The kick-off meeting of EULECTIONS’19 took place at Iscte- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, on January, 24, 2019.
It was the first time that the representatives from the four organizations, CEI-Iscte and EAYE (Portugal), Fondazione Flaminia (Italy) and CAAT Projects (The Netherlands) had the chance to meet in person, discuss general ideas about the project and set common outputs.
This full day preparatory activity involved 8 participants (5 from Portugal, 2 from Italy, 1 from The Netherlands) in brainstorming and planning sessions to prepare the project’s activities, develop the communication strategy, reflect about methods and evaluation.
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.
E(u)lections´19: Think, Decide, Change intends to hear what young people have to say about the European Union.
In this video series, you can watch what some of our participants have answered to the questions about what they expect from European Parliament and what Europe represents to them.
The EULECTIONS’19 roadshow continued online with Universidade dos Açores on December 11, 2020. The event gathered 46 citizens, including 41 participants from the city of Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel, Azores, 5 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, to reflect and collect perspectives from the archipelago, one of the European Union (EU) outermost regions, about the future scenarios for the EU.
We’ve started the session with the project’s presentation and a short video about Europe’s day and asked participants to share the words they associate with the video and Europe. After a brief commentary about the group’s word cloud, we’ve presented a short video about the history of the EU, followed by a quiz on this topic. Participants were invited to test their knowledge about the European project after the Second World War, before the reflection about the present and future of the EU.
After sharing the quiz results and a brief discussion, the next activities of the workshop were focused on the current state of the EU and the possible ways forward. Having, as a starting point, a video and a presentation about the “White Paper on the Future of Europe”, the participants were then divided in small groups, in different Zoom rooms, with the task of choosing and reflecting about one of the five scenarios, its pros and cons. Each group was supported by a facilitator.
Following the reflection about the scenarios, each group’s main conclusions were presented and debated by the facilitators and the participants. After this collective reflection, each participant was invited to decide individually, which scenario they considered better for the future of the EU, the “citizen’s scenario”.
For some of the participants, the Union needs to consolidate its institutions and coordination processes to respond to challenges, as for others it needs to change to “do much more together”.
Recognizing Brexit and the initial COVID19 pandemic response as pivotal moments that underscore the need to make improvements to the European project, students also recognized the importance of the EU in promoting better living conditions in the poorer regions of the continent. They’ve also stated the importance of European values and the fight against extreme nationalist ideas to keep united in diversity.
As for citizens’ role in shaping the EU’s future, students emphasized the importance of improving the Union’s communication with citizens, especially from peripheral regions, and find ways to engage Europeans in the debate.
With the aim of promoting the participants interest in the future of the EU, we’ve share information about the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Citizens’ Initiative, key instruments to allow citizens to engage with the European project and shape its policies. Also, highlighting the importance of an informed and active European citizenship, we’ve shared with participants the ChangEU Webcourse, developed in the framework of the project, where they can access information about the European Union’s history, role and challenges.
Ana Isabel Xavier, CEI-Iscte’s researcher and EULECTIONS’19 coordinator was interviewed for the last number of ENTRECAMPOS, Iscte’s magazine. The talk was focused on youth participation in European affairs, including in the electoral processes, ways to promote a citizens’ engagement with the EU and how the project has been promoting a dialogue with youth from various countries about the future of the European project.
Looking at the feedback the project has had from the participants, Ana Isabel Xavier highlighted young people’s ambitious visions for the future of the EU. When questioned about the 5 scenarios put forward by the Juncker Commission, they tend to choose those where the Union has a greater role and emphasize the need for more solidarity and action in areas like the environment and jobs. But they also recognize EU difficulties and challenges in responding to important events like the financial crisis and to the COVID19 pandemic.
Recognizing the importance of improving participation and communication channels between the EU and European citizens, Xavier believes that progress has been made but also considers that the links between citizens’ perspectives and policy making must be enhanced.
On May, 4, 2021, the EULECTIONS’19 roadshow returned to Iscte, to promote an online workshop with Political Science students. The event involved 29 citizens, including 28 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 1 participant from the city of Madrid, Spain
The workshop started with a project presentation by the coordinator and the partners, followed by an introductory activity in which students where invited to share the first word they associate with the EU.
After the introduction, we’ve invited students to watch a short movie about the history of the EU and test their knowledge about the building of European community through a quiz. The first activities of the workshop aimed to set the floor to the discussion about the present and future of the European Union.
Following the quiz about Europe’s past and a brief commentary by the facilitators, we’ve presented a short video and additional background information about the White Paper on the Future of Europe and – Five scenarios. This was the starting point for the next activity, a group reflection about the pros and cons of the various scenarios. Participants were then divided in small groups to chose one of the five scenarios and reflect about it.
Each group’s main conclusions were presented and debated. For some of the participants, it’s important to set more ambitious goals for the future of the EU by developing the political union and improving its representativeness, although recognizing the risks of alienating those groups of citizens who oppose increasing the EU’s political role. For others, the more ambitious scenarios for the future of the EU are also difficult to achieve or even unrealistic in the short term, due to the very diverse socioeconomic conditions in the member states.
