Review of EYE 2018 (European Youth Event 2018) by Iris Azra YARDIMCI

Review of EYE 2018 (European Youth Event 2018) by Iris Azra YARDIMCI

Hi everyone! I’m Azra and today I’m going to share my amazing EYE 2018 (European Youth Event 2018) and YO! Fest experiences with you.

So…EYE is an event that happens to be, sadly, set once in 2 years. It’s an amazing opportunity to meet new people, including some important ones, and have lots of fun. This year, it was held in 1st and 2nd of June at European Parliament in Strasbourg and there were approximately 9,000 people between the ages 16-30. Don’t let that scare you ‘cause everyone was really cute and lovely. There were “volunteers” and if you had any issues you could just ask one of them. They gave us bracelets and you had to wear them throughout the event.

Moving on with, YO! Fest. YO! Fest is the youth festival of EYE, also held in 1st-2nd of June. It was set near the European Parliament and at the night time, lots of young musicians were there for you. We had so much fun.

Let’s talk about the themes and activities. EYE had 5 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

There were a lot of activities given under these themes for you to choose. We, as a team, chose the following ones before the event;
-APART AND TOGETHER: Future of Europe: Comeback of the champion

This one was held in the hemicycle and it was pretty crowded in there. There were 3 “idea givers”, 3 people from the actual parliament, 1 chairperson and us, the youth. We talked about our ideas upon the EU elections and future Europe.

-YOUNG AND OLD: The digital revolution continues: What will be the next steps?
It was held in the YO! Fest village. We talked about social media and its effects on us. They even interviewed me upon my ideas!

-YOUNG AND OLD: Schools of tomorrow: Learning for ever-changing times
This was the most amazing activity for me. They divided us into 4 main groups and our group debated on “free knowledge for all”. I’ve given 2 ideas under this and 1 of them was up for election. They gathered the top 10 from each group and put them online for election (mine was one of them!). It was REALLY exciting.

-LOCAL AND GLOBAL: Working towards a better world: Young people and sustainable development
This one was also held in YO! Fest village.

-Closing Session: Don’t stop me now
It was in the hemicycle and it was really crowded. We had really heated arguments and even asked questions to the people from European Parliament.

In conclusion, this was our mesmerizing, 2-day, European Parliament experience. The next one will be held in 2020 and it’s totally for free! Can’t wait to be there again!
Bye for now!

İris Azra YARDIMCI

Volunteer Writer of MUNTurkey.com

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