During our European Youth Week which we celebrated last week, we had a workshop and a debate about Europe itself.
I personally really enjoyed the exchange between all of us, because we were people from Estonia, Hungary, Sweden, Greece, France and Germany, so there were a lot of different opinions and inputs.
I actually expected more commune opinions, because we are all doing an EVS at the moment, and that´s just possible because of the European Union, so we all experience one of the (in my opinion) biggest advantages of the EU.
Because of that I expected everyone to be a little bit more interested in the topic of the EU and -at least- to participate in the elections on the 26th of may. But it wasn´t like that!
We also have volunteers who dont´t want to vote at all. To be honest, that scares me a little bit. Because voting is important. We have a voice and we have to use it, otherwise we will give our voice automaticly to the extrem parties which profite from our indifference. During the last european elections five years ago, there was a voter turnout of 43,09%, that is not enought. But when there are just so few people voting, our vote is even more important and we can change something.
But back to the topic of the debate, it was not just about voting. We discussed a lot of different topics related to the EU, for example environment, wars and armies, animal treatment and so one. We also had some equal opinions, for example about the topic „sexual identity“. We all think that everyone should be accepted how he or she is, and that the EU still have to do a lot about that. And in relation to the treatment of animals we also had the opinion that the EU has to change something. But when we spoke about how much and what to change, we had different views again.
But that´s logic, because we all grow up in different environments, with different people by our side and we all made different experiences. That formed our opinions and our view on life in general. And that is good and important, at least in my eyes.
I think we should all discuss a little bit more. The EU itself lives from people with many different oppinions, and not only the EU but every single person benefit from good (and of course respectful!) discussions.
Lioba Einhoff
I personally really enjoyed the exchange between all of us, because we were people from Estonia, Hungary, Sweden, Greece, France and Germany, so there were a lot of different opinions and inputs.
I actually expected more commune opinions, because we are all doing an EVS at the moment, and that´s just possible because of the European Union, so we all experience one of the (in my opinion) biggest advantages of the EU.
Because of that I expected everyone to be a little bit more interested in the topic of the EU and -at least- to participate in the elections on the 26th of may. But it wasn´t like that!
We also have volunteers who dont´t want to vote at all. To be honest, that scares me a little bit. Because voting is important. We have a voice and we have to use it, otherwise we will give our voice automaticly to the extrem parties which profite from our indifference. During the last european elections five years ago, there was a voter turnout of 43,09%, that is not enought. But when there are just so few people voting, our vote is even more important and we can change something.
But back to the topic of the debate, it was not just about voting. We discussed a lot of different topics related to the EU, for example environment, wars and armies, animal treatment and so one. We also had some equal opinions, for example about the topic „sexual identity“. We all think that everyone should be accepted how he or she is, and that the EU still have to do a lot about that. And in relation to the treatment of animals we also had the opinion that the EU has to change something. But when we spoke about how much and what to change, we had different views again.
But that´s logic, because we all grow up in different environments, with different people by our side and we all made different experiences. That formed our opinions and our view on life in general. And that is good and important, at least in my eyes.
I think we should all discuss a little bit more. The EU itself lives from people with many different oppinions, and not only the EU but every single person benefit from good (and of course respectful!) discussions.
Lioba Einhoff
