‘My Europe, my say’, fostering youth political participation

The rise of political populism in Europe is making it easier for extremist views to enter national parliaments and speak on behalf of youth. In order to face this issue, a stronger youth voice in politics is necessary to offer a more positive speech.

In this context, ‘My Europe, my say’ is born as an initiative led by WOSM in partnership with AEGEE Europe and a network of 50 national Scout associations and AEGEE local sections.

Co-funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme, the project aims to foster youth political participation in the upcoming European Elections in May 2019 and set out a space for scouts and non-scouts to communicate their views for a better Europe.

The campaign includes not only several actions with the aim of aware youth of the significance of voting in the May elections, but also the organization of community-based activities that educate peers about their rights and duties as active citizens and holding face-to-face and virtual meetings with running local candidates and recording pledges and promises that are made in favour of youth rights.

Campaign mobilisers will all gather in February in France to join a large scale gathering of 200 Scouts. They will promote the campaign while taking part in a series of debates and interactive workshops centred around the topics of active citizenship, democratic action, the UN global goals and civic engagement.

‘If I were an MEP for a day’

Besides that, a social media campaign named ‘If I were and MEP for a day’ will attempt to offer young people a channel to voice their dreams of positive changes and, at the same time, will gather the most burning issues that matter to today’s youth and try to channel them to running candidates in search for responses.

Beyond the elections’ framework, the project will produce a resource pack that aims to inspire youth to discuss and debate their civic role in a democracy through games and interactive materials.