The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has chosen Petro Kuzmjak secondary school from Serbia to take part in the 2017 edition of the contest Your Europe Your Say (YAYS) Committee’s annual youth meeting where the main challenges Europe is faced with are discussed.
From over 680 applications, 33 school have been selected at a draw – one from each of the 28 EU Member States and the five candidate countries (Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) – in the presence of Goncalo Lobo Xavier, EESC Vice-President and members of the Committee Katiana Vicens Guillén and Indrė Vareikytė.
The theme of the 2017 YEYS contest is the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. It will give young people an opportunity to offer their solutions to the biggest challenges Europe is faced with. Each school will send a delegation of three 16- to 17-year-old students and a teacher to Brussels to participate in a youth plenary session on 30-31 March 2017. The students will debate and vote on the political challenges facing the EU and suggest their own solutions.
The preparations for YEYS will kick off in early 2017 with a visit to selected schools paid by EESC members in order to help the students prepare for the youth plenary session, introduce them to the EESC’s functioning and activities and explaine its role in the EU’s decision-making process.
Through this initiative the EESC, the voice of civil society, is acting to ensure that the views, experiences and ideas of the younger generation, are heard in EU policy making.
