Bridging the EU democratic gap” – Las Palmas, “Youth unemployment” – Agrigento, “Austerity vs. Solidarity” – Berlin, “Gender equality” – Paris, “The role of the EU in the world” – Vienna, “Education, research and mobility” – Krakow and “Pluralism of media” – Cluj-Napoca.  And finally, the Brussels convention on the topic “More Europe, but which Europe?”. Want to know more about what made this last convention so special? Read on about the highlights!

A convention in the heart of the EU

Not only were we able to experience the “EU capital lifestyle”, but we also had a privilege to hold our debates in the European Parliament. First, the traditional debate with Members of Parliament(MEPs) was organized, followed by a discussion with NGOs(Non-governamental organizations),  who presented different innovative forms of democratic participation. Having discussions in the place where much of the decisions that affect our daily lives are made left a big impression on all of us, because it felt more realistic and transparent this way.

Education as a key matter
Although during these five days we discussed many different topics, it seems that we always returned to one subject – education. During the convention, a lot of problems about the current  education systems were identified and addressed.

According to Kostas Tsole (participant from AEGEE-Aachen), some of the problems that seem to reappear in our European society (e.g. lack of solidarity and a selfish approach towards solving problems in a strongly interdependent society and economy), might be due to education and the way we were “shaped” to think, accept and process information. Next to this, Régis Dumoulin (participant from AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles), stated that through education, which is expected to provide us with the right tools to be able to make the right choices, truly responsible citizens are being raised. The key is to teach “how” to think, rather than “what” to think.

It is important to underline that the concept of education was seen as the starting point to reshape our society in several conventions, even without consulting the drafts made during the “Education, research and mobility” convention.

One of the conclusions we think is vital to spread around our network is certainly the idea of “proactivity”. We include the definition of this term below and invite all of you to think about it!

PROACTIVE: (Of a person or action) creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened.

Empowering young people: YOU(th) got the power!
This event definitely helped all of us to change the image of the community we live in. For some, it renewed their faith in Europe or ignited their enthusiasm again. For others, change came from within: it was truly astonishing to see how learning from others and simply exchanging helps you grow as a person. As Mauro Bellani (AEGEE-Bergamo) states, this convention prompted personal development of all of us: “I’m impressed how the Y Vote conference can change yourself! After the conference you feel more “complete”. If earlier your idea about your status as European citizen was quite unclear and confusing, after meeting new people you can learn how to add value to your opinion and what you can do to start being and remain active.”

In addition, all the workshops were great facilitators that allowed us to make our own conclusions about what “our” Europe needs. Furthermore, reading and revising the existing recommendations, made us take a step back, look at the results of all earlier Y Vote 2014 conventions and shape one final outcome. “Having those recommendations in my hands and knowing that actual policy-makers would read them made me feel empowered! And that is not an easy-accessible feeling”, says Alba Perez Barrera (AEGEE-Valladolid), although we are sure this feeling was widespread amongst all of us!

Conclusion(s)?
A lot of them! But here are the most interesting ones, ranging from very concrete to more abstract.

This convention gave us the opportunity to get information about the EP Elections in a very accessible way, through some attractive tools to play around with, such as the VoteWatch (www.votewatch.eu/), MyVote (https://www.myvote2014.eu/) and a very interesting online debating platform which has been getting a lot of attention from MEPs (www.debatingeurope.eu/), as Juan Vallés (AEGEE-Zaragoza) points out.

For Tessa Speelman (AEGEE-Utrecht), this experience was an eye-opener: it made her realise that we all have different views on the EU and its future, but we share common values and ideas. Our future is in Europe and we, youth, should never stop dreaming, participating and influencing the European decision-making.

After this final convention, we all went back home, glad for having taken part in it, and extremely happy to have met such amazing people. Because, at the end of the day, it is always about the people you meet. And this, we believe, is one of the strongest messages of AEGEE.

What are the next steps?
The EYE 2014 event was held  in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, gathering more than 10 000 young people concerned about the European Union. And, after a tour bus in the UK, the Y Vote 2014 team is leading another tour in beautiful Spain! Stay tuned, follow daily news through the Facebook page and don’t forget to vote – starting from today.

Follow daily news through Y Vote 2014 Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/YVote2014?fref=ts

Written by Hana Hudak (AEGEE-Paris) and Tessa Speelman (AEGEE-Utrecht)

Cluj-Napoca is  a Romanian city located in the heart of Transylvania, but no AEGEEan needs to be told this because she/he already knows it. AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca organized many events lately : Human Resouces European School, YVote convention “Pluralism of the media” . The NWM is coming soon and so is their Summer University. How do they manage to do all these? The AEGEEan interviewed  Alice Mogojan, President of AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca and main organizer of the YVote convention.

