Over eighty Ambassadors for the Future of Europe from many different European member states participated in the EUth Pages for Europe Training two-session event for Ambassadors for the Future on Monday 28 June & Thursday 1 July 2021. Originally conceived to take place in Brussels or Milan, the event had to be organised online, on Zoom, due to the current COVID-19 restrictions.
On the one hand, Monday’s session focused mainly on the Conference and its functioning. During the Thursday session, on the other hand, participants had the opportunity to learn how to organise their own events at a local level.
Monday 28 June 2021: training session about the Conference on the Future of Europe
After a short presentation by our President Francesco Cappè and our Director Carlo Bitetto, the Member of the Conference’s Common Secretariat Anguel Beremliysky hosted the welcome address of the session. During his intervention, Mr. Beremliysky tried to convince participants about the importance of youth involvement in the process: “We are facing a democratic process which has never been put into practice before. We do not know what its final result if will be, we depend on citizens and, particularly, young people!”.
Mr. Beremliysky’s intervention was followed by a brief explanation on the COFOE’s political process by the Member of the European Parliament Daniel Freund (Germany, Greens/EFA Group), who is also a member of the Executive Board of the Conference (following an observer role) representing his group. Freund called for participants to learn from the mistakes of the past: “We should learn from the mistakes of the past. Either we ego the next step but Europe’s status quo is not stable. The Conference is the next step in this direction, and represents the easiest way we have had to contribute to the European debate so far”.
Prof. Gianluca Sgueo (Associate to Brussels School of Governance, Advisor at Italian Ministry for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition) also gave us a masterclass on all the practical details of the Conference from an academic perspective. The last interventions, focusing on the importance of youth involvement in the Conference, were held by Charlotte Josam (Youth Engagement Unit of the European Parliament) and Leonie Martin (President of the Young European Federalists).
Thursday 1 July: session about events’ organisation
Our session on Thursday mostly focused on teaching practicalities to the Ambassadors. After a short presentation by our director Carlo Bitetto, garagErasmus Project Manager Valentina Presa explained in detail to the ambassadors the requirements and practicalities of running events, as well as tips on how to promote them on the platform, and answered their practical questions about the grassroots event format.
gE also counted with CRESCE trainers Piero Maria Gentilini, Carlos Guillemot & Ulrike Neumann for two workshops on how to conceive a successful event (how to generate bold ideas, concrete outcomes and involve stakeholders on board) and on communication skills to conduct and facilitate group discussions.
EUth Pages for Europe
Co-funded by the European Parliament, the “EUth Pages for Europe” project will develop a series of local & EU-wide activities to make the Erasmus Generation have an impact on the CoFoE. garagErasmus will assist young people (Ambassadors4EUFuture) from all over Europe to organise local debates to collect their opinions & expectations for the European Union in a publication, the EUth Pages for Europe, addressed to EU policy-makers.
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