Author: network

EULECTIONS’19 online workshop with students @ Universidade dos Açores, Azores, Portugal, December, 11, 2020

The EULECTIONS’19 roadshow continued online with Universidade dos Açores on December 11, 2020. The event gathered 46 citizens, including 41 participants from the city of Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel, Azores, 5 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, to reflect and collect perspectives from the archipelago, one of the European Union (EU) outermost regions, about the future scenarios for the EU.

We’ve started the session with the project’s presentation and a short video about Europe’s day and asked participants to share the words they associate with the video and Europe. After a brief commentary about the group’s word cloud, we’ve presented a short video about the history of the EU, followed by a quiz on this topic. Participants were invited to test their knowledge about the European project after the Second World War, before the reflection about the present and future of the EU.

After sharing the quiz results and a brief discussion, the next activities of the workshop were focused on the current state of the EU and the possible ways forward. Having, as a starting point, a video and a presentation about the “White Paper on the Future of Europe”, the participants were then divided in small groups, in different Zoom rooms, with the task of choosing and reflecting about one of the five scenarios, its pros and cons. Each group was supported by a facilitator.

Following the reflection about the scenarios, each group’s main conclusions were presented and debated by the facilitators and the participants. After this collective reflection, each participant was invited to decide individually, which scenario they considered better for the future of the EU, the “citizen’s scenario”.

For some of the participants, the Union needs to consolidate its institutions and coordination processes to respond to challenges, as for others it needs to change to “do much more together”.

Recognizing Brexit and the initial COVID19 pandemic response as pivotal moments that underscore the need to make improvements to the European project, students also recognized the importance of the EU in promoting better living conditions in the poorer regions of the continent. They’ve also stated the importance of European values and the fight against extreme nationalist ideas to keep united in diversity.

As for citizens’ role in shaping the EU’s future, students emphasized the importance of improving the Union’s communication with citizens, especially from peripheral regions, and find ways to engage Europeans in the debate.

With the aim of promoting the participants interest in the future of the EU, we’ve share information about the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Citizens’ Initiative, key instruments to allow citizens to engage with the European project and shape its policies. Also, highlighting the importance of an informed and active European citizenship, we’ve shared with participants the ChangEU Webcourse, developed in the framework of the project, where they can access information about the European Union’s history, role and challenges.

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Interview with Ana Isabel Xavier, EULECTIONS’19 coordinator, at the ENTRECAMPOS magazine

Ana Isabel Xavier, CEI-Iscte’s researcher and EULECTIONS’19 coordinator was interviewed for the last number of ENTRECAMPOS, Iscte’s magazine. The talk was focused on youth participation in European affairs, including in the electoral processes, ways to promote a citizens’ engagement with the EU and how the project has been promoting a dialogue with youth from various countries about the future of the European project.

Looking at the feedback the project has had from the participants, Ana Isabel Xavier highlighted young people’s ambitious visions for the future of the EU. When questioned about the 5 scenarios put forward by the Juncker Commission, they tend to choose those where the Union has a greater role and emphasize the need for more solidarity and action in areas like the environment and jobs. But they also recognize EU difficulties and challenges in responding to important events like the financial crisis and to the COVID19 pandemic.

Recognizing the importance of improving participation and communication channels between the EU and European citizens, Xavier believes that progress has been made but also considers that the links between citizens’ perspectives and policy making must be enhanced.

Read the full interview here ( in portuguese)

2025-11-12
EULECTIONS’19 online workshop with students @ Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, May, 4, 2021

On May, 4, 2021, the EULECTIONS’19 roadshow returned to Iscte, to promote an online workshop with Political Science students. The event involved 29 citizens, including 28 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 1 participant from the city of Madrid, Spain

The workshop started with a project presentation by the coordinator and the partners, followed by an introductory activity in which students where invited to share the first word they associate with the EU.

After the introduction, we’ve invited students to watch a short movie about the history of the EU and test their knowledge about the building of European community through a quiz. The first activities of the workshop aimed to set the floor to the discussion about the present and future of the European Union.