    The AEGEEan: Tell us the history of the antenna: how old is it? Do you have many active members? How did all started?

Alice: AEGEE Cluj-Napoca was born in 1991, 9^th of May, on Europe Day. This day was elected to emphasize our purpose to erase all the prejudices among the historical, social and cultural differences though Europe.

Our antenna is the first one from Romania and one of the firsts in Eastern and Central Europe. I cannot say that we are a very big antenna with a lot of active members, but the members we have are really interested and devoted to AEGEE projects. And I think this is the most important thing in a team; to have people that really care for what they do… everything will be well and on time organized in this way.

     How come you decided to host the Y Vote convention “Pluralism of the Media”?

Let me tell you how I think it happened. During Agora Rein-Neckar from Germany, there was a stand where two beautiful girls were talking about Y Vote Project. This seemed very interesting to me because at the same time I was implicated in a non-AEGEE project (a local one), but with the same idea – let’s show to students why it’s important to vote.

I had some stickers with Rock the Vote (that was the name of the project), we made a sticker exchange and I talked a bit with the girls about Y Vote aaaaand… in October we got an email asking us if we want to host one of the Y Vote conventions from 2014.

“Of couuuurse” was our answer and we were really happy because we have the chance to organize another big event and hopefully with European funds, a fact that happened in the end. We won the project, got the budget and organized a greaaaat event, as the participants and trainers said.

    How did the members received the news of facing the organization of another important event? In autumn you also organised the Human Resources European School, which was a great success.

Oh, it was a great feeling. Since May we were a new board and it was like a challenge to have all these events in one year: HRES, Y Vote, NWM, and the traditional SU.

And about how our members faced the idea of another important event… I think everybody is much more excited if we are going to organize bigger events. You always have to do something new, and that makes you to be active.

In AEGEE it’s really important to be part of a European event, to see how everything works… then you know the real AEGEE spirit, not when you just talk about them.

     Now, NWM it’s next. Are you ready? How is the preparation going?

For all of us it will be our first NetWork Meeting, so it’s going to be awesome because we will have a lot of things to learn about European level and how to keep the members active. A lot of new members are implicated in this event, which is good because they will learn more about AEGEE, about AGORA and maybe they will want to become active at a European level next year, who knows?!

The preparation is great. Actually we have everything done. It will be nice because we will be in a cottage from a village around Cluj-Napoca. We will have a city tour in Cluj Napoca, but after that we will breathe fresh air for 3 days. Everything you have to do, you will do it better when you are in nature, far away from civilization and the hustle and bustle of the streets.

    How about your SU?

Our Travelling Summer University around Transylvania for meeting Dracula is already a tradition. This year will be the 12^th TSU organized by AEGEE Cluj-Napoca.

We do not have sea and sunny beaches in Transylvania, but we have lovely Carpathians, legends, traditions, castles and a big character – Dracula. Everybody loves him. We love him. He brings us questions from tourists that we would never think about ; it’s really fun. Oh, and let’s not forget about vampires. Muhahahaha!

Every SU was a crazy one. Everybody was happy that they chose our Summer University and they broke the stereotypes they had or they heard about Romania; and that’s very important for us – this is why we love the AEGEE spirit.

This year we will sleep in 4 different places: 3 beautiful cities and in a cottage on the mountain. We will visit at least 4 castles, we will have rafting, a day in the biggest Adventure Park in Eastern Europe and a trip on Transfagarasan, the best road in the world, according to Top Gear.

“I’m ready to play, coach Dracula!” will be a TSU based on sport and culture, so we will have contests, a lot of activities, great stories and all combined with our 58 degrees water (famous ţuică). What could be better? We are sure that you will fall in love with Transylvania!

    What is the secret of being so active and organizing so many important events?

Well, I don’t think that we have a secret for this. In my opinion, the most important thing is to trust your team when you coordinate something. If you trust them, then you will work as a team and everything will be done perfectly and on time.

Also, it is important to have friends on your local, not to be just AEGEE members and to be really interested on the projects that you are going to organize. At least, this is how it works for AEGEE Cluj-Napoca.

     There is no doubt that this antenna has plenty of resources and motivation. What’s next? Agora?

