The European Commission and the Fundació Catalunya Europa This Wednesday they presented a series of educational initiatives aimed at encouraging the electoral participation of young Catalans in the upcoming European elections on June 6.
At a press conference this Wednesday at the European Parliament Office in Barcelona, the director of the Fundació Catalunya Europa, Dolors Camats, has stated that “electoral participation is directly related to the knowledge about Europe and its policies” which is why since the foundation they have promoted 3 awards and different activities to promote knowledge of European institutions and policies and youth activism in the EU. Camats has used youth participation as a brake on “the messages of hatred, intolerance, violence or against the very democracy that the extreme right launches”.
For her part, the communication manager of the European Commission Representation in Barcelona, Laura Raholastated that “young people’s support for the European project is no longer the issue”, and added that the problem they aim to address with these initiatives is rather that “young people take the European project for granted” and do not are aware of the worth from his implication to defend it.
“In it Brexit It was clear that young people mostly supported the European project and their abstention in the vote was decisive so that their opinion was not taken into account,” Rahola assured. For this reason, he has claimed the importance of “the European Union being more present in all stages of school life.” And he has decided that young people must know “what is at stake” to give real value to the European Parliament elections that will take place between June 6 and 9.
Awards and activities
Two of the awards presented, aimed at students of the That and Baccalaureate, They have the support of the Department of Education of the Generalitat and the Office of the European Commission in Barcelona and will reward the works in which they are developed “what does Europe mean” for young people or that “are related to the subjects that the European institutions promote in each period.”
The third of the awards is the Research Premi Pasqual Maragall will recognize a Final Degree Project, a Final Master’s Project and an academic research work of an informative nature. These works must address topics related to Maragall’s thought, such as the governance of cities, European politics or the role of Catalonia in Europe.
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On the other hand, the EC Representation in Barcelona has promoted the ‘Capses d’aprenentatge’, with content so that ESO students can acquire more knowledge about European policies and institutions; They will be loaned to institutes that request them through the website; and they have already begun to be sent, with the expectation of reaching around 15 institutes at the end of this course.
In addition, he recalled other measures to promote youth activism such as training visits for young people to European institutions; the ‘youth control’ measure to apply a youthful outlook to all EU policies and what impact they will have on them; the promotion of joint European degrees at university level; and the April 12-19 celebration of Europe Week.