The League of Young Voters: youth views for the upcoming 2014 European Parliament elections!
The League of Youth Voters is an initiative by several international partners which will be officially launched in May 2013. The project will consist of several tools such as an interactive and informative website and national campaigns to support young people in taking a stand during the elections.
The idea started from an analysis of statistics of the previous election rounds: from 33% in 2004, the youth participation rate had reached the level of 29% in 2009. In summer 2011, a study was conducted by the European Youth Forum in order to find out why young people did not vote in the 2004 and 2009 European elections. The interviews, inquiries and data analysis revealed that there was a big problem in terms of communication.
From 31st of January till 2nd of February 21 representatives of National Youth Councils and 17 representatives of International Youth Organisations met in Brussels for a capacity-building event. OBESSU was represented by Simonas Seskis from LMS, member of the newly established working group European Parliament Elections Platform ‘School Students’ Europe 2019.
The first morning the discussions started with the 5 leaders from the biggest parties in the European Parliament. The event then proceeded with many workshops to introduce the participants on social media, the advantages of traditional media, funding opportunities and financing campaigns. The last day was dedicated to present good practices in election campaigns as well as what national and international organisations plan in view of the European Parliament elections in 2014.
As suggested by OBESSU Member Organisations and adopted in the Work Plan 2013-14, OBESSU is also starting its work on the topic and set up the working group European Parliament Elections Platform ‘School Students’ Europe 2019′. The core idea is to ensure politicians do not forget school students and develop proposals in their programmes related to education and school student issues.
The group will also follow the work and give inputs to the League of Young Voters and share all the latest news related to the European elections 2014!
written by Simonas Seskis – LMS (member of the European Parliament Elections Platform ‘School Students’ Europe 2019′ working group).
