Tag: Event

Youth for Europe Event – the Hague, the Netherlands, May, 18, 2019

We have gathered at the HYF (The Hague Youth Factory) on the afternoon/evening of May, 18, 2019. It was been a lovely sunny day, and the event involved 30 citizens, from the city of The Hague, the Netherlands. The majority was a young public, with 2/3 being young people till 30 years old and we had represented 9 organizations/companies.

The opening of the event was a lovely talk with 3 young Dutch ladies telling us about their international experience in Estonia, under the programme Erasmus plus. They were very touched by the exchange of cultures and knowledge, with 6 different European countries. This made them understand the richness of different perspectives and expressions within the European Union.

This was followed by a super tasty dinner with a lot of vegetarian and vegan options and a wide selection of drinks. We could then enjoy worldwide music played by two talented Dutch musicians – Jaime Nanoha & Juliana Martina. We could close our eyes and travel the world with our imagination to understand how much beauty there is in the world and that we can only profit by integrating diversity into our music and lives!

After this warm-up, we jumped into the theme of our night – European elections in May 2019! Divided in smaller groups to ensure that everyone can easily express their opinion, we add 3 activities to perform.

The first was the quiz – “Who wants to be European?”. By using a similar visual identity of the known TV programme “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, we created a quiz with 8 questions focusing on the European Parliament elections 2019. The content included facts about the Elections and its process, the role of the UK and consequences if a country leaves the EU, what are the functions of the European Parliament and why we should vote. The end question was intended as an invitation to start a dialogue about the topic. We must say that some participants were skeptic regarding the role and power that voting can have in change the Europe to what they would like. Others were very enthusiastic to defend the duty of voting responsibly in order to convey our message and change Europe in the desirable direction. Despite some different perspectives, it was unanimous that it is important to vote in the elections and all group is committed to do so.

The second activity was an invitation to reflect in the Europe we want to live in, with us being active members in creating this space. We had flip charts, paint, markers and our creativity to express in participatory way the future of Europe. Equality was the main word of the night. The group express the need to be more humane, to redistribute opportunities to all, to create a healthier community. The European desirable portrait is: less discrimination, more acceptance, more respect for our environment/planet, sustainable solutions to deal with problems, a holistic perspective when analyzing the challenges, more gender equality, more solidarity towards migrants and refugees… Our challenge: we are not there yet, and that implies the involvement of all of us!

The last but not the least was to leave a message in our canvas for the future European Parliament. Without any censorship and let the public totally free to express themselves, gathered the following messages: respecting the environment and going green, do not follow populist ideas and politicians as Trump, to unit, promote equality, choose love and inclusion over hate and to be more efficient and coherent!

The evening goes on with the dream of having a better Europe and by listening good DJ’s and enjoying each other´s company… It was a lovely evening!

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2025-11-12
Using stop-motion animation tools to debate Europe’s future – Orvelte, the Netherlands, August, 11, 2019

On the August, 11, 2019, in Orvelte, the Netherlands, a group of 37 people came together to discuss the future of the EU, youth challenges, and express themselves using stop-motion animation tools. The event involved 37 citizens, including 7 participants from the city of Orvelte, The Netherlands, 6 participants from the city of Rome, Italy, 6 participants from the city of Brussels, Belgium, 7 participants from the city of Warsaw, Poland, 6 participants from the city of Bucharest, Romania, 5 participants from the city of Riga, Latvia.

Having as reference points the 5 future scenarios put forward by the European Commission, the discussion was centered on the difference between East and Western Europe in terms of purchase power, economic systems, mindsets and opportunities. The group agreed that something has to be done to reduce the gaps that separate EU member states and after that, countries could work together from a more balanced power status to find the better alternatives to their challenges. Even if for some the last scenario – Doing much more together – was appealing, it seems that some preparatory work on develop the poorer countries from the East side of Europe should be done first.

“we believe that we cannot always solve our issues just by being alone, we need to share…”

Watch the participants’ videos:

2025-11-12
Italian kick-off event of Eulections´19, Lugo, Italy, June, 3, 2019

This event took place on the June, 3, 2019 in one of the high schools of Lugo and we counted on 72 participants (71 participants from the city of Lugo, Italy, 1 participant from the city of Lisbon, Portugal), mainly students, teachers, and staff of the school interested in the method and to the project. The participants were from two different high school courses: humanistic and technical, and students of the last two years of high school.

This was the first event of the Emilia-Romagna tour and all of us were excited: Flaminia staff, students, teachers, and trainers. The introduction of the workshop was dedicated to the White Paper of the Future of Europe 2025, the methods, and the goals of the project.

Each student had his own bag with his own Lego pieces. Throughout the event, with the help and instructions of the expert trainers, they went through all the points that we wanted. Gradually, the students showed their commitment to the activities, showing to be more and more willing to build “complex” models whit the LEGO, giving a 3D representation to their ideas and points of view.

After the introduction activities, a sort of ice breaking activities aimed at facilitating the student to get into the objective of the workshop, the 5th scenarios were introduced and they started to work on them divided into groups. Each group worked on one single scenario, using the same approach adopted during the introduction activities: own personal thought, 3D representation, and sharing with the rest of the team.

At the end of the project the participants photographed their 3D models, they wrote a brief summary of the experience, complete a questionnaire to collect key messages and suggestions and to assess the impact of the activity.