Following the quiz about Europe’s past and a brief commentary by the facilitators, we’ve presented a short video and additional background information about the White Paper on the Future of Europe and – Five scenarios. This was the starting point for the next activity, a group reflection about the pros and cons of the various scenarios. Participants were then divided in small groups to chose one of the five scenarios and reflect about it.

Each group’s main conclusions were presented and debated. For some of the participants, it’s important to set more ambitious goals for the future of the EU by developing the political union and improving its representativeness, although recognizing the risks of alienating those groups of citizens who oppose increasing the EU’s political role. For others, the more ambitious scenarios for the future of the EU are also difficult to achieve or even unrealistic in the short term, due to the very diverse socioeconomic conditions in the member states.

Another group of students considers important to improve and consolidate the current European model and its institutions and only then, advance to more ambitious goals. This strategy would contribute to improve EU’s relations with European citizens and reduce Eurocepticism although key important challenges remain, namely the international role of the EU and its ability to respond to international events and the development of common tax policies. The debate was wrapped up with the individual vote on the preferred scenario for the future of the EU.

We then proceeded with the next activity in which we invited participants to present their suggestions regarding priority areas to be addressed by the EU to respond to its citizens’ needs and ways to improve the relationship between the European institutions and European citizens.

Regarding the priority areas for EU’s intervention, participants mentioned climate change and sustainability, the socioeconomic inequalities between countries and the refugees crisis. In order to improve its relationship with European citizens, EU institutions should be more transparent, promote participatory decision making, take into account each countries’ specificities and reduce bureaucracy. Citizens should also be more involved in European issues.

Following the collection of the students’ perspectives suggestions about European citizenship, we’ve shared two important initiatives regarding the future of Europe and citizens’ participation, the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Citizens’ Initiative.

Finally, we’ve invited participants to continue to learn and share information about Europe through the online resource created by EULECTIONS’19, the ChangEU Webcourse.

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EULECTIONS’19 – Information Template

The information regarding the implementation of the EULECTIONS19 is available in the Information Template.

2025-11-12
Raise your voice to debate Europe – Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July, 6, 2019

On the July, 6, 2019, in the theatre Formaat, in Rotterdam, a group of people came together for the “Raise Your Voice Festival”. The festival was organized by Stichting CAAT Projects in collaboration with Stichting Formaat Wekplaats voor Participatierf Drama.

The event involved 53 citizens, including 23 participants from the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1 participant from the city of Budapest, Hungary, 8 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 6 participants from the city of Brussels, Belgium, 7 participants from the city of Warsaw, Poland, 6 participants from the city of Athens, Greece, 1 participant from the city of Bucharest, Romania, 1 participant from the city of Skopje, North Macedonia.

The artistic acts were previously prepared by a group of 30 young people and then presented to the wider group. They were challenged with that task and even if most of them were not artists themselves, they worked together to plan a 2 hours act with poetry, dance and music.

In preparation to the festival we have talked about possible issues that young people are facing in their local setting. The main problems identified by the young people, that were common to their countries, were the following: women’s rights, minorities ‘rights, integration of refugees, discrimination, medical and educational staff are not prepared to deal with the ones that have issues, pressure from the society to hide/suppress your feelings and emotions, a post-colonialist mindset that was preserved in Europe, to have easy access to healthy food and the lack of psychological support in mental hospitals and school.

We also need to set an example and to promote the type of society that we want to see. So the European Union and the National politicians should provide the resources needed, but then it has to be each one of us the agent of change.

When the group analysed the 5 scenarios of the White Paper on the Future of Europe, they immediately refuse the scenery to continue as it is or to focus on the single market. In general, their idea is that the politics in Europe and in each national country is way to focus on the economic interests and that is why they neglect the minorities and their rights. Thus, the only scenery that would be desirable for an united Europe was the last one, “Doing much more together”.

After this discussion and when the group was deciding for the collective message to be send to the European Parliament, they reach the conclusion that we cannot just seat and wait for the politicians to solve their challenges.

For the group the priority was to look to people as lives full of potential and not as numbers.

