Il progetto Be Active, Shape Europe!, che mira a promuovere la partecipazione dei giovani cittadini per permettere loro di contribuire alla vita politica e sociale, giunge al termine, con un momento di incontro e confronto online tra i partecipanti di tutti i Paesi coinvolti (Grecia, Italia, Regno Unito, Slovenia, Portogallo e Bulgaria).
Un’ottima opportunità per vivere un’esperienza internazionale e di scambio culturale, in un momento in cui la mobilità in Europa e i progetti di gruppo, purtroppo, subiscono limitazioni a causa dell’emergenza sanitaria.
Il workshop internazionale prenderà la forma di SIMULAZIONE DEL PARLAMENTO EUROPEO, e si svolgerà:
venerdì 12 marzo dalle 16.00 alle 20.00
sabato 13 marzo dalle 11.00 alle 16.00
domenica 14 marzo dalle 11.00 alle 16.00
lunedì 15 marzo dalle 16.00 alle 20.00
I partecipanti (di età compresa tra i 15 e i 30 anni) saranno divisi in gruppi, ognuno dei quali tratterà uno dei seguenti temi:
Il nuovo Parlamento Europeo: priorità e sfide del nuovo mandato;
Costruire il futuro dell’Europa focalizzandosi sulla crescita verde e il New Green Deal;
La Cittadinanza Europea e cosa l’UE dovrebbe fare per raggiungere meglio i suoi cittadini;
Sfide di coesione e solidarietà dell’UE: il problema dell’immigrazione e la crisi finanziaria;
La voce dei giovani in Europa: una realtà o un’utopia?
Democrazia partecipativa nell’UE
Altri argomenti proposti dai partecipanti.
Al termine dei dibattiti, i partecipanti voteranno le decisioni finali.
Per iscriversi, è sufficiente inviare una mail a cinisellobalsamo@eurodesk.eu, indicando il proprio nome, cognome e data di nascita ENTRO MERCOLEDì 3 MARZO. Sarete ricontattati per organizzare un momento di conoscenza tra partecipanti italiani e preparazione al workshop!
“Be Active – Shape Europe” – Workshops and European Parliament Simulation
The Community Enterprise of the Municipality of Thessaloniki – KEDITH- invites you to participate in the international conference organized digitally in the framework of the implementation of the project “Be Active – Shape Europe” funded by the European Program Europe for Citizens.
The conference will take place on Friday 12, Saturday 13, Sunday 14 and Monday 15 March 2021 with the representation of all partners and participants aged 15-30 years old.
The working language of the conference is English.
The conference is implemented in two distinct events and its topic and subtopics are:
Topic
‘The rise of Euroscepticism in Europe VS European Elections’
Subtopics
– The new European Parliament: priorities and challenges of the new term
– Building the future of Europe focusing on green growth and the new green deal
– The European Citizenship and what EU should do to better reach its citizens
– Challenges of the EU’ s cohesion and solidarity: migration issue and financial crisis
– The Youth’ Voice in Europe, a reality or a utopia?
– Participatory democracy in the European Union
– Any other topic to be proposed by participants
The first will be held on Friday 12 and Monday 15 March 2021, 17.00-21.00EET(short break included) and entails online workshops during which groups of young people will address the topics listed below. Their conclusion will be written and reported upon.
Topic
The raise of Euroscepticism in Europe VS the European Elections
Subtopics
The new European Parliament: priorities and challenges of the new term
Building the future of Europe focusing on green growth and the new green deal
The European Citizenship and what EU should do to better reach its citizens
Challenges of the EU’ s cohesion and solidarity: migration issue and financial crisis
The Youth’ Voice in Europe, a reality or a utopia?
