After the Youth meeting in Portugal, where 25 young people from Croatia, Italy, Lithuania and Portugal further developed active citizenship skills by increasing their knowledge about EU institutions, the participants started implementing awareness campaigns about the European Union and European elections 2024 developed during the Youth meeting.
The planned activities include a variety of different activities and stakeholders, such as filming a podcast to debate the availability and interest of informing young people about the EU, different workshops about the EU parliament aimed at young people and led by young people, local actions that will involve other local NGOs, conversations with EU parliamentarians, social media campaigns…
Portuguese participants of the Youth event organized two workshops in May. The first workshop aimed to spread the results from the Youth meeting, such as newly acquired knowledge about the EU institutions at the meeting of youth NGOs that work on a local and national level in Portugal and the second workshop was organized in cooperation with a local NGO to replicate some sessions and methods used in the Youth meeting to spread the awareness about the EU elections and how important are the EU institutions and what they do. Portuguese participants are developing a social media campaign involving at least 15 young people to engage a larger community of youngsters to vote in the upcoming European elections.
In July, MANO EUROPA and Lithuanian participants of the Youth meeting had an insightful and interesting online conference with Matas Maldeikis, a member of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. The main topic of the meeting was the European Union, its functions and its importance as an institution. During the online conference, Matas Maldeikis gave an overview of the most important periods that changed the course of the European Union. Together, youngsters raised the main problems of the European continent and proposed solutions for the European Parliament to tackle these problems. Mr. Maldeikis gave an overview of Lithuanian MEPs and their positions. During the lecture, participants asked interesting and relevant questions. The conference was interesting and the young people learned a lot. At the end of the conference, youngsters were motivated to brighten their future and become leaders of Lithuania and Europe.
In Croatia, to convey topics about the European Union, European identity, and the role of civil society to a larger number of citizens online, DKolektiv has been running a podcast for two years, and the episode that came out on the occasion of Croatia’s 10 years of membership in the EU was opening up the mentioned topics. A youth worker who was at a meeting in Portugal participated in a podcast together with a political scientist who works in public relations in the EU Parliament and a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society in Croatia. Among other things, they discussed the European elections and the role of young people in the European community.
The second campaign DKolektiv conducted was the “Europe2Youth” event, an outdoor event that attracted many young people and the goal of the event was to promote the opportunities of young people in the EU through various European programs and projects. Four NGOs participated in the event and presented opportunities, connections, and exchanges on what the EU offers to young people.
On the occasion of the “Month of Europe” organized by the Municipality of Verona (Italy), the active young people of the Y2EU project organized two events to raise awareness of European institutions and opportunities. More than 20 young people and some representatives of the Municipality took part in the painting performance of one of the benches in Bra Square (the city’s main square). The World Cafe a few days later was also a success for the activist group, where youngsters from different backgrounds had the chance to meet and discuss the proposed topics.
In July, the Italian young people brought their experience in the project and raised awareness of European issues to the Political School of the Italian Antiracist Committee, where they had the opportunity to discuss some “hot” issues with participants from all over Italy.
Other initiatives are planned for autumn, taking advantage of the return to school and the return from vacation.
