Beretning fra European Youth Event (EYE) 2021 | Odense Bibliotekerne

During my studies in Sciences Po Toulouse in France, which is an institute of political sciences, I was engaged in the movement of the Young Europeans Federalists France (Europæisk Ungdom Frankrig) in the local section of Toulouse, in the south-west of France. I made a lot of actions and had a lot of experiences in different scales : local, regional and national, and today i will present my experience at the European Youth Event which took place in Strasbourg in the fall of 2021.

As a young student, my participation, with several members of the association, at the European Youth Event (EYE 2021) was the most immersive and the closest moment of my life with the EU institutions. The EYE 2021 was a three-day event organized by the European Parliament, which took place in the Parliament itself, and brings together young people from all over Europe as young european citizens, but i also met people from other continents likes young Americans and young Indians. I was part of the delegation of the European deputy from France: Irène TOLLERET. She graciously invited us but it was her parliamentary assistant who took care of our delegation. This event was an opportunity to meet young people from different cultures and to participate in immersive and instructive activities within the European institutions.

The EYE 2021 lasted two days, from Friday morning to Saturday evening, the agenda was condensed to participate in a maximum of events, conferences and plenary sessions, while representing the Young Europeans at the stand. On the first morning, we went to the opening plenary session: it was the opportunity to discover the huge European hemicycle, the most symbolic place of this institution representing more than 450 million European citizens. During this opening ceremony, several high representatives of the European Parliament intervened: deputies who hold vice-presidential positions and the President of the Parliament, David SASSOLI. The rest of the day was marked by activities in the EYE village, with several NGOs, animators from the European Commission and fun stands to do games about Europe including quizz and sports games.

There were also conferences organized in small hemicycles intended for the plenary sessions of the parliamentary committees: it was again the occasion to be in the place of a deputy, to observe what could be their daily life in the Parliament. During the first day, I attended a conference on disinformation, the means that can be put in place by the European Union to fight against false information that circulates, to detect them, to understand their propagation with at the beginning rather closed groups: it was a moment where young people from all over Europe could deliver their experiences and their ideas that touch a current issue for at least a decade. During the second day, I was able to attend a question and answer session with the 2018 winner of the Sakharov Prize - delivered by the European Union - the Ukrainian filmmaker and activist Oleg SENTSOV. It was an enriching moment with a really serious atmosphere, he was a prisoner in Russia for resisting the invasion of Crimea in 2014, where he is from, by the Russian army. This meeting allowed to better understand the moral stakes of the European project.

To conclude, i would say that the EYE experience is fantastic to discover in an immersive way the European Parliament and to understand its activities and its main issues. The fact that some political representants were there is big advantage to feel the immersive sensation. For people who would like to go to the next one in June, this event is great way to meet people from other countries than yours and to make new friendships!