On 3 and 4 March 2022, more than 250 students from all over Europe met in Strasbourg to finalize their work on policy recommendations for the Institutions of the European Union. All these students had one thing in common: They all study in higher education institutions that are part of an of European University Alliances like E³UDRES². The students had been working on their policies for three months prior to the event in Strasbourg, where their recommendations received the finishing touches.
Giving a voice to European students
The two-day event, hosted at impressive locations like the European Parliament and Strasbourg University, aimed to give a voice to the European students to express their opinions, as well as foster the participation of students within European University Alliances. Three students from Vidzeme UAS and St. Pölten UAS worked on policy recommendations in two panels titled “How to unite Europeans around European values?” and “Online is good – in person is better?! Building a future-oriented, digitalised, and inclusive higher education system” together with various other students from different European countries. Further topics discussed included cyber security, foreign policy, a potential European health union and more. The topics had to be voted on unanimously to be recommended to European Institutions. "Working on real policy proposals for real European Institions was great - not only did we manage to include current global events like the Ukraine crisis into our recommendations, but we were also able to get connected with students from all over Europe, as well as Members of the European Parliament", reports Lukas Kroisenbrunner, one of the E³UDRES² Student Representatives present at the event.
More is yet to come
Since the policy proposals have been accepted by the European Student Assembly, they will now be included into a positioning paper for the Conference on the Future of Europe (of which the initiative was a part) and sent to the European Institutions to be evaluated and possibly implemented.
This event was just the kick-off to further gatherings of European students - many more events are planned in the course of the European Year of Youth 2022, as well as a potential second edition of the assembly in 2023.