Hmmm… AGORA is a big event and we have to think about it seriously because if we want to do it, we want to be perfect! In 2015, Cluj Napoca is European Youth Capital, so… but wait, I cannot tell you more because we do not like to talk about something and not be able to do it; we prefer to do it and after that we can talk about it (with a huge smile on our face :D).

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino

Earlier this month, 32 young people from all around Europe gathered in one of Europe’s economic, political and cultural capitals, Vienna, to participate in the sixth Y Vote 2014 Convention, the topic of which was about the role of the EU in the world. A very important subject since, in the context of eurocrisis and rising euroscepticism we are facing nowadays, it is vital to not only reflect on the reforms that need to be implemented within the EU, but to think about the image and position we, European citizens, want to show the world.

Under the lead of the Y Vote 2014 Project Team as well as supported by the members of AEGEE-Wien, participants were able to enjoy three full days of sessions, workshops and panel discussions revolving around possible future scenarios for Europe. In order to understand the topic better, the genuine purpose of the EU was reminded: in times of its creation, the EU’s goal was to bring peace and stability, and to promote democracy, not only on the continent itself, but also elsewhere in the world. Half a century later, the EU still stands firmly when it comes to its values: promoting democracy, human rights and stability through development, sustainability and trade, as well as developing its foreign and external policy. Now, the real question is: how do we adapt these values and goals to a world that is ever changing, and does not reflect the same situation as the one we were in at the starting point?

Being passionate about the subject, it was soon understood that the EU and its institutions have a very complex way of functioning. Once again, one of the biggest issues was identified to be the lack of information. EU citizens and, more specifically, young people, think that the EU is a very abstract construction, that it does not have a concrete and direct impact on their everyday lives, and this is one of the main reasons for them not to take an active role in political life.

However, the approach of the Y Vote Convention was – as it has been for all the conferences so far -based on the non-formal education and focused on letting the voice of the youth be heard. During all the sessions participants could ask questions, state their opinions on concrete issues and discuss them with the content team, as well as with the whole group. In this way, participants became more involved and acquired a strong sense of awareness that their opinion counts. We are able and we need to let the institutions that are supposed to reflect our will know that we can propose solutions based on our own perspectives and experiences; this is a right we are given as citizens of this common space we call home.

The moment we were all waiting for with great excitement was the panel discussion with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs): Jörg Leichtfried (SPO – S&D), MEP Candidate Madeleine Petrovic (Green – EFA), MEP Candidate Miroslav Hajnoš (EDP) and Ex-MEP Friedhelm Frischenschlager (former LIF and FPO – in EP for ALDE). Participants were truly excited about this unique opportunity and hungry for some answers and direct debate with these MEPs, especially bearing in mind that both experienced and relatively young politicians were present. However, this panel discussion turned out to be somewhat disappointing, for the simple fact that we felt like the MEPs were not really sharing their knowledge and were acting like mere politicians – managing questions very diplomatically by turning the answers in a completely different direction. In my opinion, this is precisely where the problem lies: how can we have more transparency and a better communication between the EU and its citizens if the system is so bureaucratized? All the official speeches are wrapped up in beautiful diplomatic discourse, but in the end they are so shallow and empty that they fail saying anything relevant. I dare to say this is not the Europe we want, and hopefully we will be able to make a clear statement about it and take some small steps in order to change things through this kind of events.

Luckily, more interesting sessions followed – we looked at different visions of the role the EU should play and display in the world. Should it focus more on developing a common diplomatic system, like the European External Action Service or EEAS (created in 2010, thus still in a developing process), or strive towards a more European level when it comes to external relations or, on the contrary, should it give more importance to independent foreign policy of its Member States? Is Europe supposed to act as a regional factor, having a say in conflicting situations that touch its interests directly?

These were just some of the questions participants faced when drafting recommendations that will be handed to the candidate MEPs before the elections take place. In groups of several people, we tried to make concrete proposals and to come up with realistic solutions that could really be put into practice. Nevertheless, it was genuinely hard to formulate well-defined and tangible suggestions that could be taken into account by the EP.

These different visions of the EU lead us precisely towards the next Y Vote convention in Brussels, when young Europeans will continue discussing different aspects of the EU integration process in order to decide which Europe we, the present and the future of our continent, want for ourselves.

 See you there and do not forget to vote!

Do you believe in coincidences? Well, at least we believe it is very coincidental that we are writing this article about the Y Vote 2014 Convention on Gender Equality precisely on the 8th of March – International Women’s Day, the day chosen by the United Nations to vindicate Women’s rights across the globe.

