A reduction in food waste, the fight against nationalism and increasing interest in politics are the three priorities chosen by secondary school students. The students were responding to questions from the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) as part of a major debate on the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome that took place on Thursday 30 and Friday 31 March.
The event, “Your Europe, Your Say! (YEYS)” brought together around 100 students in Brussels from a variety of different secondary schools from the 28 EU member states and 5 candidate countries (Albania, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey).
Participants discussed burning issues such as youth unemployment, integration of migrants, social inequality, including gender disparities, the environment, economic recovery, terrorism and security. At the end of their discussions they put forward 10 recommendations on the future of Europe to members of the EESC and selected three of them that they judged to be “priorities”.
These three recommendations seek to: reduce food waste to help people in need and promote sustainability; combat nationalism through interactive education and an internationally approved history programme; eaise interest in politics in Europe by exploiting the potential of social media and education and providing attractive content and European Days focusing on this subject in schools.
In a press release, the EESC indicated that it would attempt to ensure that these young peoples’ proposals are given a hearing by European legislators, by putting them on the agenda of the committees responsible and by sending the three most popular ones to the European Commission. The EU’s advisory body also indicated that a delegation of participating students would present the most popular proposals to the EESC’s Civil Society Days on 26-27 June. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)