Your Europe, Your Say (YEYS) 2019

The European Economic and Social Committee is organising the 10th edition of "Your Europe, Your Say", a simulated youth plenary session allowing secondary school pupils from any EU Member State and from the official EU candidates countries (Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey) to learn about the EESC and its role, and to exchange views and propose recommendations on a specific subject. The theme for this year is "YEYS turns 10: Vote for the future!" and it is linked to the 2019 European Parliament elections.

With a view to the European Parliament elections in 2019, students will be asked to express their opinion on questions such as:

What role should young citizens play in the construction of Europe and how can they participate more?
What can Europe do to convince more young people to take part in elections and what impact might their vote have?
How can we strengthen democracy in Europe and improve the ways in which the public is informed about EU policies in order to combat misinformation?
How can young people in Europe help to make the European Union more democratic and more participatory?
To apply a school must:
- be a secondary school with pupils of 16-18 years of age;
- be located in an EU Member State or in one of the candidate countries;
- be recognised by the education authorities in one or more Member States or candidate countries;
- have a computer (to read and print PDF files), with internet access and email;
- choose one teacher and three students in their penultimate year of any type of secondary education (aged 16 years) who are able to express themselves in English;
- consider and discuss the topic of the event in class before coming to Brussels;
- host one EESC Member for an information session on the EU and the Committee, to one or more classes of the selected school, indicatively between January and February 2019 (travel expenses of the EESC member to be paid by the EESC).
- inform the selected pupils, their classmates and possibly all pupils at the school of the possibility to follow the preparations for the event and the event itself on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Deadline for schools to register: 18 November 2018.
Only one registration form per school will be accepted.

After registration has closed, one school from each of the EU Member States, along with a school from each of the candidate countries, will be chosen. The selected schools will then choose three students pupils in their penultimate year of any type of secondary education (aged 16 years) to represent them, as well as a teacher who will accompany them.
These people will have to be able to express themselves in English.

For reasons of gender equality, the pupils selected should preferably include at least one boy and one girl.
Schools must ensure that disabled pupils are also able to take part in the event.

The event will take place in Brussels at the headquarters of the European Economic and Social committee from 21st to 22nd March 2019.
The EESC will pay the travel and accommodation expenses of the students and accompanying teacher.

Find out more: Your Europe, Your Say (YEYS) 2019