Participatory democracy in the European Union
Any other topic to be proposed by participants
The second will take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March 2021, 12.00-17.00 EET (lunch break included) and is a simulation of the European Parliament, with participants fully representing a formal sitting, addressing the issue of ‘The raise of Euroscepticism in Europe VS the European Elections’ and reaching a resolution. Participants will discuss the key role of European elections, as to the results of the elections and the work achieved by the current MEPs up to now (topics, priorities, productivity, BREXIT, covid-19, etc.).
Funded by the Europe Union through the Europe for Citizens Fund the Young Mayor Team are part of a project called Be Active Shape Europe. It is a partnership led by an organisation called Kedith in Thessalonikki in Greece. The other partners are Santa Maria da Feira in Portugal who we do lots of work with, Association” Varna – European Youth Capital” in Bulgaria, Mladinski Cultural Center, Maribor in Slovenia and Comune di Cinisello Blasamo in Italy.
The project started last year and so far we have take part in the first two activities heree in Lewisham. Which has meant organising a”structured dialogue” meeting and a National workshop, inviting young people to participate, identify issues and how then to share those and negotiate with politicians and policy makers, locally nationally and in Europe. The Young Mayor Team work closely with local politicians so this was an opportunity to see how to widen that influence into Europe. It was also an opportunity to learn more about Europe and specifically think about the UKs position in terms of Brexit and what that might mean. Schools were invited to participate, the events took place on 10th May 2019 and the 3rd February 2020 at the Civic Suite in Catford.
Main Objective: Enhance young citizens’ participation so they can contribute to society and political life, and learn about the experiences of others in different European countries
Activities:
Structured Dialogue in each partner: with young people, civil society, Local Authorities and stakeholders about European Union and the next period 2021-2027.
National workshops in each partner: between policy makers, stakeholders on relevant policy issues and young people aiming to create a Guide on problematic and proposals for the support of democratic engagement, direct democracy and youth engagement.
Transnational Conferences: Activate participation of young people based on the principles of non-formal education. They will learn about others’ culture on Environmental policy, but also how to meet, accept, share their ideas, to show an interest in cooperation and communication with citizens from other European countries.
TransnationalWorkshop in Thessaloniki: The project Be Active – Shape Europe be the basis for future initiatives and actions between the towns involved, on the issues addressed or possibly on further issues of common interest.
The final two elements of the project have been postponed because of Covid 19 but are an opportunity for older young people (18-30) who have been involved to travel and meet their peers from the other participating countries, share their ideas and experiences, build soildarity and understanding. For more information please get in touch.
For more details contact Katy Brown, Advisor to the Young Mayor, Young Mayor Team, London Borough of Lewisham,1st Floor, Laurence House, Catford, London, UK SE6 4UT
A Structured dialogue between young people and professionals was held in Varna over the past weekend on March 7-8.
Young people from the age of sixteen to thirty from all over Bulgaria attended to the event, including workers, students, and doctoral students.
All of them had the opportunity to exchange the information with the guest speaker, the executive director of Varna-European Youth Capital Sergey Petrov , and the Deputy Minister of Education Mr. P.Nikolov.
In a few words, the moderator of the discussion S.Petrov reminded the participants how important it is to overcome the distance between the young people and the decision-makers.
The participants got acquitted with the diagram of Tony Karrer-Four L Model, as well as the ladder of participation, where everyone determined exactly where is on it.
The Deputy Minister of Education shared more about civic education and answered the questions that interested the young people. The discussion then focused on what youngsters can be more active in.
According to all participants, at the end of the first day, it became clear that much higher activity is needed on their part.
During the second day of the workshop, the young people expressed the pros and cons on various topics related to the youth, authorities, stakeholders, and communities. They finished with reports on coping with the problems.
At the end of the day, they created a “bubble” symbolizing their belonging to the society they have created in recent days.
The meeting finished with thanks to the representatives of the municipality of Varna and The Ministry of Education and Science for the open dialogue.
The Meeting-discussion took place within the international project “Be Active, Shape Europe”, funded by “Europe for Citizens”.
