1. AEGEE-Helsinki: “Sustainability is to Travel Green”

AEGEE-Helsinki says:

We would like to travel green whenever it is possible. Consequently, we find the competition really interesting, for it enables us to promote train travelling. This aspect, especially InterRail and using the vast track networks in Europe, is not so familiar to Finns than to other Europeans. This project would promote green travelling not just among our members but also among their friends and families. We believe that showing example to our other friends not just in AEGEE but in other parts of life would encourage them to use the train more in the future.

We are planning to organize our next Travelling Summer University in three different countries: Finland, Denmark and Sweden. Then, of course, how to travel between these three countries comes into question. We have to figure out how to travel between Denmark and Sweden, and then from Sweden to Finland. We could use the prize money for train travel from Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm, Sweden since there is an excellent railway connection between these cities. This way we could also emphasize the importance of choosing the green way of traveling whenever it is possible. From Stockholm to Helsinki we will travel by ferry because it is better option than flying when considering the carbon footprint.

2. AEGEE-Mannheim: “We would do anything for Green Travelling”

AEGEE-Mannheim says:

Our concept is designed to motivate participants to find the ‘greenest way’ to the Spring AGORA Rhein-Neckar. It will reward the ‘greenest travellers’ in a competition.We want to share the idea within the AEGEE network (mailing lists, Facebook, Twitter) before the EBM and AGORA and we plan to distribute the postcards during the EMB. We want to catch the network’s attention, make them aware of this very important topic.

This is the point where we want the participants to get involved themselves and suggest their own ideas on how to reach the Spring AGORA Rhein-Neckar in the ‘greenest way’. The two best ideas will be rewarded during the AGORA with 100€ each. Only those who put their ideas into reality will actually win the price money. Proofs can be videos or  photos.Furthermore we plan to invest the major part of the price money in the thematic structuring of a Green Spring AGORA in Mannheim, by using environmental friendly paper for all printings, reducing plastic waste to the minimum by making use of recyclable cups and eco-friendly packing for food.

The selected IT Assistant will be working under the supervision of the European Institutions and Communications Director, Pavel Zbornik and, the OMS Development Manager, Manos Valasis in developing the Online Membership System (OMS) of AEGEE. The OMS uses a custom PHP framework developed by AEGEE, and for the the data storage, it uses LDAP & MySQL. The aim is to launch the OMS during the mandate of the assistant. More information about the system can be found here: http://oms.aegee.org/wiki/index.php/OMS

Selected Assistant will have possibility of living in Belgium or work from home. AEGEE-Europe can provide the Assistant with a subsistence of his/her expenses up to 200 Euros per month, working on real IT systems and one of the most challenging IT projects of AEGEE and references.In case of working from Head Office AEGEE-Europe can provide the Assistant partly covered costs of moving in/out, accommodation, unforgettable experiences, possibility of living in Belgium for three months and a warm welcome and atmosphere in our team.

Please, write a motivation letter which will include the following information:

• Name and surname,
• Which programming languages are you fluent in,
• Which databases have you worked with,
• Describe your experience with object oriented PHP.

Send your applications to headoffice@aegee.org, in case of any question you can contact Pavel Zbornik (pavel.zbornik@aegee.org).

Deadline for applications is 10th of January 2013, 23:59 CET!

But what is exactly the European Youth Guarantee? It is the compromise to offer to young Europeans under 25 a traineeship or an opportunity to continue in education, within four months after they get unemployed. This tackles specifically the problem of social exclusion that long term unemployment can bring to people. The aim is to reverse the current trend of rising numbers of NEETs (stands for Not in Education, Employment or Training). The low rates of unemployment in the countries that already have set up this scheme are promising.

However, we in AEGEE see that this scheme raises some concerns that have to be taken into account, as it came up during the online discussion that Commissioner Mr. Andor held with young citizens on Friday. For instance: how can the European Commission enforce such a measure when they have no decision power on education policies? One of the possibilities is through the budget control systems put in place recently, especially for countries which have received economical support from EU.

