4 minute read
The Eastern Partnership Project+ of AEGEE-Europe at a Glance
Written by Shakira Rompf Project Manager of the Eastern Partnership Project+
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What is EaP+?
If you also heard that question before or even asked that yourself we’re herby glad to give a short overview about the project: Founded in 2011 and based on the Eastern Partnership Programme of the European Union, our main goal is to foster mutual understanding between different cultures and building closer ties between the EU and the EaP+ countries. In the past 9 years, the EaP+ of AEGEE-Europe was a key factor in a lot of policy proposals regarding the relations between the EU and the EaP+ countries. As it is part of AEGEEs vision and mission to strengthen the ties between different cultures and to build up a forum for discussion for all members, it was obvious that AEGEE should also focus on the European Neighborhood Policy.
Wait, why is it EaP”+”?
The answer to this question is simple as easy: The Eastern Partnership Programme of the European Union includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, whereas the Eastern Partnership Project+ of AEGEE-Europe additionally includes Russia.
What exactly are we working on?
One of the key points of the project is to raise awareness of different ongoings within the EaP+ countries. We perceived a huge lack of knowledge and awareness about those countries among central/western European states. That might rely on the fact that those countries -at first sight- don’t belong to the main economic partners of the EU countries or the fact that none of the countries might appear in people’s mind when it comes to the question, where to spend their next family holidays. We, as the project’s members, see ourselves as distributors and awareness raisers in any kind of EaP+ topics. Mostly we fulfill our vision by using our social media channels but also by spreading neutral information among AEGEEans. Beside that, we see it as our task and obligation to help the EaP+ locals and to bring together different cultures to eliminate historical quarrels and prejudices. The Eastern Partnership Project+ is not limited to one topic and can not be stored in one single box. The team works on different kind of things among their specific interests:
Social Inclusion
A big topic with an outstanding importance is social inclusion with all its facets. Not only seen as gender equality it is a heated point of discussion with various points of view and stages of development among the EaP+ countries. In Armenia the topic of gender inclusivity improved a lot since the Velvet Revolution in 2017 whereas in Russia being Homosexual is is still a huge problem. But not only the LGBT+ side of the topic is interesting for us but also the point of social exclusion due to physical disadvantages. As we find this topic pretty important, we applied in the beginning of this year for the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum regranting scheme together with Armenian Progressive Youth and a lot of other partner organisations to work closer on the topic of social inclusion. We launched a project called “InclusiON NOW! Development of Inclusive Youth Work in the EaP countries” that aims to offer an opportunity for a professional development to a group of youth professionals in the Eastern Partnership countries who work in the area of youth inclusion as well as providing young people with the advocacy goals of the Working Group 4 of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum to advocate for more youth inclusion both on the local level and on European level. This project will offer several training opportunities for youth workers in the field of inclusion and also includes a study trip to one of the most famous schools in Sweden. In the end we will provide all our relevant external partners with a booklet that concludes our outcomes and our policy recommendations.
All interested members of the AEGEE network with a specific knowledge in this topic have the opportunity to participate in the project!
Economy
Beside that, we expect it to be crucial to focus also on economy related topics. At the moment this field is rarely represented in AEGEE and lacks interest. As a students organisation it is highly understandable that our members do not see that topic as first priority. Nevertheless we can’t talk about bridging Europe and understanding different cultures while ignoring the economic side on the other hand. It is not only important to see how the EaP+ states are connected to the EU and what has been achieved and improved since the launch of the Eastern Partnership Programme of the European Union but also how the EU profits from it, as it is not only a Programme to provide the EaP states with money and support! We try to raise awareness and to create a basic knowledge about economical facts, starting by EU-EaP+ relations on an economic basis or highlighting for example the question of corruption in the EaP+ countries. people can inform themselves about the different cultures within one country. We developed an interactive map including all minorities in Russia and general facts about them. Furthermore there are also a lot of workshop materials created where people can learn more about this topic from a geographical as well as a historical point of view.
How to get in touch with us?
If you are interested in the Eastern Partnership Project+ of AEGEE-Europe and our work, feel free to check our social networks or approach us via email.
Minorities
For example, we worked on a lot of things that were done in the field of minorities, especially in Russia. We created a lot of workshop materials and interactive maps where
EASTERN PARTNERSHIP+
project of AEGEE-Europe
