On 10-12 May 2013, an AEGEE Policy Consultation Meeting (PCM) was held in Krakow (Poland) devoted to the European integration. The Policy Consultation Meetings are a totally new type of events, whose main goal is to assist the Policy Officers/Comité Directeur Assistants in the drafting of a document -AEGEE /European Students’ Forum official position papers on respective fields, which later on will be lobbied and advocated within different European institutions, thus having its impact on all local antennae of our organization in the future.
The meeting in Krakow was supposed to be one of such meetings initiated by the Policy Officers of AEGEE-Europe. The topics of PCMs are rather diverse and focus on youth participation, sustainable development, human rigts and social inclusion. Unfortunately, some of the events were canceled and, as a result, the Policy Consultation Meeting organized in the former Polish capital became the very first one in AEGEE history.
AEGEE-Europe’s Policy Officer for European Integration Armenak Minasyants arrived to Krakow in order to present the draft position paper, his suggestions for this extremely important document to AEGEE activists who came to Krakow especially for the event, as well as to facilitate the activities of the meeting. For three days in the sweat of our brow all the participants were working on propositions, amendments, aditions and changes to the document, starting up with the basic parts of the paper and finishing up with the grammar of the position paper. It is worth mentioning that the position paper will be presented to the public during the Autumn Agora Zaragoza 2013, after, of course, the respective consultations with all engaged AEGEE bodies and members.
To provide our consultants with relevant theoretical background there was organized the Bridging Europe Conference, to which distinguished lecturers, experts in the field of European integration were invited. The AEGEEans had an opportunity to participate in sessions implemented from so distinguish specialists such as Prof. Aleksander Surdej (lecturer at the Krakow University of Economics and advisor to Jerzy Buzek, the former President of the European Parliament), Dr. Magdalena Góra (lecturer at the Jagiellonian University, publisher in the journal “International Political Science Review”), Mgr Marcin Kędzierski (lecturer at the Krakow University of Economics and President of Jagiellonian Club). The topics of the sessions were diverse and presented a brief outlook of the history of European integration, enlargement of the European Union, the EU’s policies in Western Balkans and Eastern partnership region, and also a special panel discussion was held on the EU’s role on the global stage in the twenty-first century. The Conference was open to the public and has attracted a lot of interested people from all over the city, including Erasmus students from many countries who are studying in different universities of Krakow.
Of course, we all know or at least have heard the AEGEEans motto: “Work hard, party harder”; therefore, social programme of PCM-Krakow was attractive as well. For sure the biggest attraction was the International Crazy Tram – a party inside of a tram together with a tour around the city. Music, dances and frolics inside and beautiful architecture of the city connected with the surprised faces of passers-by outside. After a wild trip party we moved to one of the oldest student clubs in the city “Lizard Club” on Main Market Square.
During the second day the participants had already a chance to work on the draft position paper of AEGEE-Europe on European Integration. In addition, all participants took part in the Polish Night and had an opportunity to taste Polish drinks and traditional Polish dishes such as żurek. Thanks to the culinary skills of our guests the Polish Night was transformed into European Night.
Policy Consultation Meeting in Krakow for sure was a big success. It once again underlined the willingness of AEGEE members to work within the thematic events and contribute with their experience to the further development of our beloved network. At the end of the PCM-Krakow participants introduced their amendments to the discussed document and Armenak held a session on fundraising and PR in AEGEE.
To sum up – our guests were leaving Krakow reluctantly, but with the feeling of a well done job.
AEGEE-Krakow would like to express its gratitude to the CD for selecting up our local as the host for this remarkable event.
Written by Marcin Michla, AEGEE-Krakow