17 young participants from 13 different countries debated in Brussels on how to get people engaged in local politics and the importance of building a European democracy during our third Summit of young Elected Local and Regional Leaders.
During this Summit our young elected leaders shared their own experiences and views on how they engage citizens in their own constituencies. After all, local laws and election rules might vary per country, but challenges such as engaging citizens and fighting apathy and populism apply almost everywhere: that’s where our young liberal leaders come in! With concrete examples, they showcased how they bring local government to the citizens, which can serve as an example and model for bringing Europe closer to its citizens as well.
In this video, Tomas Raskevicius, city Councillor in Vilnius and spokesperson on LGBT rights, speaks about how the representatives of people should reflect the people, while Vincent Chauvet, Mayor of Autun (France) includes people in politics through policies such as cleanliness. Emma Murphy, city Councillor in Dublin, discusses participatory budget schemes where citizens vote on funding for specific programmes:
Stay tuned for more videos: these will be released later this week!
The Summit of Young Elected local and regional leaders is an opportunity for young liberal democratic local and regional politicians to meet, share ideas and best practices among themselves, and afterwards to meet with experienced local and regional politicians in a joint meeting with members of the Renew Europe Group in the European Committee of the Regions.
Our participating young leaders this year included Vincent Chauvet (France), Maja Freiermuth (Switzerland), Szymon Godyla (Poland), Tom Gordon & James Steel (UK), Adrian Jankovic (Slovakia), Kilian Karger (Germany), Marc Naether (Belgium), Tilde Nielsen (Denmark), Noemi Otero Navares (Spain), Tomas Raskevicius & Deimante Rimkute (Lithuania), Mohammed Saiah, Koen Bokhorst & Gaby van den Waardenburg (Netherlands), Emma Murphy (Ireland) and Laurenz Van Ginneken (Belgium). Vincent Chauvet (France) #YELL Summit 2019 | Renew Europe CoR”
Emma Murphy (Ireland) #YELL Summit 2019 | Renew Europe CoR
Laurenz Van Ginneken (Belgium) #YELL Summit 2019 | Renew Europe CoR
Koen Bokhorst (Netherlands) #YELL Summit 2019 | Renew Europe CoR
🇪🇺It’s a great initiative by @RenewEuropeCoR to organize these Summits of young elected local & regional leaders! Our European political family needs to find new ways to re-engage citizens -and especially youngsters- at local & EU level to effectively fight #populism in #Europe pic.twitter.com/E6RSrAODTZ
— Vincent Chauvet (@vincentchauvet) September 20, 2019
Een bijzondere ervaring achter de rug, in Brussel heb ik jonge lokale en regionale leiders uit heel Europa mogen ontmoeten en hebben we samen ontzettend veel kennis met elkaar kunnen delen. Zal in de komende dagen een uitgebreider verslag uittikken met meer details. pic.twitter.com/Rt0XET92ga
— Mohammed Saiah (@MSaiah94) September 23, 2019
W @EU_CoR w Brukseli rozmawialiśmy o tym jak zachęcić obywateli do uczestnictwa w polityce regionalnej oraz wymienialiśmy się swoimi doświadczeniami z pracy samorządowej. Z @LYMEC udział wzięło 18 młodych samorządowców z krajów UE, później dyskutowaliśmy z @RenewEuropeCoR pic.twitter.com/t0tvtVojrn
— Szymon Godyla (@SzymonGodyla) September 20, 2019
Throwback #Friday 🇪🇺
With a group of young elected local and regional leaders in #Brussels.
Thanks @RenewEuropeCoR & @LYMEC for organising this summit. 👍🏼 https://t.co/Z2kOxltxSU
— Koen Bokhorst (@KoenBokhorst) September 22, 2019