"Think Young. Think Europe." is a EC trainees' subcommittee aiming to encourage meaningful conversation among trainees using Participatory Leadership processes: this session, we decided to focus the initiative on engagement with the EU. We organised a one full day inter-institutional participatory event, attended by 120 trainees and officials. We cooperated with European Commission DG EAC's initiative New Narrative for Europe, with the European Economic and Social Committee.

1. are you
for europe
The 18th of January 2017,
European Economic and Social Committee,
Rue Belliard 99, Brussels
up?A Participatory Event for trainees and enthousiasts from across the European institutions

2. “Think Young. Think Europe.” is a European
Commission trainees’ subcommittee that
exists for 2 years. In October 2016 session it
was set up by Eva Likar and Fernanda Vilar
with the help of a former trainee Anna
Rosa Paolino, with the aim of encouraging
meaningful conversation among trainees
using Participatory Leadership processes:
this session, we decided to focus the
initiative on engagement with the EU.
The whole team working on the event was
trained in participatory leadership:
Eva, Fernanda, Anna Rosa, Deborah
Lassche, Ana Bahamonde, Maria
Gkamou, Georgios Kastrinos, with the
logistic support from Laura Holtkemeier.
We cooperated with DG EAC’s initiative New
Narrative for Europe, with the European
Economic and Social Committee and
the trainees’ Solidarity Subcommittee.
Between different conversation rounds,
some insights were collected: gap
between our “Erasmus-Ryanair” generation
and elder people in rural areas, role of the
media in disseminating information on
European politics and its opportunities
such as the new European Solidarity Corps,
the need for EU civic education. These
were just some of the mentioned themes.
The group plunged into real work shortly after.
The goals of the day were to bring trainees
together for a meaningful conversation
on engagement and create the space for
concrete ideas to be realised by the end of the
traineeship or to be passed on to the following
generations. In order to achieve well reflected
results, we started off with a participatory
World café to define what engagement with
the EU actually means for the participants.
for the participants.
On 18th January, the participatory event
“Are you up for Europe?” gathered 119
participants - mostly trainees. They showed,
without a doubt, that they were up for Europe.
The collective intelligence emerged through
discussions, project proposals and action
design on how to bring Europe closer to its
citizens, which is what this day was all about.
The participants had filled the European
Economic and Social Committee’s atriums when
EESC Secretary General Luis Planas and Vice
President Xavier Gonçalo Lobo opened the
day, encouraging young enthusiasts to keep
building the future of Europe. Madi Sharma,
member of EESC, then took the floor for an
inspirational speech reminding the importance
of believing in yourselves and your abilities,
listening and taking responsibility – no excuses!

3. communication
attitude
education
What ingredients are necessary to create the recipe for positive engagement?
The participants then dug deeper into the issues by reflecting on this question. The harvesting of the results gave
us a wide range of ingredients and the group collectively put titles on the clusters that appeared:
inclusion - common vision - action
creating opportunities
Reflecting on these collectively identified ingredients for positive engagement, what can bring them together? What connects our personal
definition of engagement with these ingredients and what kind of recipe can we prepare out of them? The participants were encouraged to
explore these thoughts during the lunch.

4. The afternoon was the moment to propose solutions based on the conversations from the morning in an open space session.
First, Fabio Mauri, a trainee who wrote a book about a future without the EU to raise awareness about its benefits, told his story about realising his idea
against all the odds.
Just after, we opened the space for the participants to set up the agenda. 18 project coordinators proposed topics and were divided in two sessions.
The other participants could join the topic(s) they were most interested in. The project coordinators were asked to fill a poster with their findings.
Here are the topics:
See annexes for
descriptions of
some projects!

5. Aftertwohours,theprojectcoordinatorshungtheir
posters on the walls, creating a gallery walk where
all the participants could take a look at each project,
askformoreinformationandsignupasvolunteers.
We heard a few project presentations which
were chosen by participants’ prioritisation
with sticky dots on the projects they thought
were the most interesting, relevant or feasible.
What is the outcome of the day? The material that
was collectively created both in the morning and
afternoon sessions represents an expression of a
clarity that the participants gained throughout the day.
Another part of outcomes is the intangible side;
the relationships that were created, the trust that
conquered the room. The realisation that there is a
different way of engaging in conversations is key to
co-creating innovative paths towards change.
The change in perspective that the participants
could take with them is without a doubt more
powerful than any artefact that was created. The
tangible output, together with the intangible
outcomes, lead us to commitment, which is
highlighted in the volunteering sheets of the
projects that are still being developed: we
can say that as clarity and commitment were
brought together, action emerged from the
conversations about questions that matter.
What inspired you the most today?

6. At the end of the day, the participants shared how they were leaving the event:
What’s next?
After a hard working day full of energy, it is now time to take things further. In order to assure the
follow up, we organised a pro-action café where four of the project coordinators
could gain more insights on next steps. The Facebook group “Are you up for
Europe?” is a platform where we can exchange about the project development.
Video presentations also help us promote the projects and assure continuity of the initiative with
the following trainees. This was the sixth and the biggest edition of Think Young. Think Europe,
which we proposed to become a permanent trainees’ subcommittee for the following sessions.
Keep engaging, share your thoughts, stay tuned on Facebook
and for possible cooperation, drop us an e-mail!
@thinkyoungthinkeurope
evalikar.eva@gmail.com
ar.paolino@gmail.com