SU4E Road Show #6: Beli Manastir

SU4E Road Show #6: Beli Manastir

Posted By admin | 08 Apr 2019 | JCI, | 0 Comments

Step Up For Europe Road Show: Stop #6

We stopped at the JCI Balkan Conference (5-6 April) in Beli Manastir, Croatia, for the weekend. The JCI Balkan Conference is aimed at young and starting entrepreneurs and professionals from seven South East European countries to exchange business know-how, discuss important topics and trends related to emerging technologies and attend training and networking events.

Croatia is the newest member of the European Union and will be participating in this year's European elections only for the second time. The participation of young Croatians at the last European Parliament elections in 2014 was among the lowest in all of Europe: Only 13% of 18-24 year-olds and 20% of 25-39 year-olds went to cast their vote on election day (Source: European Parliament post-election survey 2014).

That is why we brought the Step Up For Europe campaign to Croatia to raise awareness for the importance of voting at European elections and talk to youngsters about the relevance of their voice! The first afternoon of the Balkan Conference was dedicated to Step Up For Europe. Prior to the opening of the conference JCI Croatia organized a workshop and pitching competition at the Ethnology Center of Baranja's heritage in cooperation with the Beli Manastir Youth City Council on the European election campaign aimed at senior students of local high schools. The workshop engaged the students and (soon-to-be) first-time voters to discuss local issues their community is facing and how to transform them into reasons to get involved in decision-making processes on local, national and European level. In a mock election the students had to run as candidates for the Eurpean elections, presenting their ideas and solutions for local and European challenges to the audience learning how to lead a political debate.

JCI Europe Executive Vice President Viktor Ómarsson talking to local high school students

As part of the Balkan Conference program, participants had the chance to listen to a keynote by Mr. Marko Boko, press officer at the European Parliament Liaison Office in Croatia on the ThisTimeImVoting campaign, with which Step Up For Europe has partnered, and the upcoming elections and engage in a discussion with him on how to mobilize (young) people to cast their votes and make the European Union more relevant to them.

Marko Boko, press officer at the European Parliament Liaison Office in Croatia, presenting the European Parliament's ThisTimeImVoting campaign to the participants of the JCI Balkan Conference.

#ThisTimeImVoting #StepUp4Europe

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