EUSA and ENGSO Youth at the European Youth Event 2018

EUSA and ENGSO Youth at the European Youth Event 2018

The third edition of the European Youth Event (EYE) gathered over 8000 young people from all over Europe in Strasbourg on 1-2 June. The event was organised by the European Parliament with the aim of fostering active citizenship of young Europeans by raising awareness on important issues, generating dialogues and giving the opportunity to raise their voice to the European decision makers.

The EYE2018 featured over 200 workshops, panel discussions and various kind of activities in five main themes: Young and old: Keeping up with the digital revolution; Rich and poor: Calling for a fair share; Apart and together: Working out for a stronger Europe; Safe and dangerous: Staying alive in turbulent times; Local and global: Protecting our planet. Participants had the opportunity to register for the activities in advance and prepare for the topics they are interested in to create fruitful discussions with over 300 speakers.

ENGSO Youth delegation

ENGSO Youth, a partner organisation of EUSA was also present at EYE2018 and contributed with their activities. Ms Anna Edes, EUSA Student Commission Chair also took part as a delegate. On Friday, a yoga session was held at the ‘Protecting our Planet’ Hub, followed by a workshop on sport for sustainable development. During the workshop, participants could learn and share ideas how sport can contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how sport can benefit from implementing them.

Yoga session

Saturday the ENGSO Youth activities started with a yoga session as well, while in the afternoon a panel discussion took place in the European Parliament seat on the legacy of mega-sport events. The panel included Ms Emmeline Ndoungue (Paris 2024 Organising Committee member), Mr Lode Goossens (Youth Olympic Games Young Changemaker program), Ms Nafsika Vrettaki (European Youth Forum Executive Board member), Ms Marisa Schlenker (participant at the FIFA Equality and Inclusion workshop) and Ms Anna Edes (focusing on the European Universities Games). The discussion was examining the economic, social and environmental impacts of the sport events on a local, regional and national level and how young people can contribute to the positive long-term legacy of the events.

Mega sports events session

Ms Edes presented the European Universities Games, and explained how the European University Sports Association (EUSA) is working on sustainability together with the Organising Committees of the events. She introduced some projects of EUSA, the gender equality, anti-doping, fair play initiatives and different educational activities, that can contribute to the long-term positive impact for the host city and the university students. It has also been highlighted by her, that the flexible sports program of European Universities Games with a few obligatory sports and additional optional sports ensure that the host cities do not need to build unnecessary sports venues because. The sports program can be adjusted according to the already existing venues and sports traditions of the region, which does not only help to cut the costs but also tackles with one of the biggest problems of the major sports events, the abandon venues.

Former EUSA interns - MR Doupoey, Ms Fodor, Ms Edes

For more information, please see www.europarl.europa.eu/european-youth-event/