Talking about money, the big question will be where to get all that money from (estimated costs around 4.000 – 6.000 euros per person, depending on the country). Ideally the Member States would be funding the scheme, but the European Commission pointed at the European Social Fund as an opportunity to get support. This Fund contains 76.000 million Euros for the period 2007-13. As the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework is still not agreed upon, the final number for the next seven years is still on air, and we can just hope it is not reduced.

Another concern for AEGEE is the risk that these employments and internships will end up being a source of cheap labour force for companies, affecting salaries and having a backfire effect. The implementation of the Youth Guarantee will require a brave collaboration from companies, and it should be monitored to prevent the misuse of the scheme and the proliferation of unstable or low-waged jobs, unpaid traineeships, and other forms ways to undervalue the work of young people.

What we want the EU Member States to take into account: the cost of implementing the Youth Guarantee (estimated by the ILO – International Labour Organization – in 0.2% of European combined GDP) will be small compared with the costs of not tackling the problem once and for all. A recent study by the European Policy Centre estimated that achieving the EU’s 75% employment rate target by 2020 would generate up to €1.2 trillion in extra revenues for EU Member States (7% of GDP). We hope this are strong enough numbers to convince the European Council to adopt the EC Recommendation as soon as possible. Ideally it should be approved in the Council of Feb 28th, 2013 and should start to work in 2014. And it is already late.

There were other measures included in the package presented by the European Commission, like advances in the Quality Assurance for Internships, or the setting up of a European Alliance for Apprenticeships. But none of them can compare with the potential impact of the Youth Guarantee. This is what the youth sector had been demanding: strong, brave decisions. Now AEGEE calls for the Member States to accept the challenge and approve in the Council its implementation.

AEGEE-Europe participated in the Global Youth Forum, represented by its President Luis Alvarado Martínez. AEGEE has dared to go beyond Europe once again, reaching the United Nations level for second time in 2012 after the presence at the Rio+20 Conference. The conference in Bali involved around 1000 youth delegates from all over the world, working on the five following topics: Education, Employment, Health, Family and Sexuality and Participation. The recommendations of the event – which AEGEE-Europe contributed actively to draft– will be adopted by the Secretary General of United Nations, Mr Ban Ki Moon, who will then pass them over to the UN Member States to be adopted and implemented.

To read the recommendations of the Bali Global Youth Forum, click here.

www.InterRail.eu offers train passes to Europeans to explore Europe by train.
Train travel is one of the most sustainable ways of traveling through Europe.

How can you participate?

The topic of the competition is: “Promoting Green Travelling – Sustainable Europe by 2020”.

Do you care about a sustainable future – and do you want others to get involved?
How would YOU promote sustainable travelling?

You can submit your video, poster or picture, presenting your project!

No individual entries will be accepted, only submissions from locals.

The winners will be chosen by a jury of Comité Directeur, Environmental Working group and InterRail. All ideas will be published on the Europe on Track page.

The criteria of selection are the following (by order of importance)

• creativity and innovation of the idea
• project or initiative you want to use the money for (just give us an idea)

Your local is only eligible for the prize if you

• share the open call on your local’s website
• share the picture published on AEGEE-Europe’s Facebook page and the link to the InterRail website on the Facebook page of your local.

 Deadline for submissions:

27^th December 2012, 23:59 CET,
Send your ideas to headoffice@aegee.org.
Please make sure that you mention the name of your local in the subject line!

More than 800 students gathered together from more than 40 countries for the Autumn Agora Budapest, to discuss the future of the organisation and AEGEE’s role in contributing to the future of the whole continent. Besides European youth leaders and activists, politicians have also addressed the event and welcomed AEGEE’s new initiatives.

Through his video message, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission granted his support for AEGEE’s work in engaging young Europeans in policy-making and especially in tackling the issue of youth unemployment. Also in a video message, Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament also expressed his support for AEGEE’s active citizenship initiative, the project aimed to promote the upcoming European Parliamentary elections and foster youth participation. Among the other external guest speakers were László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Tibor Navracsics, deputy prime minister of Hungary and Zsolt Rostoványi, rector of Corvinus University of Budapest.

