There is no doubt that we, the youth, are not that interested in participating politics. Talking about it is ok but actually taking part in is not that appealing for us because to be honest we are not much involved in the decision-making processes & have the feeling that our opinions do not matter. Also, the concept of democracy is not very clear. What is democracy, how many types of democracies are there and why do we actually need it, why should we vote of our vote has no power at all? Are the questions that should be addressed in education but in our education system we barely scratch the surface. Especially in the lower education and college education this info is missing. Also, with Brexit happening, young people have started asking questions why they should be in Europe, what it means to be a European citizen, what are EU values and what does their European identity represent? To tackle all the questions and issues we would like to organize a 8 day Youth Exchange for 40 people ( 32 participants + 8 Youth Leaders) from Finland, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Slovakia, Bulgaria & the Netherlands, in which the participants will take part in a simulation in which they will form a democratic government in a new fictional EU country based on EU values & principals that they will define and agree upon. The simulation game will be divided into following stages: Stage 1: What are the needs of the new EU country? Stage2: Electing the party that will govern the country. They will have three parties choose from. All the 3 parties will present their plans for governing the new country Stage 3: Election day Stage 4: The elected government will set up the governmental structure (ministries, policies, police, army etc.) Stage 5: The new country will be given 3 nationwide challenges to solve. Challenge 1: To solve the issue of unemployability 2: Reducing early school leaving 3. Creating a sustainable and just society The aim of this youth exchange is to: Encouraging young people to take part in European democracy To raise awareness about European democracy and its meaning To raise the awareness of the importance of youth participation in the decision-making process To foster peer-dialog about matters concerning youth participation in developing processes on local, national & international level To raise awareness and promote active citizenship To challenge and practice creative thinking To share knowledge, experiences, strategies, tools and ideas To encourage critical and analytical skills To acquire and transfer new methods of non-formal education To raise cultural awareness, foster inter-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding One of our main goals is to improve the level of key competences to encourage the participants to become more active citizens of their home country and be more interested in EU democracy and understand what it means. This all will be achieved with the help of peer-learning in an international dimension while promoting the cooperation between various countries within the of Erasmus+ program. We are also hoping to explore new innovative ideas derived from peer-learning. Besides, due to the international dimension, the project will be held in English and the participants will have the chance to improve their level of the English language. With all the partners we have thought hard and chose to host the YE in Finland due to following mean reasons: 1. Finland has a proper youth council they involve in all decision-making process and its pretty unique in whole EU so it’s something we can all learn from. 2. There are not many YE taking place in Finland because less organizations apply there, and the finish partner really want to host the YE because there is a huge need aiming young people for it. With co-financing from CC4U personal budget we will be able to host it there in spite the costs 3. The first modern democratic parliament ever started in Scandinavian region by the Vikings. When most people think about democracy, they tend to go straight to ancient Greece. However, what many people are not aware of is the fact that fans of modern democracy can actually thank Vikings for its creation. Although it had a very different name, the Norse Thing system shared a lot of similarities with many democratic systems that we see today. This political system was an early version of what later became democracy. The Thing was conducted at a local level, with each community having its own system. The Thing was designed to be a system where individual issues would be brought forth in the community and addressed in an inclusive setting so that everyone could voice their opinion on the matter. And unlike the similar greek systems, the Thing actually allowed & encouraged females to participate. So, in this way hosting the YE in Finland really suits the theme of the YE.