Dear Madam, Sir
Please find below the latest AEGEE-Europe press release concerning the Universities to Debate Europe project.
Yours sincerely
Meg Chudzik
UniDebate Public Relations
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Students’ vision on the Future of
Europe
December
was the month of important meetings not only for the European decision makers.
Students, representing four largest student networks in Europe (AEGEE, JADE, ESN
and ESIB) gathered in Brussels to discuss the results of the Debate Marathon
organized within the Universities to Debate Europe Project. The final conference
of UniDebate, hosted by the European Parliament and Polish Mission to the EU,
took place on the 20th of December and enjoyed the support of Mr. Pat
Cox, President of the European Parliament and College of
Europe.
The
Universities to Debate Europe Project aimed at generating
a substantial contribution to the European Convention in a form of a position
paper coming from the university world. The Final Conference, which gathered 150
participants, brought the closure to this students’
initiative.
The
results of the project will be collected and published soon, however the
position papers on the Future of Europe presented by participating Networks are
already available online at: www.unidebate.org.
Giuliano
Amato, the Vice-President of the European Convention, one
of the honorable speakers said: “This
kind of event allows a very limited fraction of the European population to be
involved. Youth should be seen as the major drive in the building of the
European demos and all attention needs to be given to strengthening this
on-going process.”
The
manager of the Project, Diana Filip encouraged
participants to speak out their mind and to express their views about the future
they envisaged for our Europe. “It’s up to the youth to create the “future of
Europe”. We are the citizens of tomorrow.” – she said.
“The
Students’ Convention was a highlight event of the year 2002 for the European
Students’ Forum AEGEE. Participation of distinguished guests like Mr. Amato, Mr.
Antonio Vitorino, European Commissioner for Justice and Home affairs and Mr.
Klaus
Haensch, Vice President of the European Parliament’s delegation to the
Convention gave us - students the feeling that our opinion is considered
important” – said Mark de Beer, President of AEGEE-Europe.
The
conference enjoyed the media support of EurActiv, the European information
portal.
For more information please contact:
Ms. Malgorzata
Chudzik,
AEGEE-Europe Vice-President /Public Relations