Starting Point: AEGEE - Your Footprints Beyond the Organisation

As young people we dedicate a lot of time and effort in AEGEE to accomplish our common goals. We aim at realising certain values and to spread the idea of a common Europe - beyond borders and limits. For one of us organising an event is ideal, for another one leading a project is and again for another person it is facilitating a training session. All of us - whether consciously or not - leave our footprints behind. But how can we manifest the development and continue to leave our footprints even beyond AEGEE and connect it to the societies we live in?

We spoke with Viola Bianchetti and Spyros Papadatos about their experiences and paths.

Viola started her AEGEE career in Bologna after completing one year of European Voluntary Service. She joined the European level of AEGEE first with the Your Vision for Europe project, aiming at facilitating discussion among young people on topics of European relevance and at bringing their voices to policymakers.This motivated her for more and she became the coordinator of the Equal Rights Working Group, where she got in touch with social inclusion, gender equality and LGBTI+ rights. It would lead her to find a new passion to stand up for. Joining the Comité Directeur for one year in Brussels she campaigned for the European Parliament elections and was involved in projects related to gender equality and social inclusion. Still active in AEGEE as the Policy Officer on Equal Rights she is now working as project manager of Debating Europe, a project of European policy at a think tank (Friends of Europe), which aims at creating a bridge between citizens and policymakers by gathering the questions and opinions of young Europeans and forwarding them to the decision makers and experts. To bring her passion for gender equality and LGBTI+ rights into her professional life, she is also working on a side project on sexuality education for young people.

Written by Timon Turban Member of AEGEE-Aachen

AEGEE gave her an insight in living and working in an international environment, interacting with people of different personalities and working styles. Other skills such as project management and knowledge of European affairs brought her important assets in her current professional life.

Civic engagement is defined by her, as the usage of one’s position in society to uplift those who have less opportunities, listening to the experiences of other people, questioning oneself, acknowledging one’s privilege and deconstructing one’s way of thinking. This process of lifelong learning is essential and a certain responsibility for each of us.

For Spyros, born on the island Corfu, the AEGEE career started in Ioannina, a major student city in the north of Greece. Living there, a friend of his opened the world of volunteering and AEGEE up for him. It was what he was looking for: a way to invest the free time in contributing to the local community and having a social impact. Joining a Summer University and going to the general assembly of AEGEE-Europe in spring 2016 in Bergamo (‘the Agora of the 1000!’) he decided to take a step towards Europe - he ran as a candidate for the Network Commission with little European level knowledge, but with a strong motivation. After 2 years in NetCom, he became a Liaison Officer, joined the Europe On Track 5 project team, held the presidency of AEGEE-Europe 2018-2019 and job-shadowed the Chair Team of Agora Salerno. Currently he is still living in Brussels, where he is active as a member of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. This non-governmental partner of the Council of Europe in the field of youth is an essential part of the co-management structure of the Council of Europe and is composed of 30 youth experts who are co-establishing the standards and work priorities of the Council of Europe’s youth sector and make recommendations for future prior-

ities, programmes and budgets. Together with government representatives of the CoE member states, decisions about cases such as recommendations for the CoE Committee of Ministers are taken on the basis of consensus: if one disagrees, there is no decision and no recommendation for the CoE Committee of Ministers. This requires a sensitive procedure including long negotiations, careful choice of language when writing the text of a policy document and a lot of advocacy. It is a unique system where young people are given a seat at the table to make our voice heard and to co-decide on topics affecting us directly or indirectly. On behalf of AEGEE-Europe, Spyros is co-leading the portfolio on mainstreaming disability issues and as a Bureau member for Priority Focus Groups he is supporting and coordinating a group of 10 youth experts around the priority of ‘’Inclusive and Peaceful Societies’’.

Through AEGEE Spyros discovered topics such as European identity, active citizenship and youth participation for himself. He had the chance to initiate change from a grassroots level, to develop skills and knowledge such as public speaking, project management or policy and advocacy.

Civic engagement is for him about empowering citizens, especially young people, to become active within their local, regional, national and international societies and to enable them to become the change they wish to see in the world. More inclusive and just societies can be built in this way and the ownership the citizens feel can be ensured. Especially since we are the generation that is constantly affected by a crisis (the economic crisis & unemployment, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change), there is a huge need for policy-makers and decision-makers to give us a seat at the table and hear our voices.

AEGEE is still the platform for societal change. And it is a perfect hub to start from.