News > European Movement International at the YO!Fest | EYE2016

Participative democracy and civil dialogue

European Movement International at the YO!Fest | EYE2016

That was THE event!
European Movement International at the YO!Fest | European Youth Event 2016

What happens if you invite 7.500 young people to come to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to talk about democracy and participation? You can be sure it is going to be an amazing, creative Youth Event!

On 20-21 May 2016, the European Parliament opened its doors once again for more than 150 panel debates, workshops and activities took place inside and outside the Parliament under the motto “Together we can make a change”. The gathering stimulated a vivid debate with and among young people, allowing them to exchange ideas based on five themes:

War and peace: perspectives for a peaceful planet;
Apathy or participation: agenda for a vibrant democracy;
Exclusion or access: crackdown on youth unemployment;
Stagnation or innovation: tomorrow’s world of work.

As one of the partners of the European Youth Forum, the European Movement contributed to shaping of the programme of YO! Fest – a vibrant political festival at the Parliament’s esplanade. On the first day, we organised two major events which met with a great feedback from our youth participants.

On day 1, Friday 20 May, a #YOFest talk show moderated by Caroline Kellner from FR3 , “Guess my age, I’m an M(E)P” welcomed the contribution by Gueorg Danielov Gueorgiev (24), the youngest Member of the Bulgarian Parliament, who faced our audience ready to answer each and every question, without a pre-set theme or agenda. By organising this event we wanted to provide young people with a platform to ask questions they never had a chance to ask before – or were afraid to. Gueorg encouraged young people to take responsibility for Europe on the national levels and embrace the opportunity lying ahead of them. How it feels like to be a young Member of the Parliament? What was your way to politics, how you actually got there? Can young politicians become role models for young activists and youth leaders?, were just a few of the questions he faced.

The same afternoon we threw an exciting “EYE Contact: Speed Briefing with MEPs”. Yes, you have read it well – a speed briefing! Everyone knows what speed dating is all about… But one day we thought, what about turning the format into an interactive session allowing young people to meet face-to-face with a Member of the European Parliament for 15 minutes? In groups of 10, young people had the opportunity to ask the questions you always wanted to ask outside the usual setup of Q&A sessions. Around 150 participants showed up to directly engage special guests, MEPs Julie Ward, Tom Vandenkendelaere and Cecile Kyenge . Interested in how did it go? Check out the #EYE2016 wrap up video including Joanna Nahorska speaking about our speed briefing event

For the two days of the festival we also had a pleasure to co-host an “Apathy or Participation Hub”, displaying our multimedia interactive exhibition exploring participatory democracy, particularly for marginalised groups, “SnapChat Democracy”.