2025-11-11
3D models and Europe’s future scenarios – Fusignano, Italy, December, 13, 2019

On the 13th December, at Fusignano, Fondazione Flaminia and Comitato Gemellaggio Fusignano organized a workshop to debate the future of Europe. Using the LEGO Serious Play methodology, the participants shared their ideas through 3D models.

This event took place at the museum and involved the world of local associations, with the twinning committee. The event involved 28 citizens from the city of Fusignano, Italy. This workshop got participants to simulate the European Commission’s 5 Scenarios for The Future of Europe so that they can perceive and express their ideas about the current and future role of the European Union and understand how they can #changEU.

Using Lego Serious Play to think, communicate and present solutions to European problems and challenges

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Students debate the 5 scenarios for the future of the EU – Braga, Portugal, March, 5 and 6, 2020

On March, 5 and 6, 2020, the Centre for International Studies (CEI-Iscte) and the European Association of Young Educators (EAYE) took the debate about the Future of the EU to Braga, in collaboration with the University of Minho, on the north of Portugal. The event involved 77 citizens, including 68 participants from the city of Braga, 7 from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 1 from the city of Paris, France and 1 from the city of Rome, Italy.

During the workshops, students from the master’s and graduation classes on International Relations shared their perspectives and ideas about the 5 scenarios for the future of Europe. The event included 2 workshop sessions with the two groups. The sessions started with a brief presentation of the project by the partners, followed by the “EU dating” an activity in which participants had to share with each other their answers to the questions “What does it mean to be an European Union citizen”.

After the initial presentations and ice-breakers, we invited the participants to watch a video and a presentation about the 5 Scenarios for the Future of Europe. This introductory video and the additional information provided were the starting point for the group-work in which students chose one of the scenarios, reflected about its pros and cons and shared with the rest of the group. Each group also created a message for the European institutions.

Following the groups’ presentation about the scenarios they worked on, its pros and cons, and their messages for the EU, we asked students to share their perspectives on the current state of the European Union and the European Commission using green, yellow and red cards. The Green meant that they feel European Commission aligns with their interests and opinions, Yellow meaning that they somehow feel connected with the European Commission work, but they feel some lack of representation and Red signalizing that they don´t feel represented at all by the work done by the European Commission.

Watch the video of the event in Braga:

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Online workshop – Il futuro dell’Europa é nelle nostre mani, Italy, May, 25, 2020

The project ChangEU has been promoting workshops in Portugal, Italy and The Netherlands to collect citizens’ perspectives about the future of Europe, focusing on the 5 scenarios put forward by the European Commission. Throughout the project, partners have used non-formal education methods to debate and develop creative ideas about the EU we want. During this period of social distancing, we’ve explored online platforms to develop new and creative ways to promote participation in the discussion about Europe.

Fondazione Flaminia promoted on May, 25, 2020, an online workshop facilitated by Alessandro Bonaccorsi, using the Ugly Design2 methodology, that aimed to use drawing as a way to express ideas and concepts. The event involved 40 citizens, including 37 participants from the city of Ravenna, Italy, 3 from the city of Lisbon, Portugal.

The workshop was expected to be held in the classroom with a class
from the Ravenna art high school, but the lockdown and social isolation did not make it possible to organize a workshop in person.

In a moment of emergency and structural, economic and social crisis that has affected the whole world, we considered fundamental to continue to talk about Europe and the future of the EU.
We have therefore remodelled the workshop to make it usable online,
through the platforms we learned to use during the lockdown period, and we opened it to all citizens, without age limits.

During the workshop, the participants were invited to imagine and convey messages about Europe using drawing, express their opinions about the future, namely which of the 5 scenarios they consider the best option for Europe, and reflect about the fundamental conditions to turn it to reality.

2025-11-11
Eulections’19 workshop with students @ Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, December, 4, 2020

The Eulections’19 – Think, Decide, Change project took its roadshow to the Internet, adapting the debates and workshops to the virtual space. On December 4, 2020, the debate about the future of Europe continued with students from Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa who shared their perspectives about EU’s current and future challenges.

The event took place via Zoom and included two sessions with two groups of students and involved 64 citizens, including 63 participants from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, 1 from the city of Brussels, Belgium.