Another group of students considers important to improve and consolidate the current European model and its institutions and only then, advance to more ambitious goals. This strategy would contribute to improve EU’s relations with European citizens and reduce Eurocepticism although key important challenges remain, namely the international role of the EU and its ability to respond to international events and the development of common tax policies. The debate was wrapped up with the individual vote on the preferred scenario for the future of the EU.
We then proceeded with the next activity in which we invited participants to present their suggestions regarding priority areas to be addressed by the EU to respond to its citizens’ needs and ways to improve the relationship between the European institutions and European citizens.
Regarding the priority areas for EU’s intervention, participants mentioned climate change and sustainability, the socioeconomic inequalities between countries and the refugees crisis. In order to improve its relationship with European citizens, EU institutions should be more transparent, promote participatory decision making, take into account each countries’ specificities and reduce bureaucracy. Citizens should also be more involved in European issues.
Following the collection of the students’ perspectives suggestions about European citizenship, we’ve shared two important initiatives regarding the future of Europe and citizens’ participation, the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Citizens’ Initiative.
Finally, we’ve invited participants to continue to learn and share information about Europe through the online resource created by EULECTIONS’19, the ChangEU Webcourse.
On March, 5 and 6, 2020, the Centre for International Studies (CEI-Iscte) and the European Association of Young Educators (EAYE) took the debate about the Future of the EU to Braga, in collaboration with the University of Minho, on the north of Portugal. The event involved 77 citizens, including 68 participants from the city of Braga, 7 from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 1 from the city of Paris, France and 1 from the city of Rome, Italy.
During the workshops, students from the master’s and graduation classes on International Relations shared their perspectives and ideas about the 5 scenarios for the future of Europe. The event included 2 workshop sessions with the two groups. The sessions started with a brief presentation of the project by the partners, followed by the “EU dating” an activity in which participants had to share with each other their answers to the questions “What does it mean to be an European Union citizen”.
After the initial presentations and ice-breakers, we invited the participants to watch a video and a presentation about the 5 Scenarios for the Future of Europe. This introductory video and the additional information provided were the starting point for the group-work in which students chose one of the scenarios, reflected about its pros and cons and shared with the rest of the group. Each group also created a message for the European institutions.
Following the groups’ presentation about the scenarios they worked on, its pros and cons, and their messages for the EU, we asked students to share their perspectives on the current state of the European Union and the European Commission using green, yellow and red cards. The 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.
The Eulections’19 – Think, Decide, Change project took its roadshow to the Internet, adapting the debates and workshops to the virtual space. On December 4, 2020, the debate about the future of Europe continued with students from Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa who shared their perspectives about EU’s current and future challenges.
The event took place via Zoom and included two sessions with two groups of students and involved 64 citizens, including 63 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 1 from the city of Brussels, Belgium.
We’ve started the sessions by presenting the project to students and after that, a small video about Europe’s day. Using Menti, students shared the first word that came to their mind inspired by Europe and the introductory video.
After a debate about the students’ word cloud the groups watched a video about the EU’s political project and answered a quiz about the history of Europe and the European Union. Those two introductory activities aimed to set the floor for the discussion about the main topic of the event, the Five Scenarios for Future of Europe.
We started by looking at the Five Scenarios for Future of Europe with a video and a presentation. After that, the two groups were organized in smaller groups in separate Zoom rooms to choose and reflect about one of the scenarios, its pros and cons. Each group chose a representative who presented the groups’ main conclusions.
Following the groups’ debate about the five scenarios, we’ve invited students from the workshop groups to individually choose the scenario they believed to be the best for the future of the European Union.
During this collective reflection, the students emphasized the importance of European solidarity, namely in response to the pandemic, and its role in reducing socioeconomic asymmetries between member states, but also recognized the need to improve coordination and solidify the European project.
Students stated the importance of bringing the EU closer to European citizens by improving its communication and information initiatives, an effort that must be also undertaken by national governments and civil society, as citizens participation in European affairs is fundamental to improve the EU.
To promote the students’ engagement with the debate about the future of the European project, we’ve shared information about initiatives and instruments that aim to create spaces for European citizens participation, the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Citizens’ Initiative.
Considering the importance of information in the promotion of active citizenship, The ChangEU WebCourse was presented to participants as an easily accessible resource to understand key facts about Europe’s history, its role and institutions and some initiatives where citizens can participate and contribute to shape its future.
Students from Universidade de Coimbra joined the EULECTIONS’19 online roadshow to debate the future of Europe on December 15, 2020. This event included two workshops with two groups of participants from the European Affairs course with a total of 28 citizens, including 23 participants from the city of Coimbra, 5 participants from the city of Lisbon.
The workshop started with a brief presentation of the EULECTIONS’19 project by the partners and an overview of the goals and objectives of the session. Following the introduction, we’ve asked the participants to share the first word they associate with the European Union.
