4th October 2012, Brussels

by AEGEE-Europe / European Students’ Forum

Where is Europe headed? What can young people expect from the Europe of tomorrow? These questions have been of great concern for many young Europeans recently. In order to find answers, AEGEE-Europe (European Students’ Forum) is launching the “Europe on Track” project in the fall of 2012. In the framework of this initiative, six young Europeans will travel the continent by train at the end of 2012, and in the course of one month, gather the answers to these, and further questions, through photography, videos and interviews.

The “Europe on Track” project was launched to advocate for a better future for European youth, and to capture young people’s vision of the Europe of the future by the end of 2020, as well as provide a snapshot of AEGEE and its members. The main topic of the project is “The Europe I want for the future”, involving young people around the continent in discussing the current situation and their own prospects. At a time when the idea of European integration is being questioned, and young people’s future prospects have become hazy, AEGEE considers it fundamental to give voice to the young generation, in order to take their opinion, their realities and their wishes into account.

“We will give six young people the opportunity to travel the whole European continent. They will be reporting about their experiences through social media and blogging, channels used by youth as impartial loudspeakers, which allow them to communicate with greater audiences, and which provide them with the possibility to communicate with an independence from traditional media. This will allow them to promote and spread the idea of a common European identity among youth.” says Pavel Zborník, European Institutions and Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe about “Europe on Track”. After being present at Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, AEGEE puts emphasis on sustainability in this project as well, as the six ambassadors will travel Europe in a “green” way, by train. By documenting every detail of their journey, they will later enable others to reach conclusions and find ways to remedy the situation, and through creative and innovative approaches they will promote the vision of young people through the social and other online media.

Applications for taking part in the project as an ambassador - travelling and reporting about young people’s opinions - are open until 20th October 2012. More information can be found on AEGEE-Europe’s official website (www.aegee.org) and the project’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/EuropeOnTrack).

This initiative is possible thanks to AEGEE-Europe’s partner, Interrail.

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 more information about AEGEE, or the Europe on Track project, 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