European Parliament Education Hearing

Yesterday, the hearing on education organised in the European Parliament by AEGEE and ESU took place right after the closure of the Ministrial Bologna Process Summit in Leuven. Hosted by Katerina Batzeli, Member of the European Parliament and Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Education, and supported by two of the Vice-Chairs Pal Schmitt and Helga Truepel who all came to speak and debate with 70 student and youth representatives as well as other interested people from the Parliament. 

A historic milestone for both AEGEE and ESU, we consider the event a great success. EuroparlTV came to cover the event, the results of which you can hopefully soon admire on this blog :-) 

  

Y Vote on Education

Monday evening

How bizarre, the Head Office is empty! After a weekend chez maman (mams ik ben veilig aangekomen) I only find dirty dishes and other remains from my colleagues/housemates. Tena & Ivonne in the UK, Evren at Network Meeting Poznan, Percin in Turkey, Dragan in Paris for his visa...

So what does one do all alone in this big big house?

I could of course catch up on the enormous to-do list, but since tomorrow AEGEE-Kaiserslautern is coming for a visit with 27, and at the end of the week a big group from AEGEE-Leon for a couple of days, I decide to clean.

Music loud, vacuum cleaner ready, lets go!

Elections, what elections?

Statement of Principles

Back to Brussels

And yes, we're back in Brussels! No time unfortunately to slowly get used to life in the AEGEE Head Office again (at least it's sunny here). Right now we're unpacking, washing clothes, cleaning the house, sleeping, answering 100000 unanswered e-mails of the last week... 

More on our impressions of the Agora soon!

Depreciation project (Prominence points)

Action	Positive Prominence points
For kissing	10
For a funny Facebook status	2
For breaking stuff	25
For being the Chair of the Agora	10
For being the President of AEGEE-Europe	15
For being the Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe	20
For having the bed everybody wants to sleep in	15
For smoking marihuana in the presidential bathroom	10
For getting 10.000 euro through customs	25
For giving orgasms	25
For receiving orgasms	20
For penetration (orgasms not included)	15
For wearing a skirt shorter than 30 cm and looking good	10
For being a member of the Audit Commission	10
For being a member of the Juridical Commission	10
For assembling the Audit Commission	15
For being treated like a princess	5
For having the authority to sign contracts	5
For having bank cards of AEGEE-Europe	10
For having big breasts (points per breast)	10
For communication and transparancy	1
Action	Negative Prominence points
For being sour	-10
For making uninformed accusations	-15
For being ugly	-5
For making a stupid comment	-1
For being stupid	-10
For demanding the resignation of the CD	-10
For voting against the FR 2008, FR 2009 and/or the budget update 2009	-25
Any whining comments about the intranet	-10
For puking during or after the European Night	-5
For using violence	-25
For breaking stuff and then breaking yourself	-10
For the "Shower of Love"	-15
For "On personal behalf"	-5
For not having a life out of AEGEE	-5
For wearing your sunglasses inside	-5
For putting people over money	-5
For being in any way involved in the Appreciation Project	-10
For being a princess	-5
For not bringing a matrass to the Agora	-5
For not bringing a matrass to the Agora, but counting on your Vice-President to take care of you	-10
For using the words "Full Stop"	-5

Countdown until the Agora

Two members of the Comite Directeur have already left Brussels, the rest is making final preparations. With a 24 hour layover in Vienna, they will leave tonight and take the AEGEE-plane on Tuesday night from Vienna to Cyprus. Pre-Agora fun assured! 

Packed: sunglasses, powerpoint presentations, movies, speeches, financial report, network update, and many more papers and files. 

Follow us live at AgoraLive: http://jaata.com/host/agoralive/

We're excited and hope you are as well! 

See you soon!

 

AEGEE Easter

A couple of hours ago we put the visitors counter on the blog!

Spring in Brussels, the CD is working and preparing the Agora, but also having some good laughs and enjoying Bruxellois sun with laptops in the garden.

See you all soon!

Happy Easter
Sretan Uskrs
Vrolijk Pasen
Buona Pasqua
Христос Васкрсе
Честит Великден
(Turkish do not have Easter ;-) )

Joint Debate on the Future of European Education

European Youth Choice - Joint Debate on the Future of European Education

European Parliament Brussels, April 29, 2009, 16.00 – 18.30

Hosted by Ms Katerina Batzeli, Chairwoman of the Culture end Education Committee

Organised by the European Students Forum (AEGEE) and the European Students Union (ESU)

To register, please send an e-mail with your name, address, date of birth and passport/ID number to robin.verschuren@gmail.com. Also let us know if you wish to stay in the house :-)

Commissioner Potocnik joins Y Vote 2009

The sixth Y Vote convention started in Ljubljana on March 27th, 2009 with a distinguished guest. European multiculturalism was being closely examined in the »most beautiful city in the world« (words by the Mayor of Ljubljana we all remember from our General Assembly last April). Young people from 20 different European countries were exploring the topic focusing on languages, culture, education and media featuring workshops, excursions and speeches of several researchers and members of the European Parliament. For the first time in AEGEE history, a member of the European Commission contributed to the convention on its first day: Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for Science and Research.

There was a chance to talk about multilingualism, the topic of the day, but also to use the opportunity to get an insight view on the main European policies. During his speech on creativity, diversity and participation he pointed out some of the main trends that the European Union will face in the future: the climate change, power shortage, and most recently, the financial crisis. His suggestion was to focus on sustainability and to increase European and international cooperation in the field of research and development.

The meeting with the Commissioner overcame all expectations. Not only was he able to answer all the questions proving an incredible knowledge, but he was also open for further discussion. The participants perceived him as very natural and honest, speaking to such a young audience for the first time. calls

This was certainly a one of a kind opportunity for the participants of the Y Vote on Multiculturalism in Ljubljana. Apart from that, they enjoyed a truly multicultural week in the capital of Slovenia.

/Blog entry was written by the group of participants during the European Journalism Center workshop on campaigning in new media/