Back to search

E.U.NITY

2023-3-AT01-KA152-YOU-0001803032023Mobility of young peoplefinalizedGood practice
Countries: AT|BE|RO|PL|UA · Grant: €41,764
Awareness about the European UnionEuropean identity and valuesDemocracy and inclusive democratic participation

Objectives

E.U.NITY has been designed towards being a Youth Exchange project bringing together 40 young people aged 18 through 30, with the distinct goal in mind towards fostering the values of democracy, active participation within the democratic process, and educating youth about the decision making process of the E.U. Given the context of the European Elections which took place between 6-9 June 2024, our aim was to strongly link this project's focus, materials and dissemination towards educating young people about the significance of these elections, as well as encouraging them to go to the polls and making their voices heard by using their vote. Additionally, in the past few years there has been an increase in Eurosceptic narratives across the continent, which needs to be addressed and factually analyzed, which through the implementation of our project, we aimed at creating an apolitical environment where young people could break down the arguments for and against this phenomenon, coming to their own conclusions by being well informed over the advantages and disadvantages the EU brings to their lives. In order to do so we have carefully curated our curriculum in a structured and logical manner, letting our participants research themselves the origin of this alliance of nations starting with its inception from the end of WW2, to the Schuman Declaration, all the way up to today, as well as breaking down the reason the countries involved chose to join the EU, together with how the socioeconomic situation of these countries have changed in a factual manner. After having researched the history of the Union, participants have moved towards better understanding the core values and principles, represented by the Pillars of the EU, together with the 4 freedoms of the Union. Having achieved this, we wished to increase participants' active citizenship skills as well as emphasize the importance of their democratic participation through a series of non-formal sessions, by first asking them what their main concerns in life are, and where they want to see improvement within their lives and the ones of their communities. After having roughly drawn out their main issues, we grouped them in teams based on their concerns and presented them with the concept of an European Citizens' Initiative, having them create a draft ECI policy based on their common interests. Unbeknown to them, the next day followed by them entering a simulated Role Play game activity where they would step in as being elected officials in the European Parliament. Assignment of parties has been made randomly, and the parties involved were split into the exact political groups that existed in the EUP prior to the 2024 elections, with roughly the same percentage of members. They would have to study the manifestos and values of these parties, then negotiate, form alliances, amend legislation and eventually vote on the exact ECI's they have previously created - thus emphasizing the importance of having their interests represented at the EU Parliament level. After having instilled the importance of voting and democratic participation in youth, our next goal was to bring a boost in young people votership within the EUP elections. We have concluded that the most efficient way to do so would be through a series of engaging videos encouraging young people to go to the polls between 6-9 June. Participants have been given full freedom to come up with their own strategies as how to best engage their peers, and have created 5 different videos which have been massively shared on their personal social media pages, organizational pages, as well as groups of interest. A further goal was that of instilling the Common European Identity within participants, which is why we have specifically selected our mix of nations, having vastly different histories, linguistics and economic situations. We aimed at creating an environment where youth can explore the uniting factors between their countries of origin, drawing up similarities by themselves, as well as national perspectives over the EU, having each country join in a different expansion phase and explain why they have done so, together with bringing the outside perspective of participants from a Candidate State, hence having a Ukrainian team join us. With youth being underrepresented in national and international politics, our main outcome was to emphasize why it is of the upmost importance for the 18-30 y.o. demographic to express themselves on the democratic level, by actively participating in voting processes, stating how they wish to see their future and which their main areas of concern are, in order for decision makers to follow their aspirations by passing legislation based on their main interests.

Project partners (5)