AEGEE-Europe has launched today a new initiative oriented on increasing youth participation in the upcoming European Parliament elections 2014. The press conference took place in the European Parliament, hosted by MEP Eider Gardiazábal Rubial (S&D).

The date of the next European Parliament elections may seem far away but the first step towards raising the awareness has already been taken. As the voting turnout among young people in 2009 was very low, European Students’ Forum AEGEE-Europe decided to start an initiative aiming at changing this trend, namely the Y Vote 2014 project. Today the project team presented their plans in the European Parliament during a press conference with the participation of Member of European Parliament Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, which was followed by a discussion on youth related topics.

The Y Vote 2014 project aims at empowering young people to make an informed choice during the European Parliament elections by undertaking actions both on European and local level. Among the organised activities there will be the creation of a voting guide, bus tours and youth conventions, just to mention a few of them. The first problem the Y Vote 2014 will be tackling is the lack of political education of young people. The voting guide will provide them with useful information ranging from how the EU works to the political groups, as well as their programmes and vision of Europe. Furthermore, the team is going to organise bus tours in several EU member states, namely Croatia, the United Kingdom and Spain. The aim of these tours will be reaching young people and encouraging them to take responsibility for the future of Europe by using their right to vote. The purpose of the youth conventions is to develop a set of recommendations for MEPs in the form of a Youth Agenda, addressing such topics as education, mobility, youth unemployment, the impact of the crisis and EU Neighbourhood Policy.

The kick-off convention focused on youth participation will be held in September. Afterwards, activities will take place throughout Europe up until the elections.

About AEGEE-Europe

AEGEE was born 27 years ago with the vision of creating a unified Europe, based on democracy and respect for human rights, bringing together students with different cultural backgrounds. Today, AEGEE is Europe’s largest interdisciplinary youth organisation: 40 countries, 200 cities, 13 000 friends. This network provides the ideal platform for young volunteers to work together on cross-border activities such as international conferences, seminars, exchanges, training courses and case study trips. In line with the challenges young people are currently facing in Europe, AEGEE’s work for the period of 2011-2014 is focused on three main areas: Youth Participation, Bridging Europe and Inclusion of Minorities.

Contact

If you would like to know more about AEGEE, please contact:

Pavel Zborník

European Institutions and Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe

Phone: +32 2 246 0320

Mobile: +32 487 410 060

E-mail: pavel.zbornik@aegee.org

www.aegee.org/press/press-releases