UNICA at the kick-off event of the European Youth Week 2024
19 April 2024 | From UNICA
On April 12, UNICA was proudly represented at the European Youth Week kick-off event in Brussels. Fourteen delegates from our university members, along with officers from the UNICA Secretariat, attended the event. As an official partner of the European Elections 2024, UNICA was thrilled to participate in yet another occasion to emphasize the significance of this moment for democracy.
Ahead of the event, on the afternoon of April 11, UNICA hosted a short visited to the Experience Europe exhibition centre from the European Commission and a reception at the University Foundation in Brussels, where the Secretariat is based.
The next day started with a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, with welcome words by Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament (video message), Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission (video message), and Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. The speeches were followed by a panel discussion on “Empowering Youth: Democracy, Participation, and European Elections“. During the rest of the day, participants had the chance to attend parallel sessions on different topics concerning youth engagement, participation and active citizenship, and to visit the marketplace with 20 stands to discover youth initiatives, policies, and EU programmes.
UNICA in particular had the chance to deliver a short presentation during the session “University engagement for European Elections 2024 and beyond“, led by the European Parliament Youth Outreach Unit. Alexandra Duarte, Project and Communications Officer at the UNICA Secretariat, started by highlighting why universities are relevant to nurture democracy and presented two initiatives in which the network has been promoting the conversation around the elections: the UNICA Days in Brussels and the UNICA Video competition “Vote for Europe”, focusing particularly on the student perspective.
If you want to learn more about some the points presented during the session, check this LinkedIn article.
More from the European Youth Week:
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