The Autumn Agora Budapest has marked a new way for AEGEE in the process of reshaping its identity. Once again, EU policies and youth affairs are the topic of everyday conversation on the European level of the Association and the Board of Directors 2012/2013 is doing its very best to implement the wave of changes. Active citizenship and youth participation are becoming top priorities in times when the European institutions are drafting various proposals for the upcoming decade. “These discussions are of relevance because right now we are seeing how Europe is going into different negotiations with the next multiannual financial framework, and drafting of new policies that will affect how Europe develops until the year 2020. So it’s important that students state what they would like to see in 2020” – concludes Luis Alvarado Martinez, President of AEGEE-Europe.

Furthermore, several new projects from different field of actions have been presented and approved by the audience of the Agora. The Europe in Exchange project – aiming to further embed the principles of active citizenship within the Network, the Health4Youth project which fosters young people’s awareness on the healthy way of living. Last but not least, the EuroArab project of AEGEE-Europe has been officially launched in order to bring Arabic culture closer to European youth and to set the ground for later intercultural discourses.

AEGEE members are now looking forward to attending the next statutory events; the European Boards meeting in Valletta (February) and the next General Assembly in Mannheim (Agora Rhein-Neckar in April) to further develop the thematic focus of the Association and bring the European sphere one step closer to young people.

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 Autumn Agora Budapest, 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

The members of AEGEE have reacted instantly to the news, sharing their memories of meeting him, remembering how innovative his ideas were, how he had the ability to create debate around him, making new ideas flourish in the minds of those who had the opportunity to meet him. His belief that youth was a necessary actor in the building of Europe has inspired generations of active citizens in Europe, inside and outside AEGEE, and we will miss his questioning approach to everything.

During the opening ceremony of Autumn Agora Budapest, we dedicated a minute of silence to Frank’s memory, and have also gathered messages for him and his family, from people who have been inspired by him, and wished to express their feelings.

As representative student organisations, we fully support the European Commission proposal to increase funding for education, training, youth and sport programmes to 19 billion EUR over 7 years. We believe that it is the minimum amount required to achieve the objective of sustainable growth and jobs, as agreed in the EU2020 Strategy.

Mobility, through voluntary activities for young people (under support of Youth in Action) and students (under support of Erasmus and other programmes) benefits individuals and society at large. Young Europeans, who have an opportunity to be mobile, are:

• More advanced in their personal and professional development: Education as a whole and mobility in particular enable personal growth and help individuals to develop their intercultural communication, language skills and team work ability;
• More supportive for European Integration: European integration can only be achieved through personal ties, which have to be experienced first-hand. Living, studying, working and volunteering abroad are the best way to achieve this.
• More skilled: Especially in the context of the current economic crisis and its consequences, including high youth unemployment and a lack of perspective for young people, we are convinced that education as a long term investment, including mobility, is a key factor in tackling the financial crisis. Learning mobility, despite being highly beneficial for individuals, has also a very positive impact on higher education providers, including teaching and administrative staff.

We stress the importance of maintaining a sufficient level of funding in the form of operational grants or administrative support for organisations active in both the youth and education sector in order to ensure the quality and resources for these organisations.

AEGEE, ESN and ESU strongly believe that the success of the current Lifelong Learning programme in the area of youth and learning mobility clearly show the benefits of allocating resources on the European level. While stressing the continued need of investment in higher education and youth also on a national, regional and local level, we strongly endorse the proposed budget increase for the European programme in education, training, youth and sport.

To download this joint statement, visit this link.

October started with a worrying statement from the Chair of the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament, Mr. Alain Lamassoure: “We have not foreseen in the 2012 budget enough credit payments … so the cohesion funds are at risk, also the European Social Fund, the Erasmus and life-long learning programmes, and even the research and innovation programmes”. [1]

These words, coming from inside the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, shocked the European society, and especially the students. Surprisingly, what called the attention of the media was mostly the mentioning of the Erasmus Programme, making it seem like the lack of funding for cohesion funds, science or the European Social Fund are not equally important. Nevertheless, for AEGEE-Europe, the European Students’ Forum, the impact of a lack of funding for the Lifelong Learning Programmes would be significant. For this reason, AEGEE has been following the issue during the past days.

