Fall Agora Budapest 2012 was the Agora of going back to the past. Returning to the exact location of the first Agora in Eastern Europe as we are dealing once again with resistance to European ideals. Debating on our identity in order to better understand ourselves. Launching new initiatives which will help AEGEE reclaim the prominent, strongly thematic place it once held in the European society. New ideas, new initiatives, new positions—for example the newly elected Policy Officers of AEGEE-Europe. At a progress meeting on Saturday afternoon, they presented themselves and their thematic fields to participants.
With six they are, working on four thematic fields: Youth Participation (Felipe González Santos), Bridging Europe (Armenak Minasyants), Social Inclusion (Lucia Sobekova, E.G., and Stephanie Müller), and Sustainability (Mathieu Soete).
Unfortunately, not all of them were able to make it to the Agora on such a short notice—they were elected after the applications had closed—but their topics were skilfully introduced by their sparring partners from the CD. During this meeting, they presented the future steps and actions planned, and discussed with participants regarding the subtopics to be tackled.
Youth Participation
After a brief introduction to the positions of Policy Officer and a general timeline of their work, Lucille Rieux kicked off the progress meeting with the topic of Youth Participation, representing the unfortunately absent Felipe González Santos (AEGEE-A Coruña). Youth participation is so much a part of AEGEE’s daily work that we take it for granted. Therefore, it would be good to question this obviousness, and to discover what we actually mean by it. “Participation” can be very wide, and finding a common definition is not an easy task.
Moreover, Felipe defined two main topics in which he believes there is room for advocating for AEGEE’s vision: participation of young people in the decision making process—including ideas such as the age of vote, e-democracy, education on the democratic process and systems as such—
and participation of young people in their community, which encompasses the question of volunteers’ rights and recognition of volunteering. Finally, one more question was raised which will be interesting to focus on: should we encourage young people to participate using new forms of participation, or rather focus on the existing tools and try to understand why and how they could actually work better.
Bridging Europe
Even though accepted for the Agora, due to the recent diplomatic breakdown between Hungary and Armenia, the Policy Officer on EU enlargement and integration Armenak Minasyants (AEGEE-Yerevan) was not able to secure a visa to enter the country, and was therefore represented by Anna Gots. Her first challenge was the definition of the policy field itself. In order to clarify his field of work to externals, Armenak considered renaming it “EU Enlargement and integration,” but how far are we prepared to go in promoting a larger and stronger EU, and its resulting changes to our lives? In order to better understand this, an online consultation and discussion was proposed, to gather the opinion of the network on this sensitive, though very important topic.
Within this field then—or as a first step towards it, perhaps—participants agreed a lot of work still remains to be done in tackling visa issues in non-EU countries—the absence of Armenak himself being a living proof of this. In order to focus on a specific topic, it was suggested to cooperate with other youth organisations, and work on shaping clear regulations for obtaining visa for youth workers and volunteers.
LGBT
Next up were the three Policy Officers working on Social Inclusion, starting with E.G. (AEGEE-Leiden). Introducing the topic of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues during the Policy Officers progress meeting, several potential subtopics were discussed. Leading for this discussion, as well as for the future research on LGBT issues for the Position Paper that is to be written, was the roadmap published by the European Parliament titled Towards an EU roadmap for equality on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Identifying both problems faced by LGBTI persons, and EU actions that have and can be taken in this area, this roadmap proposes five policy themes: equality and non-discriminatory access to employment, education, health, goods and services, and housing; trans and intersex issues; diverse families and freedom of movement; hate speech, hate crime, and violence; and, lastly, fleeing homophobia and transphobia.
Having explained these themes during the meeting, homophobia turned out the be the topic AEGEE was considered most likely to work on, both in terms of changing perceptions in Central- and Eastern Europe, as well as in striving for transborder recognition of same-sex marriage. Important is to opt for a European scope, finding views that relate to AEGEEans across the entire network.
Racism and Xenophobia
The second Policy Officer on Social Inclusion, Stephanie Müller (AEGEE-Heidelberg), proposed to focus on writing a position paper against Racism and Xenophobia. AEGEE, with its 27 years of existence as a student organisation, is the best proof that everyone can overcome prejudices and xenophobia. We should therefore clearly state that racism is not acceptable. AEGEE is an organisation proud of being open to everyone who is tolerant and respects each other’s cultural differences, without prioritising one culture over the other.
It is seen with a big concern how, in this current economical crisis, radical racist parties are winning disproportionally large votes in the national parliaments of European countries. It is time for AEGEE to express our condemnation of racism and xenophobia. The topic was accepted with positive feedback by the audience of the progress meeting, giving Stephanie plenty of motivation and support to continue her work.
Human Rights
Concluding the Social Inclusion policy field, Miguel Gallardo presented the first work of Lucia Sobekova (AEGEE-Bratislava) on the topic of Human Rights Approach, as the way to decrease social differences between European youth. Current formal education does not cover the topic of human rights deeply enough in most of the European countries, which leads to the fact that they remain a foreign topic for most of the European youth. On the other hand, non-formal education can often be the best way to learn about human rights, in an experience-based, peer-surrounded environment, leading to a more tolerant society.
Consequently, there is a wide field where only NGOs can provide information, raise awareness and create mobilisation. In this field, most of the big NGOs do a great work for the society in general, but their messages have not always reached the youth sector. The work of Lucia will therefore be to establish a bridge between human rights and the European youth.
Sustainability
Last but not least, Mathieu Soete (AEGEE-Leuven) introduced his field of Sustainability. As sustainability is the only policy field not firmly rooted in the Strategic Plan, participants first discussed about its relevance for AEGEE’s work, agreeing that in today’s world, this topic cannot be overlooked any longer.
As a first subtopic, sustainable entrepreneurship—the theme of this year’s European School on Entrepreneurship—not only creates unique opportunities for young enterprising minds with a heart for green business, but also offers sustainable solutions to people looking to start up their own non-profit organisation or youth project. Second, more attention and support is needed for education about sustainability, which can equip current and future generations with the tools needed for a more sustainable future, and which fits within the wide reform of our educational systems, formal and non-formal. Furthermore, in order to increase the internal possibilities, the sustainability of youth organisations was taken on board as third subtopic.
4 fields, 6 Policy Officers, and enough topics for each and every AEGEE member to find a thematic focus for the upcoming year. We are ready for it, and are looking forward to your input!
Written by Anna Gots, Armenak Minasyants, E.G., Felipe González Santos, Kathrin Renner, Lucia Sobekova, Lucille Rieux, Luis Alvarado Martínez, Mathieu Soete, Miguel Gallardo Albajar, and Stephanie Müller