What is the issue we address?
Europe has elected a new parliament on 25 May 2014. We at IFAIR believe that this was an opportunity especially for our generation to raise our voice. Only a strong and united Europe will be able to cope with the challenges that young Europeans will face. Therefore, we came together with many friends and partners and created an exciting program over several months, discussing pressing issues and motivating people to go to the polls. Now that Europe has voted, the challenges continue – IFAIR believes it a especially important priority now to ensure that one of the actual candidates in the elections will become President of the European Commission. Check below and help to shape a European future!
Young Voices for Europe "#IVoteBecause"
IFAIR mobilized dozens of young adults to share their views on what Europe means to them and why they went to the polls on May 25th 2014. Therefore we started an online testimonial campaign in which young Europeans took a picture of themselves and finished the sentence “I vote because…”. These pictures were distributed via our social media channels.
The campaign was supported by several other initiatives like Junge Europäische Föderalisten (JEF) e.V., Deutschland European Youth Portal (europa.eu), IvoteEurope or Europe4Youth and in the end reached over 13.000 young voters online!
European Public Policy Conference (EPPC) 2014
Young people in Europe face staggering challenges: record levels of unemployment have pushed an increasingly educated youth into an economy with few prospects; temporary contracts and unpaid work are normalizing into a precarious new labour market; and skilled young people are emigrating en masse from crisis-stricken nations. How will our generation address these issues?
Entirely run by students, the 6th European Public Policy Conference (EPPC 2014) brang together young adults from all over Europe between 11-13 April in Rome to tackle these topics. Together with recognized institutions like the London School of Economics, Science Po Paris and the Hertie-School of Governance in Berlin, IFAIR helped to organize the EPPC 2014 as an official partner. Also, IFAIR was able to win former Greek PM George Papandreou as keynote speaker. You were able to apply via a short essay and win a 300,- EUR prize. The best essays were also published on IFAIR.eu. Read the winner essay here and stay updated for our comprehensive report!
European Blogger-Competition
As a media partner, IFAIR supports a blogger-competition by our Partner „The European“ and the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. By now, the competition is completed and the 10 top Bloggers have been selected. They have been prepared at an extensive workshop in Berlin in January and now start sharing their ideas about future challenges of the European continent in their blogs.
Alexander Pyka (alexander.pyka@ifair.eu)
Theresa Lieb (theresa.lieb@ifair.eu)