After the statement of Mr. Lamassoure, most of the Ministers of Education of the member states hurried to reassure students and their families that their grants are secured. While this may be true for the first semester of the 2012/2013 academic year, there are serious doubts for those students who will travel abroad during the second semester. On Friday, 5th October, the European Commission published an article on the topic in its news section about Education and Training. The title already caused more worries instead of calming down the situation: Erasmus students: don’t panic (yet)! The article clearly implied that the European Commission is still trying to convince the European Parliament and the member states to provide satisfactory funding for these programmes for the second semester of the academic year.

We understand that Mr. Lamassoure’s statement was made in a context of ongoing negotiations for the 2013 budget, as well as difficulties in fulfilling all the compromises with an estimated deficit of 10 billion Euros for 2012. However, we feel that this message casts doubts on the future of this project, when we should be celebrating the positive impact on society of 25 years of the Erasmus programme – one of the most successful initiatives of the European Union -, and finding ways to make it more inclusive to reach more students.

For thousands of students all over Europe, the possibility to become an Erasmus student is now. They have already arranged everything to study abroad this year, and they are ready for an experience that will enrich both their curriculum and their personality. Moreover, Erasmus is the best tool of the European Union to create a truly European Identity, which in the face of rising nationalism is more needed than ever.The uncertainty around the funding might cause some of these young Europeans to cancel their participation. Therefore, we demand that the European Commission and the bodies responsible for the funding issue a clear message confirming that the grants for the Erasmus Programme are guaranteed not only for the whole 2012/2013 academic year, but for the upcoming years as well. Any reduction in the funding will increase inequality among young people, and could make Erasmus a privilege of wealthy students instead of a right for everyone. Only adequate funding can develop the programme into a real Erasmus for All, which after all is the name of the Commission’s proposal for the years 2014-2020. AEGEE demands an increase in the number of mobility grants and an ambitious future funding for these programmes to make sure that every year students can reinforce their European identity by studying abroad.

[1]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/content/20121004STO53016/html/Erasmus-and-investment-in-worst-hit-countries-at-risk-warns-Lamassoure1

AEGEE-Europe, in collaboration with its partner, Interrail, is launching the ”Europe on Track” project. Along with our wish to build a stronger identity of our association, we are launching this project, which will enable us to capture young people’s vision of the Europe of the future, and provide a snapshot of AEGEE and its members.

The main topic of the project is therefore “The Europe I want for the future”, giving young people the space to share what the Europe they dream of looks like. We believe that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the six ambassadors, who will be given the chance to explore Europe in a very human way, by provoking intercultural meetings and discussions with local people. Their mission will be to talk, film, shoot, exchange with the young people and AEGEE members they will meet along their journey, and to gather enough material in order to develop several materials for AEGEE.

In a nutshell, ”Europe on Track” consists of six people, divided into two groups of three people, who will experience Europe, during one month, by travelling and meeting its young people and capturing significant moments of their lives.

How will it work?

Six people will get the opportunity to travel across Europe, through cities where AEGEE is present, and capture the expectations of youth for the future of Europe. In order to cover as many countries, regions and cities as possible, they will be divided into two teams of three people.The two teams will cover different geographical areas. The selected people will be offered one interrail pass each, and together with their two other travel mates they will start a journey which shall last one month.

AEGEE-Europe will be following the travelers on a daily basis, in order to receive their feedback, as well as help them with logistic details. Each team will be, of course, requested to update the network on a daily basis, through a blog and a facebook page which will be created for this purpose.

How to participate

Those who would like to participate in the project need:

• TIME: One free month before the end of 2012.
• CREATIVE SKILLS: Photography, filming, or writing. AEGEE-Europe is not in measure to provide you with material (camera etc), therefore you will be working with your own technical equipment (camera etc.).
• SOCIAL SKILLS and WILL-POWER: you will meet a lot of people during your journey, and in order to gather quality material, we need you to be an entrepreneur, and have an ability to easily establish contact with people. Likewise, as every journey, you will go through difficult moments. The team members have to be convinced that this is the project of their life!

Convinced? Send us your application until 20th of October through the following form: http://goo.gl/eZMd1

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