JEF Malta's raison d'être as a youth NGO is to work towards a more united, democratic, and ultimately federal EU based on European values. We carry out initiatives that will achieve this goal by providing innovative opportunities for youths aged 16-30 to participate in policy development and decision-making processes, develop themselves as young citizens, and bring the EU closer to youths in Malta. We want to help young people better understand and participate in the EU as it stands today, as well as think about its future and longevity. We believe that our national and European sociopolitical structures must be constantly critically examined in order to evolve; however, this can only happen if we empower today's youth to become the leaders of tomorrow's Europe. The above encompasses JEF Malta’s principle aim for the project: to inspire and empower youths to become more active citizens by equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence to become future European leaders, giving them the appropriate platforms and opportunities to do so. Our project is the result of our work as youths and with youths over the years, both through previous Erasmus+ projects and the aforementioned multitude of other JEF-initiatives. We gained knowledge and perspectives that assisted us in identifying specific needs that were addressed through this project: 1) The need that JEF constantly addresses is that youths are insufficiently engaged in the democratic process and in civic life. In our experience this is not because of apathy, but rather a result of a combination of factors that hinder engagement such as over-emphasis on formal education that discourages critical thinking, a highly partisan and entrenched political system that disillusions youths, a lack of opportunity to meet with policymakers in a non-partisan space to critically discuss issues, lack of knowledge on the EU/national decision making process, a lack of opportunity to develop needed civic personal skills like public speaking, etc. 2) The dire situation for the 16-18 age bracket in the Maltese population in which over 2/3 of these youths have little to no interest in politics, and over half rarely/never engage in discussions about politics. Some even reported being pressured by family to 'vote for the right party'. Thus we need to ensure that we engage youths of this age given the recent Vote 16 introduction. 3) Our activities needed to bridge the gap between youths and policy makers, so that their voices are counted within the democratic process. This was very noticeable due to the COVID, which forced us all to shift our activities to an online format and reduced youth-policy maker engagement. 4) To be effective activists, youths must have opportunities to practice and hone a wide range of skills and knowledge not addressed in formal education, such as critical thinking, public speaking, how EU decision making works, etc. In today's reality, we need also take into extra consideration media literacy and skills and how it intersects with activism. Within this context, we designed a project that brings together our expertise in various types of activities into a holistic project that will help youths become more active and informed European citizens and future leaders. Through the seven events reported and implemented in this project we thus initially set out to reach the following objectives: 1) At least 80 different youths develop soft skills needed for civic participation, such as public speaking, debating, media in advocacy, negotiation, etc. 2) Provide opportunities for youths to directly meet with and share opinions with policy and decision makers or experts and notable civil society actors on topics related to EU and national priorities 3) At least 40 youths participate in the 2-day Integrated Democratic Europe political simulation 4) Gather the project outcomes and policy recommendations (Resolutions) resulting from IDE into a digital report presented to policy makers 5) At least 8 project participants are sixth-form students.