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2025-11-12
E(U)Lections: Think, Decide, Change – Lisbon, Portugal, May, 10, 2019

The first EULECTIONS’19 event in Portugal took place on May, 10, 2019, at Iscte- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. This full event involved 92 citizens from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, mostly university students, for a full day dedicated to the European elections and the future of the EU.

This event aimed to bring awareness to the importance of youth participation at the 2019 elections for the European Parliament, question populist and extremist views and promote an informed and open debate about the current and future challenges of the European project and ways forward.

The event included various activities and methods (brainstorming, quizzes debates, workshops) and involved students, teachers, researchers, media, government officials and youth activists.

The day started with the participants’ welcome and registration at the event desk where everyone received a bag with promotional gifts, workshop materials and a brochure with information about the project. Then, in the first activity of the day, we invited participants to think and express their views about a very important topic for the 2019 European elections: the rise of populism. The “Tree of Europe” was built from the perspectives on the topic and showed youth’s perspectives about populist ideas and the elections.

Considering the central role of information in questioning populist and extremist views, and also in promoting electoral participation, we invited participants to gather in groups and play the “Who wants to be an European Expert” quiz. This question and answer activity aimed to improve participants’ understanding of the importance and presence of the European Union in our daily lives and engage young people in the debate about Europe and the 2019 elections.

After the “warm up” activities, participants had the opportunity to discuss with academics, the rise of populism and its threats to the European Union, in a round-table entitled “Populism and democracy: what´s at stake?”. The debate aimed to give a broader view, based on research, of the challenges to the European democracies brought by populist and extremist movements and explore how citizens and governments at the national and European level can respond to these trends. The debate was moderated by the Executive Editor in Chief of the Portuguese newspaper “Diário de Notícias”, Catarina Carvalho.

Following the debate with academics and the media, we welcomed the Portuguese Secretary of State of European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias.
In this activity, entitled “The citizens meet… Ana Paula Zacarias”, participants had the opportunity to learn more about the work done within this State Secretariat and to present questions about the European neighbourhood policy and the future of the European Union. This conversation was hosted by the project coordinator, Ana Isabel Xavier.

This activity aimed to promote a closer interaction between young citizens and government representatives in charge of European affairs and contribute to a better understanding of how European institutions work, the EU current challenges and ways forward.

The last part of the event was the training session “May the vote be with EU: workshop on future scenarios”. It started with a “EU dating” in which participants had to share with each other their answers to questions like “What does it mean to be an European Union citizen” and “Why will I vote for the future European Parliament elections?”.

Afterwards, divided in small groups, each group had to discuss the pros and cons of each scenario reflected in the “White Paper on the Future of Europe: Reﬂections and scenarios for the EU27 by 2025” of the European Commission and present it to the whole group. In the end of this activity, each group created what they considered to be an “ideal scenario” for the future of European Union, with their recommendations and opinions.

This event ended with the presentation of the web-course “ChangEU Multipliers” and with each participant showing a card to the actual European Commission, where Green meant that they feel European Commission aligns with their interests and opinions, Yellow meaning that they somehow feel connected with the European Commission work, but they feel some lack of representation and Red signalizing that they don´t feel represented at all by the work done by the European Commission.

During this event, some of the young participants also shared with us their expectations regarding European Union and the European Parliament.

Watch the videos from participants testimonies:

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2025-11-12
Raise your voice to debate Europe – Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July, 6, 2019

On the July, 6, 2019, in the theatre Formaat, in Rotterdam, a group of people came together for the “Raise Your Voice Festival”. The festival was organized by Stichting CAAT Projects in collaboration with Stichting Formaat Wekplaats voor Participatierf Drama.

The event involved 53 citizens, including 23 participants from the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1 participant from the city of Budapest, Hungary, 8 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 6 participants from the city of Brussels, Belgium, 7 participants from the city of Warsaw, Poland, 6 participants from the city of Athens, Greece, 1 participant from the city of Bucharest, Romania, 1 participant from the city of Skopje, North Macedonia.

The artistic acts were previously prepared by a group of 30 young people and then presented to the wider group. They were challenged with that task and even if most of them were not artists themselves, they worked together to plan a 2 hours act with poetry, dance and music.

In preparation to the festival we have talked about possible issues that young people are facing in their local setting. The main problems identified by the young people, that were common to their countries, were the following: women’s rights, minorities ‘rights, integration of refugees, discrimination, medical and educational staff are not prepared to deal with the ones that have issues, pressure from the society to hide/suppress your feelings and emotions, a post-colonialist mindset that was preserved in Europe, to have easy access to healthy food and the lack of psychological support in mental hospitals and school.

We also need to set an example and to promote the type of society that we want to see. So the European Union and the National politicians should provide the resources needed, but then it has to be each one of us the agent of change.

When the group analysed the 5 scenarios of the White Paper on the Future of Europe, they immediately refuse the scenery to continue as it is or to focus on the single market. In general, their idea is that the politics in Europe and in each national country is way to focus on the economic interests and that is why they neglect the minorities and their rights. Thus, the only scenery that would be desirable for an united Europe was the last one, “Doing much more together”.

After this discussion and when the group was deciding for the collective message to be send to the European Parliament, they reach the conclusion that we cannot just seat and wait for the politicians to solve their challenges.

For the group the priority was to look to people as lives full of potential and not as numbers.

2025-11-11