It has been a few weeks since the fourth thematic conference of the Y Vote Project took place in the stunning city of Paris where, thanks to the Y Vote project team and the awesome organisation undertaken by AEGEE-Paris, almost 40 young Europeans got the chance to learn, discuss and share their visions on gender equality issues in Europe, especially in the context of the European Parliamentary elections that are taking place in May.

Privileged enough to have the opening ceremony held in the Maison de l’Europe as well as most of the lectures and seminars held in the European Parliament Representation in Paris, the participants rapidly and easily engaged in the topic that seemed to be an issue of the past century, but is still a considerable matter in the present societies. They realised that many thoughts, opinions and meanings were hidden under the words “gender equality”, ranging from what every participant understood by “feminism” to male discrimination or women stereotypes, and they even learnt new things about LGBT rights. It was observed that the most interesting and passionate discussion took place when assessing an impact the environment we live in (media, school, civil society etc.) has on forming gender awareness.

Under the lead of the Y Vote team (Léa Charlet – Project Manager, Lucille Rieux – member of the Comité Directeur, and Lavinia Manea – representative of the content team), the participants learnt about the role of the EP and the importance of the upcoming elections, and discovered what is the situation of gender equality in different EU countries. With no surprise, they realised how diverse and different the EU countries are in this respect. They also figured out how limited the EP is in terms of its competences regarding this matter, but looking for necessary and feasible solutions, the participants came up with a bunch of creative recommendations.

After a hard working day of drafting and writing recommendations, the participants spent the last day in the Serbian Embassy in Paris, where the Ambassador provided them with all the necessary elements for having an unforgettable farewell and closing ceremony: Serbian exquisite food, official speeches, assessment exercises and great views of the Eiffel Tower.

Days of the Convention finished and participants were reflecting on their experience: “It has been a week since the Y Vote Paris ended but I still feel its impact”, “I know now that we can do more than we think”. Although being non-neutral actors, we are certain that this Convention had a great effect on all the participants: learning about the EP elections and discussing such a controversial topic as gender equality. This made all of us more aware of what we can do as citizens to achieve better and more equal societies.

Are you still wondering what your first step to become an active citizen should be? Well, it is easy: don’t forget to vote in the EP elections!

Written by Raquel Alcega Giner (AEGEE-Barcelona) and Carlota Lifante (AEGEE-Alicante)

Last time The AEGEEan spoke about the Europe on Track (EoT) project was in October, when the open call for the project manager was issued. Réka Salamon (AEGEE-Aachen/AEGEE-Debrecen) was choosen for the second time to be the coordinator of the project, together with Rocío Leza (AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles) and Turgut Tosun (AEGEE-Ankara). Last year the project won the European Charlemagne Youth Prize, so the AEGEEan was interested to learn more about the second edition starting this April.

EoT progress meeting in Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar 2013

Europe on track was the most successful project of AEGEE-Europe in 2012. Six young ambassadors travelled around the European continent by train: from Belgium to Spain, Italy and the Balkans. The ambassadors were divided in two teams, each of them following their own route. There were three topics on which the ambassadors interviewed the young people they met: youth participation, sustainability and enterpreneurship.

Last October Réka Salamon was chosen for the second time to be the project manager. “EoT is probably one of the greatest achievement of my life. It is like my baby, I hope I don’t sound too emotional.” – she said. “I saw all the potential and the success it achieved, but I also saw all the flaws, so I will do my best to correct them in this edition with the rest of the Coordination Team.”

Topics of EoT 2014

This year the topics are going to be very different. “While choosing the main topics of this year’s edition, we wanted to take into account not only general youth issues, but also current events so one of the main topics is going to be ‘Mobility’.” – explains Réka. “We believe the newly ratified ‘Erasmus+’ program is going to have a great impact on youth for the upcoming years, so with the coordinators and Comité Directeur (CD) we decided this would be one of the topics. We also want to focus on the active involvement of young people in the decision-making processes on a higher level and help the Y-Vote project to spread the word about the European Parliamentary Elections. Thus we decided to choose this as the second main topic of the project.”

Next to these topics the ambassadors will also touch upon other topics on which AEGEE will be working according to the new Strategic Plan, like ‘youth mobility, youth employment, civic education and even EU neighborhood policy’.

EoT Route 2014

The draft routes of the travellers

These are not the only changes in the program. Of course the routes won’t be the same, even if a lot of locals who hosted the project last time applied again. The responses and the final route showed that the Network is interested in the project and wants to participate.