Metting Agenda
The Structured dialogue was realized within the framework of the international project “Be active, Shape Europe” funded by “Europe for Citizens”. Partners are organizations from a total 6 EU countries. The project is intended to provoke interest in issues related to our common European home and involve a total 440 young people in six countries.
A meeting between young people and professionals was held in Varna over the past weekend on March 7-8.
Young people from the age of sixteen to thirty from all over Bulgaria attended to the event, including workers, students, and doctoral students.
All of them had the opportunity to exchange the information with the guest speaker, the executive director of Varna-European Youth Capital Sergey Petrov , and the Deputy Minister of Education Mr. P.Nikolov.
In a few words, the moderator of the discussion S.Petrov reminded the participants how important it is to overcome the distance between the young people and the decision-makers.
The participants got acquitted with the diagram of Tony Karrer-Four L Model, as well as the ladder of participation, where everyone determined exactly where is on it.
The Deputy Minister of Education shared more about civic education and answered the questions that interested the young people. The discussion then focused on what youngsters can be more active in.
According to all participants, at the end of the first day, it became clear that much higher activity is needed on their part.
During the second day of the workshop, the young people expressed the pros and cons on various topics related to the youth, authorities, stakeholders, and communities. They finished with reports on coping with the problems.
At the end of the day, they created a “bubble” symbolizing their belonging to the society they have created in recent days.
The meeting finished with thanks to the representatives of the municipality of Varna and The Ministry of Education and Science for the open dialogue.
The Meeting-discussion took place within the international project “Be Active, Shape Europe”, funded by “Europe for Citizens”.
For our second event, the National workshsop, for the Be Active – Shape Europe project our team in Lewisham created and facilitated a workshop for young people who live in the borough of Lewisham. The outcome was to youth participants an introduction to primary ideals of the European Union and to work with politicians and policy makers to influence change and be active citizens.
As part of the workshop we started with an introduction to the primary ideals of the European Union along with some icebreakers to start to give the youth participants an opportunity to explore what they already know and build a safe space to discuss individual thoughts and experiences based on the topic of what citizenship means and being a part of Europe.
Conversations & Debate
Going forward in the workshop with the young people we discussed what countries are a part of the European Union, facts about the EU and what it was set up to do and how that information filters into their daily lives both on a formal and informal level. Many of the young people had varying knowledge in terms of what they’ve been told, experienced versus facts such as policy making and their human rights and how that is observed both nationally and internationally.
Within our workshop we also delivered activities where the young people were able to brainstorm what it meant to them to be an ‘active citizen’ and how they have in the past taken part in regional and local programs that allowed them to be a part of civic life. Some young people have been active locally and others were keen to find out and talk to politicians and policy makers.
Throughout the workshop the youth participants took part in debates based on various statements relating to the overall workshop objective. This provided a space for young people to fact check and challenge biases whilst sharing good practices of youth participation based on personal experiences. Some examples were of young people who have been a part of Erasmus + exchanges and taking part in trips to the European council.
Conclusion
In the end the young people who participated all had a greater understanding both about what the European institutions are and what it means to them to be European. As well as being active in Lewisham and the UK it helped them understand how they can be active citizens in Europe and in the world. Many of the young people have parents and family who are part of the diaspora from the Caribbean or from west Africa, and also have family in other parts of Europe, it helped them to think about what is important about being European for them as individuals and as part of communities.
Brexit has obviously been a huge topic of discussion and speculation for young people trying to work out what it means for them and their families. So good debate was had but it is still difficult to draw conclusions as we all know it is an ongoing and very complex process. The young people now have a better fundamental understanding of the context and possibilities, which they can use to inform their decisions, discussions and actions in the future. As active citizens they are in a better place to interact and work with politicians and policy makers about the changes they would like to see locally, nationally and in Europe. Local politicians and policy makers are very supportive and have met with the young people to discuss their intereste, ideas and concerns
[1]First slide from our presentation used to set the scene for the workshop.
