Last June, along with 5 other Young Leaders, Antonio, Albiona, Filipe, Annika and Alketa, Young Leader Filip, from Poland, attended the European Youth Event 2023 in Strasbourg. This is their account of this brilliant weekend.
On Friday and Saturday – June 9th and 10th – as one of Euro Youth Mental Health’s Young Leaders, I attended the European Youth Event, in Strasbourg, France.
After our arrival and having to join ques of many other excited young people from across Europe, I gather my first impressions of the Parliament:
- Huge – the five buildings were visible from far away, and what’s more, the Parliament, of course, has many more buildings at the other location in Brussels;
- Colourful – flags of all 27 EU member states were displayed in multiple places, and sometimes they were even accompanied by the Ukrainian blue-yellow flag, which was a lovely gesture of solidarity;
- Busy – because for one weekend thousands of young people from everywhere in Europe and beyond pilgrimage to Strasbourg (according to the official EYE data there were 8,500 participants from 93 countries!).
The EYE program was full of activities: Hemicycle plenary sessions, workshops, panels, discussions, meetings with activists and politicians, guided tours, movie screenings, concerts, booths in many corridors and outside tents, and more. Considering it was only two days long, there were so many fascinating things I wanted to see and join that even a week might be too short to do everything.
On Friday, my main activity was helping staff members Nick and TJ facilitate the EYMH workshop ‘Speak Your Mind’, revisiting a session from 2018, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with Filipe, an EYMH Young Leader from Portugal, we joined around 60 participants to discuss how mental health is understood by youth and what, according to them, are the main factors negatively impacting it. Judging by the number of people who attended the workshop, mental health and illness are important issues to them, and I’m glad that EYE and EYMH created this space for us to share our experiences. The discussion raised awareness that mental health is complex and influenced by the intersections of individual psychological and biological factors and social circumstances.
According to the poll, most participants agreed that the main reasons for the deterioration of their mental health were: financial insecurity, relationship problems, the education system, and the weight of expectations from family and society. Other reported issues also included social media, climate change anxiety, social isolation and exclusion, physical health in the context of the COVID pandemic, disability, and chronic illness.
Toward the end of our workshop, we shared some of our perspectives on mental health with Brando Benifei, an MEP from Italy who is active in the MEP Alliance for Mental Health and the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability. Honestly, it felt reassuring to realize that many people in the Parliament care about improving mental health in the EU as much as I do and that they are willing to listen to the voices of young people who are most at risk.
In the afternoon, I met with Albiona, an EYMH Young Leader from Kosovo, and together, we grabbed some food and headed to the EYE Village, located on the other side of the street, looking from the Parliament. Inside were many food trucks from around the globe, which made for fantastic tastes and smells.
Around 6 pm, I met with the EYMH squad for an emotional check-in session, followed by a lovely walk along the river through the old town of Strasbourg and a pleasant EYMH dinner.
Day 2, Saturday morning, after waiting in a long queue in front of the EP, I attended two-panel discussions in the Hemicycle, which is usually used by MEPs for plenary sessions (and from the outside, it looks very much like a giant egg). Hemicycle is a unique room. It is surrounded by many smaller windowed rooms, where the parliamentary interpreters always translate whatever the speakers are saying into each of the 24 official EU languages. This whole translatory part of the Parliament’s inner workings is truly impressive. I was equally impressed to learn that since the 705 MEPs represent over 400 million eligible voters (second-largest democratic electorate in the world!), each of the seats in the Hemicycle represents roughly 570 thousand people, truly mind-boggling numbers.
The first session focused on tackling Europe’s social inequality gap. The panel speakers talked about approaches to address many different aspects of inequality: gender, race and ethnic background, queerness, disability, unequal quality of education, limited social mobility, lack of employment and economic opportunities, and poor access to affordable healthcare, including mental health. This topic ic is dear to my heart, so felt it profoundly motivating and hopeful to listen to her ideas on how to improve the lives of people with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and other intellectual disabilities, including how to enhance their opportunities for supported community living and fair employment, increase the recognition of their social value and contributions, and push back against horrible and dangerous conditions they are subjected to while institutionalized in facilities instead of living freely at home like everyone else.
Later on, I went off to explore all the places in the Parliament I hadn’t had the time to visit earlier. Besides the beautiful view from the Churchill Building out to the river, I appreciated the Quiet Room available for all those who needed some rest or alone time. Participating in an event as large and stimulating as EYE can get overwhelming sometimes, so it’s great that the organizers remembered to build a space where one can quietly decompress, meditate, or nap. Very good for mental health, for sure.
Afterwards, I was suddenly approached by a girl from Germany who recognized my T-shirt in the crowd because it had the name of the Folk High School (Højskole) I attended a few years ago in Helsingør, Denmark (the school is called International People’s College). It is amazing how connected you can feel at events like this, finding things you have in common with strangers.
Finally, the last party of the event started, with live music on the EYE Village stage. Since I’m basically the opposite of a party person, I decided to say goodbye to everyone and walk around outside the Parliament buildings.
The so-called European Quarter neighbourhood in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament is located, also houses many other European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. Each building looks different, and many face the river, so exploring that area makes for an exciting walk, especially on a warm, green June evening.
On my way back to the hotel and then back home the following day, I kept running into people with those recognizable EYE wristbands everywhere I went. It seemed they were doing the same as me, still thinking about and trying to process their experiences of that fantastic weekend at EYE.
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