We’ve started the sessions by presenting the project to students and after that, a small video about Europe’s day. Using Menti, students shared the first word that came to their mind inspired by Europe and the introductory video.

After a debate about the students’ word cloud the groups watched a video about the EU’s political project and answered a quiz about the history of Europe and the European Union. Those two introductory activities aimed to set the floor for the discussion about the main topic of the event, the Five Scenarios for Future of Europe.

We started by looking at the Five Scenarios for Future of Europe with a video and a presentation. After that, the two groups were organized in smaller groups in separate Zoom rooms to choose and reflect about one of the scenarios, its pros and cons. Each group chose a representative who presented the groups’ main conclusions.

Following the groups’ debate about the five scenarios, we’ve invited students from the workshop groups to individually choose the scenario they believed to be the best for the future of the European Union.

During this collective reflection, the students emphasized the importance of European solidarity, namely in response to the pandemic, and its role in reducing socioeconomic asymmetries between member states, but also recognized the need to improve coordination and solidify the European project.

Students stated the importance of bringing the EU closer to European citizens by improving its communication and information initiatives, an effort that must be also undertaken by national governments and civil society, as citizens participation in European affairs is fundamental to improve the EU.

To promote the students’ engagement with the debate about the future of the European project, we’ve shared information about initiatives and instruments that aim to create spaces for European citizens participation, the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Citizens’ Initiative.

Considering the importance of information in the promotion of active citizenship, The ChangEU WebCourse was presented to participants as an easily accessible resource to understand key facts about Europe’s history, its role and institutions and some initiatives where citizens can participate and contribute to shape its future.

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EULECTIONS’19 online workshop with students @ Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, December, 15, 2020

Students from Universidade de Coimbra joined the EULECTIONS’19 online roadshow to debate the future of Europe on December 15, 2020. This event included two workshops with two groups of participants from the European Affairs course with a total of 28 citizens, including 23 participants from the city of Coimbra, 5 participants from the city of Lisbon.

The workshop started with a brief presentation of the EULECTIONS’19 project by the partners and an overview of the goals and objectives of the session. Following the introduction, we’ve asked the participants to share the first word they associate with the European Union.

The word cloud was formed by words like “union”, “cooperation”, “economy”, “mutual aid”, “multicultural”, “human rights”, “development”, “challenge”, “connection”, reflecting mainly favorable perspectives about the EU. Following this initial brainstorm, we’ve challenged the students to test their knowledge about the history of the European project through a quiz. These first activities aimed to set the floor for the debate about the current state of the EU and its future.

After the quiz results were shared with the participants and commented by students and facilitators, we’ve started the collective reflection about the future of Europe with a short video and a presentation about the “White Paper on the Future of Europe”. In the two workshop sessions, the participants were divided in smaller groups with the task of choosing and debating one of the scenarios and sharing their perspectives. Each group had a facilitator to mediate the discussion.

The conclusions of the group work were presented by the group’s representatives and a debated followed with some comments from the facilitators. The students debated the 5 scenarios, with different perspectives emerging about how to overcome the challenges facing the European project.

For some students it’s important to focus on key areas to improve EU’s performance and therefore “do less more efficiently”, as for others the Union must strengthen its policies and institutions to deliver its current agenda. A third group of opinions was focused on a more ambitious EU that is able to do “much more together” namely, face climate change and health. This discussion was wrapped up with participants choosing, individually, the scenario they would prefer for the future of the European Union, a “citizens’ scenario“.

The group reflection was then oriented towards the relations between European institutions and European citizens namely, what should the EU do to respond to citizens’ needs? what can citizens do to improve the EU? how can the relationship between the EU and its citizens improve?

The students recommended the creation of better communication and participation instruments as well as more debate opportunities about European issues, underscoring the role of citizens in engaging with the institutions through the channels already available. They emphasized the need to continue to involve schools and universities in the discussions and promote a real understanding of what the EU really means.

In order to promote an informed and active citizenship, we’ve challenged participants to take part in the ChangEU Webcourse and share this easily accessible resource with others. We’ve also shared the current initiatives that allow citizens to shape the EU’s policies and the debate about its future namely the European Citizens’ Initiate and the Conference on the Future of Europe.

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