How It All Started

Yes it is sentimental melodrama time - and here is my candidature speech from Agora Eskisehir on November 2, 2007. If you find anything stupid, blame it on my youth :-)

Dear Agora,


It is an utmost privilege to stand in front of you today, an honor and experience I will never forget whatever the outcomes will be.


It is an honor rather forgotten, to vote and stand to be elected, to overcome the boundaries, to reach other places and people and let others reach to and within you. To learn and to teach, to ask and to answer. To be informed and curious, critical and constructive, to be young and full of courage yet wise, both patient and persistent. To be competent, competitive yet humble and open-minded, to debate, discuss, tackle the issues but with respect and empathy, to take an action, make a change, however small and hard it may seem and never lose the belief that everything is possible and you are making an impact. To be inspired yet realistic, able to stand high and to stand corrected, self objective and constantly improving. Yes, it is an honor to be a true European citizen, member of AEGEE. And it is an honor as well for Europe to have AEGEE working so hard and so much for its present and its future.


It is a new Europe that we live in today, an ever-changing, open and dynamic. When most of us here were born democracy was just a dream for half of Europe, academic mobility was still a concept waiting for Erasmus to happen, frequent flying was just for businesspeople and mobile phones and internet were still waiting to come about. Peace and stability, based on respect for human rights and rule of law, trade and industry growth through open market economy and social progress based on respect for diversity - all these things that AEGEE has been working for, for more than twenty years, are getting momentum in modern Europe.


It is a challenging time as well, with battle against global terrorism, religious and political extremism, unsustainable European social model, natural resources endanger and immigration.


For AEGEE this is a time of opportunity. Opportunity to redefine ourselves – what we stand for, what we do about it and how we do it. To be better in what we do well, to learn lessons and improve where we are lacking behind. To be new and brave, to lead and push for things that are important and relevant tomorrow rather than today. We should put new efforts to increase quality and attractiveness, widen scope and audience and enhance impact of AEGEE activities and find new ways to promote and support understanding and cooperation among students in Europe and the values of the European unity.


I am standing in front of you today willing to help that change to happen now. Am I the right person to do it is for you to decide. Credentials that I think might help you make that decision are listed in my candidature and I hope you will read them, as I won’t mention any of them here. Instead I will tell you what I plan to do.


1. I want AEGEE to organize a wide scale campaign for young people’s participation at next European Parliament elections with extensive use of online services. It will be a fresh platform aiming to defeat EU democratic deficit by encouraging youngest European democrats to take a stand on issues that concern them the most and bringing their democratic representatives to listen and deliver.


2. I want to promote and support AEGEE true practice of European Citizenship, which is for majority of people still a distant concept rather than set of real policies. Everything that we do to point out the problems and make even smallest contribution for their solutions, from grassroots to European level is important as this is the issue where we can lead the way and advocate for European citizenship to become a political, legal, social and cultural framework for European civil society.


3. I want to support and encourage new and existing AEGEE non-formal learning activities and internal education formats and their constant development to become the brightest examples of educational experience in non-formal settings and our trademark towards both institutions and students, when it comes to generic skills acquirement.


4. I want AEGEE to become a champion caller for recognition of non-formal and informal learning by developing high standards and innovative instruments for quality assessment and quality assurance of all our activities. It is an only way to move things forward to complementary role of formal and non-formal education.


5. I want AEGEE to become vibrant place for exchange of opinions and development of policies. I want to encourage our members to think, discuss and take a stand. I want our working groups to become real and relevant think-tanks on major developments in Europe today.


6. I want AEGEE to influence European policy makers and action takers by delivering results oriented and solutions driven projects and making sure that their outcomes are promoted, understood and recognized.


7. Finally I want our network to regain its thematic focus in whatever we do. In my opinion there are no serious or fun events in AEGEE. Everything that we do is contributing to the big picture. And all our events, especially statutory and summer universities, should have more thematic input.


Dear Agora, I strongly believe that AEGEE is a unique collection of remarkable young people that is doing so much and can do more, just with a little change in practices and attitudes. I hope that we can make this change together. And I hope that we can make it now.


Thank you for this opportunity and your patience.

Sparks of Future in the European Voice

Check out Sparks of Future, 10th Y Vote convention in Brussels and our EU-US forum on youth creativity, featured on the front page of the European Voice, the most esteemed EU affairs weekly.

Y Vote 2009 - Great Success!

Another report on the Y Vote 2009!

Voting for the first time

Y Vote 2009's Thijs de Wolff in the report made by the EuroparlTv on the Election Day in the Netherlands

Sparks of Future @ EuroparlTV

Don't forget to vote at the European Parliament Elections

Curiosity of the week...

Dear "children" (18 to 35...):

Today was the Open Day at the European Parliament, and as you could imagine there was a good number of AEGEE members present. Some of them wandering around and collecting goodies, AEGEE-Maastricht in the Bar, and Robin, Dragan and myself at the beautiful AEGEE stand!
We spent some time informing people about AGEEE and the Y Vote campaign, but most of the time we were trying to escape from boredom or helping kids slect the Y Vote badges, one of each color!

































But what I wanted to show you today is better, more interesting, and in accordance with the new Transparency and Communication act of the CD. After intense lobbying and signing many forms I was allowed to analyze the content of Robin's purse. So, what does a CD member take with herself at any time?

Passport: to escape from Brussels at any time, and seek refugee in a friendly Antenna.
21 cents: enough for... nothing. But in any case, what is the Youth in Action 4.3 for?
The yPhone, a direct line with the managers of the UK Tour!
Some Y-Vote pins: External Relations first...
Keys of the House: I don't know what for... It always ends up Evren opening the door :)
Train tickets = Escape route
And of course, the AEGEE business cards!

So, children, now you know what is needed to survive in Brussels, end eventually anywhere in Europe!

Best regards and see you around!

May is the Y Vote 2009 month!

Exactly 64 cities in 16 EU countries will stage Y Vote 2009 actions in the final month of campaigning.


View Y Vote 2009 in a larger map

These efforts are joined by our UK campaign bus tour that is visiting 28 British cities from London to Edinburgh.


View Y Vote UK in a larger map

Finally two more Y Vote conventions are on the way - in Cologne (May 10 - 16) and Brussels (May 23 - 28).

For more info and to join visit www.aegee.org/events.

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

Elections, what elections?

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/