The word cloud was formed by words like “union”, “cooperation”, “economy”, “mutual aid”, “multicultural”, “human rights”, “development”, “challenge”, “connection”, reflecting mainly favorable perspectives about the EU. Following this initial brainstorm, we’ve challenged the students to test their knowledge about the history of the European project through a quiz. These first activities aimed to set the floor for the debate about the current state of the EU and its future.
After the quiz results were shared with the participants and commented by students and facilitators, we’ve started the collective reflection about the future of Europe with a short video and a presentation about the “White Paper on the Future of Europe”. In the two workshop sessions, the participants were divided in smaller groups with the task of choosing and debating one of the scenarios and sharing their perspectives. Each group had a facilitator to mediate the discussion.
The conclusions of the group work were presented by the group’s representatives and a debated followed with some comments from the facilitators. The students debated the 5 scenarios, with different perspectives emerging about how to overcome the challenges facing the European project.
For some students it’s important to focus on key areas to improve EU’s performance and therefore “do less more efficiently”, as for others the Union must strengthen its policies and institutions to deliver its current agenda. A third group of opinions was focused on a more ambitious EU that is able to do “much more together” namely, face climate change and health. This discussion was wrapped up with participants choosing, individually, the scenario they would prefer for the future of the European Union, a “citizens’ scenario“.
The group reflection was then oriented towards the relations between European institutions and European citizens namely, what should the EU do to respond to citizens’ needs? what can citizens do to improve the EU? how can the relationship between the EU and its citizens improve?
The students recommended the creation of better communication and participation instruments as well as more debate opportunities about European issues, underscoring the role of citizens in engaging with the institutions through the channels already available. They emphasized the need to continue to involve schools and universities in the discussions and promote a real understanding of what the EU really means.
In order to promote an informed and active citizenship, we’ve challenged participants to take part in the ChangEU Webcourse and share this easily accessible resource with others. We’ve also shared the current initiatives that allow citizens to shape the EU’s policies and the debate about its future namely the European Citizens’ Initiate and the Conference on the Future of Europe.
On 12 April, the workshop “Five Scenarios for the Future of Europe” was promoted in collaboration with Camões I.P. and the University of Extremadura. This workshop was organized after an invitation from a Professor and a class of students of Portuguese language at the University of Extremadura. The event involved 14 citizens, including 9 participants from the city of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain, and 5 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, having been an extra dissemination event. This hybrid workshop was conducted in a mixed format as part of the group was gathered in person at the university classroom at Extremadura and another part was online from Portugal.
The session started with a brief project presentation by the project partners and an overview of the workshop goals. The first activity was the word cloud formed by the words students’ associate with the European Union. The word cloud included words like union, culture, peace, economy, summits, aid, progress, Council of Europe, multicultural. Following the word cloud we challenged students to test their knowledge about EU’s history through a quiz, introduced by a short video.
After the first two introductory activities, we moved to the key theme of the session, the present and the future of the European project. We’ve introduced the debate with a video and a short presentation with key information about the “White Paper on the Future of Europe – Five Scenarios”. Students were then invited to organize in small groups, choose one of the scenarios and debate its pros and cons, with support from the workshop facilitators.
After the discussion, the groups’ representatives shared their reflection about the scenarios for future of the EU. For one of the groups, scenario 5, represents the utopia they associate with the European Union but they also consider it to be very difficult to achieve as European countries have diverse historical and cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic conditions. This is, according to the group, a great challenge to a more ambitious political union able to do more in more areas. In this case, the group considered that its important to keep the support to the social movements fighting against all forms of discrimination.
Other group of participants considered that Europe could move forward at different speeds, allowing countries that want to do more, to do it. The group also identified some risks in this option, namely the power differential between richer and poorer countries that could block those who wish to do more.
For a third group, the scenario 4, to do more in specific policy fields, would be the most interesting as it would allow the EU institutions to be more efficient in key sectors like the environment and the digital transition, promoting initiatives to reduce emissions and protect citizens’ data privacy
After the group work we’ve proposed students to individually vote on their favourite scenario for the future of the European project.
The next group of workshop activities were focused on the relationship between the EU and European citizens. Students were invited to present suggestions of ways to improve EU’s response to citizens’ needs, bring EU institutions closer to the people and also reflect on how citizens can contribute to the European project.
Participants highlighted the importance of greater economic equality in all European countries, improve citizens’ knowledge about EU’s activities, bring the EU institutions closer to citizens, promoting cultural development and mutual respect.
The third part of the session was focused on motivating participants to continue their involvement with European issues. With this purpose in mind we’ve presented two important EU initiatives, the European Citizens’ Initiative and the Conference on the Future of Europe, that aim to create spaces for European citizens to influence policies and reflect about the future of the European project. Considering the importance of an informed and active citizenship, students were also introduced to the e-learning training course on the European Union, ‘ChangeEU WebCourse’ that covers EU history, institutions and opportunities for citizens participation at the European level.
