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Youth on the move/Model European Parliament
Start date: Jun 1, 2016, End date: Dec 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The project of Youth on the Move/Youth Parliament 2016 is about European political participation, active citizenship and empowerment of young people with the tool of the structured dialogue. Our aim is to improve young people’s access and full participation in society by building a Youth Parliament that works like the European Parliament. We want to make Copenhagen a best place for European future, built by European youth. From Oct 29 to Nov 5,l 2016, about 100 students from the 10th and 11th grade, and every social class are expected to come to Copenhagen DK, from 20 European countries to discuss relevant youth problems within a structured dialogue process. The basis for our work will be the EU Youth strategy and the results of our former projects, e.g. Waves of Democracy. This project is a unique possibility to discuss youth topics not only at a national but a European level. The new and innovative approach is the combination of political capacity and opinion building, youth topics and political debates with decision makers in a creative and innovative way, using tools also out of the ordinary and "old-fashioned" way. Young people learn to reflect and improvise. The MEP is a peer-group educational project. The activities are led by young people, the young participants are involved in all the stages of the project, from preparation to follow-up. Non-formal learning principles and practices are reflected throughout the implementation.As the support of young people for the European integration is Europe-wide at a low level, and the feeling that their voice isn´t heard by the politicians, the aim of our project is to give young people the opportunity to get emotionally and intellectually involved in European politics, to experience it through this international session and all related activities, getting engaged with youth relevant topics. Our strategy of youth empowerment aims at enabling young people to participate meaningfully in shaping their own future. We see empowerment as a process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation, to greater decision-making power and control, and to transformative action. We want to guide young people on their way to become active citizens and cultural navigators.The participants will strengthen their skills, intercultural awareness and employability through their participation. We use the Youth Parliament as an adequate and persuasive non-formal method in order to achieve our aims. Furthermore, we want to give voice to youth-related topics. The topics are chosen in advance during preparatory activities by the Committee Presidents and the Presidents, considering the proposals of the involved participants. The participating countries hold internal preparatory meetings to choose and prepare potential participants. We intend to invite young students from different social classes with different social background so that we will also include youngsters with cultural, social or economic difficulties in the project. At this international meeting in 2016, resolutions will be drafted, discussed and voted on in ten different committees. Thus, an extensive catalogue of proposals and demands from young participants will be presented. Those proposals and demands will be debated in a plenary session. For pre - and post-processing, participants will discuss the project issues in their schools and as part of local events involving both other young people and politicians. Meetings with respective diplomats and round table discussions with experts will offer further possibilities for political contact. The main event will be documented under the form of a livestream, a video and website edited by the participants themselves. The participants will get a deep and lasting insight into the work, function and importance of the European Parliament and European integration. They will strengthen many key skills, they build their own opinion and learn to become socially engaged. In addition, European issues will be discussed and pursued with European policy makers that have relevance for young people in terms of the principles of the European Youth Strategy. Through their work with young people, politicians should motivated to engage themselves in youth problems. The strengthening of European identity and the feeling for European citizenship among young people will be the main long-term benefit of the project. The project will be supported by the Danish Parliament and the Europe House in DK as well as a number of other people/organisations/businesses.
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