Statements

In the last weeks, Europe has become the new hotspot of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a public health emergency that has been already recognised as the biggest crisis hitting the continent since World War II. Each of us is being affected by these exceptional circumstances and living in a situation which we would not have even imagined a few weeks ago. Even though the whole European population is suffering from the impact of the pandemic, the most vulnerable social groups are hit the hardest. Among those, the situation of migrants and refugees in Europe is particularly dire. Refugees and migrants [...]

The International Women’s Day has its origins in the struggle for equal political and economic rights for women, and has been celebrated since the beginning of the century. The simple fact that in 2020 we still demand the same rights as in 1908 gives reasons to reflect on the persistence of gender inequality. Nowadays, European women have voting rights and enjoy formal parity in front of the law. Equality between women and men is a value enshrined in most national constitutions, as well as in the Lisbon Treaty of the European Union. In 2019, Ursula von der Leyen was appointed [...]

Zero Discrimination Day was created in 2013 by UNAIDS, (the UN program on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)) to celebrate the right of everyone to be free from discrimination. As an organisation representing European youth, AEGEE-Europe wants to raises awareness of different forms of discrimination faced by young people. Young people encounter great challenges and deepening inequalities in the fields of education, employment, housing and health services, and experience structural, institutional and social barriers in accessing existing opportunities.Young people are often stuck in short-term, underpaid jobs and other precarious forms of employment, a situation which [...]

Tonight, what seemed so far away for so long, will turn into reality. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will definitely leave the European Union, and along with it the EU customs union, the Erasmus+ Programme, as well as other agreements, be it completely or partially. It is still unclear what the totality of its consequences will be, both for the EU and for the UK. What remains clear is that Brexit is a step in the wrong direction. Only 35 years ago, when the Schengen Agreement was not even yet signed, the mere thought of crossing [...]

The International Organization for Migration defines migration as a term “reflecting the common lay understanding of a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons”. As reflected in these words, migration is a highly common phenomenon and is a fundamental part of human’s nature. From a historical perspective it has often triggered the development of cultures, technologies and knowledge. Human communities have evolved through contacts with different civilisations and societies, and migration has always brought all sorts of [...]

This week’s Plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg was eventful, with important highlights such as the approval of the new European Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen, the Resolution on the climate and environment emergency, and the Resolution on the EU accession to the Istanbul Convention and other measures to combat gender-based violence, which was approved by a very large majority. On Tuesday, a statement was made on Public discrimination and hate speech against LGBTI people, including LGBTI free zones, followed by a debate. The statement was triggered by the increasingly frequent use of anti-LGBTI rhetoric in the [...]

Violence against women is an everyday reality for a very large part of the world population across the globe as well as in Europe. 33% of women in the EU have endured physical and/or sexual violence since age 15, 43% have suffered psychological violence by a current or former partner, 55% have experienced sexual harassment, and in 2016 intimate partners or family members intentionally killed more than one woman every day. Indeed, violence against women is recognised as one of the most widespread and endemic forms of human rights violation. The United Nations has designated the 25th of November as [...]

On 24th October 2019, the European Parliament rejected a motion to step up search and rescue (SAR) operations in the Mediterranean Sea. The resolution, which was launched by the Socialist and Democrats Group (S&D) with support from the Greens and the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL), was defeated by only two votes, with the far-right Identity and Democracy Group (ID) and the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) -the largest group in the Parliament- voting it down. Search and rescue activities are sea operations that render assistance to any vessel or person in distress at sea. According to the European [...]

In October 2017 AEGEE-Europe published a statement with regard to the violence and increasing tensions in Catalonia after a referendum on the region’s independence from Spain took place against a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling (you can access it here). On the 14th of October 2019 nine Catalan politicians holding leading roles in the organisation of the referendum were sentenced to between nine to thirteen years of prison by the Spanish Supreme Court. This sparked not only a new wave of protests all around the region, but also a growing and violent escalation of events that is being translated into streets [...]

The World Mental Health Day on 10th of October is an annual occasion to improve the mental health education, awareness and to advocate against the social stigma, so as to create a more compassionate and empathetic society. The World Mental Health Day 2019, as announced by the World Federation for Mental Health, focuses on “Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention”, as a crucial topic for the future of global mental health movement. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the [...]