{"id":17903,"date":"2013-05-26T16:34:09","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T14:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=17903"},"modified":"2013-05-26T20:58:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T18:58:33","slug":"charlemagne-youth-prize-for-europe-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2013\/05\/26\/charlemagne-youth-prize-for-europe-on-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlemagne Youth Prize for Europe on Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 7th<\/sup> 2013 AEGEE reached another milestone in its history when Europe on Track \u2013 Capture the Future of Europe<\/a> won the Charlemagne Youth Prize<\/a> for best European youth project. An achievement with great international significance and which, when you look at it in a broader perspective, provides us with a variety of promises and opportunities. Mathieu Soete: \u201cGetting this kind of high-level external validation is quite exceptional\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The winners of the Charlemagne Youth Prize with Martin Schulz<\/p><\/div>\n

A big reward<\/strong>
\nLuis Alvarado Martinez, present on behalf of AEGEE at the awarding ceremony in Aachen, tells winning the prize immediately opened doors. \u201cWe had the opportunity to publicly ask Dalia Grybauskait\u0117,<\/a> president of Lithuania and winner of the International Charlemagne Prize<\/a>, to stand for young people in the current EU budget negotiations and we were invited by Martin Schulz to a meeting in Brussels. We have used this opportunity very much to put youth on the agenda of the European Parliament and to have a dialogue with influential people\u201d. In the days after the victory, Europe on Track appeared in numerous publications all over the continent and AEGEE was congratulated by many external partners.<\/p>\n

Dear winning team, you have given a very fresh and optimistic message about Europe, you used all the multimedia channels for young people, you have worked with many different countries, and you contribute to the EU 2020 strategy.\u201d \u2013Martin Schulz<\/a>, President of the European Parliament<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The secret of Europe on Track\u2019s success<\/strong>
\nMany people contributed to the success of Europe on Track. Of course InterRail and the\u00a0ambassadors and the team<\/a>\u00a0in Brussels, but the locals were just as important. Mathieu Soete, one of the ambassadors: \u201cTowards the end of our journey we could really start to see the enormous added value they offered to the project, organising group discussions, media coverage, and even city tours. Also, when you are changing language and currency every other day, it’s nice to have some stability and local knowledge to see you through the day. So\u00a0AEGEE-Leuven<\/a>,\u00a0-Tilburg<\/a>,\u00a0-Enschede<\/a>,\u00a0-Berlin<\/a>, -Poznan,\u00a0-Katowice<\/a>,\u00a0-Praha<\/a>,\u00a0-Brno<\/a>,\u00a0-Wien<\/a>,\u00a0-Bratislava<\/a>,\u00a0-Budapest<\/a>,\u00a0-Zagreb<\/a>,\u00a0-Cluj-Napoca<\/a>, -Bucuresti, -Sofia, and -Istanbul: thank you, this is also your prize!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>

Team Blue in Katowice<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

“We see it is very important for our projects to tackle things that are currently going on in society in order to maximize their impact” – Luis Alvarado Martinez<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why has Europe on Track won? We can distill several ingredients from the concept\u00a0 that reveal the secret. Its biggest strength appears\u00a0to be its ability to voice the opinions of young people about their European future and to inspire them to re-engage with the European dream. And by explicitly linking it to the Europe 2020 strategy<\/a>, it is very relevant to current European politics. In times where faith is waning and Euroscepticism is growing this must have sounded like music to the ears of European leaders.<\/p>\n

A promise for AEGEE\u2019s future
\n<\/strong>What does this mean for AEGEE? Of course it means visibility, prestige and money, but there is more. Mathieu put it into words: \u201cIt means that we still have the knack for developing and executing big projects with European and external relevance. Over the past years a lot of people have said that AEGEE is increasingly turning inwards, but winning the Charlemagne Youth Prize for the second time<\/a> shows that the recent drive for more thematic content and external representation is starting to show results\u201d. Luis adds that \u201cEurope on Track shows that when we work as one united network, we can achieve big things\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>

Team Red Toulouse<\/p><\/div>\n

The future of Europe on Track, bright but undecided
\n<\/strong>The cycle of the project has not finished yet; Luis: \u201cWe want to use the prize money to produce a youth documentary which we will show in the European Parliament\u201d, and also the survey<\/a> is still ongoing, but the brainstorming phase for the next edition has already started. Most importantly the conditions of the travelers have to be improved, and the need to extend the project both geographically and in terms of topics and the team is also mentioned. The plan of the CD is to make Europe on Track a self-sustained and annual concept, just like the Summer University project.<\/p>\n

Great plans of course, but not everyone sees this put into practice easily. Benjamin Battke, one of the ambassadors of the project: \u201cI think the Europe on Track project will lose its attraction if carried on the same way. Except if the events would be huge, but that would be unlikely in my experience. It would need a very clear and significant objective, which I don’t know yet\u201d. He raises a valid point. Europe on Track has proven to work as an instrument to address European leaders, but how to continue this momentum? Luis: \u201cIn order for the project to stay relevant, it has to stay connected with \u201chot topics\u201d in Europe. By having different themes, and by proving to young people that this project is effective in delivering their message to decision makers, we will be able to make this initiative sustainable”. Topics that are brought to the table are for example Euroscepticism in the UK, Elections 2014<\/a>\u00a0and the accession of Croatia to the EU.\u00a0Brainstorming has started on the facebook page<\/a>, where everyone is welcome to join.<\/p>\n

“For me, a good project makes people think about their ideas of Europe, however a project that is kept inside the organisation has little chance of winning”. – Mathieu Soete<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Benjamin

Benjamin explaining the map<\/p><\/div>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/strong>
\nAll in all, this project means three things to AEGEE. Firstly as Mathieu mentioned, a recognition of the work we are doing and the path\u00a0we are taking as a network. Secondly it is a challenge to our network to think about how we want to manifest ourselves in the future, what topics we want to tackle and which messages we want to spread.\u00a0 And last but not least, Europe on Track serves as an example and encouragement for new ideas. In the end it is our thematic delivery that keeps AEGEE alive, so AEGEE has to carry on providing an inspiring and stimulating environment for new ideas. All our projects have a chance of winning as they have a clear European perspective, and as Benjamin very well said: \u201cI am sure someone in AEGEE already has the next winning idea in mind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pictures on the courtesy of Luis Alvarado Martinez and Europe on Track<\/em><\/p>\n

Written by Marije Arentze, AEGEE-Leiden<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 7th 2013 AEGEE reached another milestone in its history when Europe on Track \u2013 Capture the Future of Europe won the Charlemagne Youth Prize for best European youth project. An achievement with great international significance and which, when you look at it in a broader perspective, provides us with a variety of promises and opportunities. Mathieu Soete: \u201cGetting… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":17904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[1035,890],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17903"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17965,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17903\/revisions\/17965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}