EPP Group – Youth Week 2023
Monday, 4th September
Day 1: What’s the Trendy Way to Engage Youth?
#EPP4Youth
As 800 delegates filed into our Youth Village for the second EPP Group Youth Week there was an air of excited anticipation.
From Galway to Ghent, Tallinn to Turin and everywhere in between we heard from Europe’s Youth, eager to question experts on tends and topics in the EU and the role of social media in political communications.
Here’s our top five takeaways from our expert panels.
#1 European citizens believe in Europe
Philipp Schulmeister, Director for Campaigns (DG Comm) at the European Parliament shared the mood of EU citizens, less than a year out from the 2024 European Elections.
“62% of people are happy with Europe and the direction we are going in, but they need to know their national interests are served by European policy. It is a challenge in the most challenging times.”
Use your vote! If you don’t vote, someone else will. You can’t complain afterwards.
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#2 Youth voice matters more than ever
María Rodríguez Alcázar is President of the European Youth Forum and said the challenges facing Europe’s youth are a mirror of the challenges facing the EU.
“This generation is trying to succeed through a cost-of-living crisis, after coming through a global pandemic.”
She called for greater youth representation in the European Parliament telling us that there are only six MEPs under the age of 30.
#3 Listen, care and reply on social media
The social media team from WebComm in the European Parliament are on a mission to grow voter engagement. They shared their social media strategy which aims to inform, engage and mobilise.
A great example of this is their together.eu campaign which reaches citizens in all 27 member states. Their focus now is increasing voter turnout next year from the 51% figure at the 2019 European Elections.
#4 Meaningful social media matters, but don’t count likes
Raimonds Bricis is Social Media Team Coordinator in the Directorate Campaigns, with EPP Group. He cautioned against counting likes as a measure for success on social media, instead advising that consistent and considered messaging to stop the scroll was how his team approached social communications.
Speaking from an advocacy perspective Lauren Mason, Policy and Advocacy Manager with the European Youth Forum signalled that while you may want to reach youth, you need to influence the influencers in decision-making roles, so not to ignore LinkedIn or X.
#5 You and the EU Bingo a huge success
Our inaugural ‘You and the EU’ Bingo saw youth delegates test their knowledge of European culture, landmarks, politics and pop culture. 40 teams battled it out during an hour of networking, knowledge and side-splitting entertainment.
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Thank you to all of our speakers and we look forward to doing it all again on Day 2.
Be sure to follow #EPP4Youth for Youth Week updates and insights on social media.
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