Yearly Highlights from National Committees

2019 was a year full of exciting activities and events, we asked our National Committees to share their highlights with the network. Check out what EYP Ireland, Germany and Austria are proud of.

EYP Ireland:

The Irish NC is proud of the initiatives in outreach and inclusion taken this year by the organisers of the Dublin Regional Session. The session took place from 18th-20th October. We contacted local councillors and asked if they were willing to sponsor a delegate from a disadvantaged area. Delegates from these areas, who were likely to be unable to afford the participation fee, were invited to participate for free. We had 14 delegates attending the session free of charge, all sponsored by their local politicians who attended the opening ceremony to wish them well.

EYP Austria:

EYP Austria’s 1st Cultural Forum took place in September – essentially it was a full-sized eight-day International Forum set in the countryside, heavily supported by small local politicians (mostly mayors) and coordinated by a cultural organisation. Throughout TB and CW days, the participants were split up to four venues over the days, where they worked in different villages and towns all over the region, in venues like schools and town halls. Apart from the Forum being a general success, the rural setting and the successful close cooperation with small regional communities are what we think was most special about it!

EYP Germany:

In 2019, we started a new initiative in cooperation with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia called “Europa – Erleben und Lernen” (Europe – Experiencing and Learning). The initiative is part of our outreach programme and aims to reach a new target group that is trainees/ students at vocational schools. The idea of the project is the following: We cooperate with companies that commit to sending their trainees to a subsidiary or partner company in another European country for 3 weeks to gain work experience abroad. Afterwards, these trainees take part in a small-scale EYP event to learn more about what they have experienced. In order to kick-off the initiative, we were invited to the conference of the Ministers for European Affairs of the states in March where we had the chance to present our project. That day, 21 companies were present which agreed to take part in the initiative. In November this year, the first small-scale EYP event in the frame of the initiative took place in Menden and Iserlohn.

EYP Finland:

The First Leadership Training of EYP Finland has gathered 30 EYPers from all over Europe to beautiful Levi in Finnish Lapland, to share views and build experiences to prepare for taking on senior leadership roles at EYP events. On the one hand, the young people involved in leadership roles at EYP events carry out these roles with impressive maturity and creativity, which maintains the high academic and organizational quality of EYP events year after year. Additionally, there is a continuous worry that learned lessons, acquired knowledge and innovative solutions are being lost. The Leadership Training was the first event of its kind in Finland and has been developed to fill this continuity gap, to support in the transfer, development and intercultural sharing of important leadership skills.