Germany, Italy and Greece were the three countries with most applications from locals. With three applications from Greece, the plan is to bring one of the team straight to Spring Agora Patra, and because Greece is starting its semester of Presidency of European Council, ending in Patra will be even more meaningful. This year the plan is to send a team of ambassadors to Riga and to Kyiv as well, due to the great interest from the locals and to the possible impact an EoTconference can have in these cities.

However, there were also surprises as well, Réka tells us: “We didn’t receive any application from France”.  The teams still need to cross it though, since there are stops planned in Spain.

The biggest Challenge

When asked about the biggest challenge of the previous EoT she replied: “The most pressing issue last edition was time. There wasn’t much time available to plan and implement the idea we had for the project. In this edition it is definitely an advantage that we had almost half a year to plan and arrange everything. Also the locals won’t have the pressure to organize someting on a very short notice.”

Apart from the timing, the last time, the project lacked external financial support to cover the costs of ambassadors for taking nighttrains and making reservations. This year the CD and the Coordination Team found a solution. “Last time we had the InterRail passes and we relied upon the network” (for food and accommodation ed.) Réka explains. “This time we have applied to the Open Society Foundation for grants. Now we can also financially support the locals and travellers for the costs of their accommodation.”

Selection of Ambassadors

A thing that raised some controversy last time was the fact that there was an opportunity for non-AEGEEans to participate in the project. Réka explains the reasons for this decision as follows: “in AEGEE we tend to live in our own ‘bubble’, seeing things from one certain perspective. These people can bring a fresh new insight and a different kind of approach to the project and the discussions.”

“But because after all, the ambassadors who, at the time, were not members of any  local eventually joined AEGEE, the Coordinators and CD decided to again open the applications for non-AEGEEans in this year’s edition.” (However the downside is that you know less about these participants and it has been proven difficult to check the skills and experience they put forward in their application, Ed.). You can meet the ambassadors of the project in the following link.

Réka Salamon is known to be involved in many projects and committees and she’s never hid her plans to run for the Comité Directeur during Spring Agora Patra. Being so involved in AEGEE and at the same time preparing her candidature could be difficult but Réka is sure she can manage. “I have learned how to manage my time effectively and even if April is going to be the most intense month for the project, I believe that if everything is going to be ready on time, I don’t see any obstacles in the way of my candidature for President of AEGEE-Europe.”

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

Youth unemployment is on the main agenda in many EU member states, particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal, where an alarming number of young people are unemployed. The YVote2014 Convention in Agrigento addressed this topic with 25 people from different EU contries.

Youth unemployment is on the agenda of all European governments, and also of the European Union. In order to discuss this situation and to contribute with new ideas and concepts to fight youth unemployment, 25 people from France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy met in the lovely town of Agrigento, in southern Sicily, to tackle these big issues.

The convention on Youth (Un)Employment was the third one of the YVote2014 Project and the second one focusing on one specific thematic, right after Las Palmas’ convention about the democratic gap in the EU.

The days were filled with brainstorming, discussions and workshops on topics like how to bridge the skills mismatch between what young people learn and what is demanded in the job marked, what is the added value and the role of youth organizations like AEGEE in being involved in the fight against youth unemployment, which obstacles prevent young people to start their own business and what kind of help young people need to be able to find a job. Some other specific topics were the implemention of the newly decided youth guarantee, which seeks to provide every young person with either a job, education, training or apprenticeship within four months after finishing school and what should be done about helping persons in special need (NEETs, acronym for Not in Employment, Education or Training).

During the conference, many projects and initiatives on how to fight unemployment among young people in Europe were presented. At the same time, the participants had the possibility to discuss with the mayor of Agrigento as well as with the local state attorney, Ramondo Alaimo.

Special mention was given to the task of encouraging small businesses and start-ups as well as social businesses as means to fight youth unemployment. During these workshops, the participants developed themselves concepts on how to start a social businesses in their environment.

Despite of creating business plans, everyone discussed and developed measures and objectives to fight unemployment. These ideas were used to formulate recommendations towards Members of European Parliaments in the last two days.

Focusing on the upcoming European elections, participants simulated a discussion between supporters and opponents of voting in the EU elections in 2014. In this workshop, group works and discussion circles were formed in order to find arguments and explanations why to vote and what are the concerns that people who refuse to take part in the elections have.

All of the participants enjoyed the unexpected comfort and luxury of staying in a 4-star hotel with very decent working facilities. Special thanks go to the organisers from AEGEE-Agrigento who made all this possible and provided everyone with a great and very informative convention in beautiful Sicily.

Written by Holger Schmitt, AEGEE-Berlin