In the framework of the European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2019 – ECYP during 27 to 30 May in Aachen, was organized the “Charlemagne Prize Forum on Europe” conference on 29th May 2019. The conference took place in the historic “Kurhaus” of the city of Aachen.
Since 2008, the European Charlemagne Youth Prize invites every year young people aged between 16 and 30 from all EU Member States to submit projects run by and for youth showing an active participation in the development of Europe. The prize for the best project is €7500, the second €5000 and the third €2500. As part of the prize, the three European laureates are invited to visit the European Parliament in Brussels or Strasbourg.
The Institute of Research and Training on European Affairs participated in the ECYP 2019 as a Jury Member representing Greece and supported the Greek Delegation from the position of the jury committee. IRTEA attended the outstanding award ceremony and the conference with great interest. Also, had the opportunity to socialize, network and get to know all the national winners of each member state, learn about their projects and inspired by the vision and the attitude of the participants regarding their projects.
The Forum was divided in two sessions and the topic was “After the elections – where to now, Europe?”. The welcoming speech of the conference was announced by the Lord Mayor of the city of Aachen, Marcel Philipp. The participants of the first session were the following:
- Bascha Mika, Editor-in-Chief, Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurt
- Christoph Schwennicke, Editor-in-Chief, CICERO, Berlin
- Karel Verhoeven, Editor-in-Chief, De Standaard, Brussels
- Jeremy Cliffe, Charlemagne Columnist, The Economist, Brussels
The moderator was Roger de Weck, Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Publicist in Zurich.
The first session was focused on “Multilateralism under pressure”. To be more specific, the panelists discussed about the voting outcome after the European Elections in Germany, the rise of the far right parties all over Europe and the participation of the European voters in the current elections. The participants mentioned their worries about the exit of Great Britain from the European Union and the problems that Europe will have to face after Brexit.
At the end of the discussion, the audience raised questions to the panelists. Some of the national winners of ECYP were mentioned on Brexit, at the control of the media and the prospect of Albania joining the European Union.
The topic of the second session was “Lessons learnt from crises and visions of the future – how Europe can develop more stability and dynamism”. The panelists were the following:
- Sylvie Goulard, Vice President, Banque de France, Paris
- Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), Berlin
- Gerhard Hofmann, President of the EACB, Member of the Board of the National Association of German Co-operative Banks (BVR), Berlin
The moderator was Udo van Kampen Publicist, former Senior Correspondent, ZDF German TV Brussels Office in Berlin.
Some of the issues that were discussed by the panelists were the demographic crisis that Europe is facing, the political and economical relationships between Germany and France and the future of the far right parties within the European Parliament. During the session, were also mentioned some of the current challenges of Europe, such as, globalization, digitalization, migration and refugee crisis, the protection of the external borders of Europe and climate change. Finally, all panelists unanimously agreed that each European country is too “small” to act and solve its problems by its own, Europe should act united in order to find solutions.
After the end of the two sessions, the conference joined the designated Charlemagne Prize Laureate 2019, H.E. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. António Guterres was mainly mentioned to the big challenge of climate change that Europe is currently facing and the huge developed of technology. To be more specific, he commented that due to artificial intelligence, many professions are going to be replaced by automatic machines and Europe has to deal with this problem.
Professor Dr Ulrich Hermann, Chairman of The Foundation Council of the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen closed the conference with some remarks.
You can visit our Facebook page to see more about the Conference, the Award Ceremony and all the days of the ECYP 2019.