Coinciding with Europe Day, which is celebrated on May 9, the Catalonia Europe Foundation has today presented the #JoProposoUE campaign to encourage debate, bring Europe closer to society and promote participation by collecting citizen proposals, and especially from young people, about the future of Europe to later send them to the European institutions.

The campaign was presented at the headquarters of the Barcelona Representation of the European Parliament and the European Commission and is promoted by the Catalonia Europe Foundation together with several European youth entities in Catalonia that have been established as a group promoting the campaign, which will be raised carried out in two phases, between 2023 and 2024, with various decentralized activities throughout Catalonia.

The first phase of the campaign begins today and will coincide with the semester of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, until December 2023, and the second will be carried out until the European elections scheduled for June 9, 2024.

Starting today, the campaign website is now open to all proposals that citizens want to send through the portal www.catalunyaeuropa.net/ca/jo-proposo-ue.

SAY YOURS IN: JO PROPOSO UNIÓ EUROPEA

During the presentation event, the director of the Catalonia Europe Foundation, Dolors Camats, highlighted that "we hope that it will be the umbrella for talking about Europe, urging European institutions to take into account the opinion of citizens, and especially of young people, and encourage a critical spirit about the future of Europe, since we are at a key moment with the multiple crises we are experiencing and with a war at the doors of the European Union".

According to Eurobarometer data, young people are the group that values membership in the European Union most positively, but on the other hand, as Camats explained, they do not feel sufficiently listened to. For this reason, "the intention of the campaign is to disseminate information, but also to build spaces for debate that help strengthen the European project and avoid the risk of regression."

The group promoting the campaign at the moment is made up of the youth associations Team Europe Catalonia, European Union, Society, European Federalist Youth of Catalonia, Multicultural Muslim Youth, Deba-t.org, Eurolocal, Erasmus Student Network (ESN) or the young gathering of the Ateneo Barcelonés, in addition to other young people who have joined individually.

#JoProposoUE is a unique tool to bring Europe closer to young people.

For his part, the spokesperson for the Team Europe Catalonia collective, Francesc Almendros, explained that #JoProposoUE "is a unique tool to introduce Europe to young people, to value the benefits of being part of the #EU, and above all, to face all the challenges that we fear before us. Precisely, the campaign that began today is open to new entities and youth associations that want to join.

As Eugenia di Polito, from the European Federalist Youth of Catalonia (JEF), explained, the group promoting the campaign wants to be as diverse as the European Union itself. unique territory in the world due to its great linguistic, cultural diversity, values, identities, etc. The fight for diversity, peace and climate change will be our main flags.

To reach out to young people, human rights activist and Gen Z Talks podcaster, Firdaous Alaoui, explained that the promoters of the campaign intend to be very active on social networks, especially through TikTok and Instagram, and with the creation of a video podcast to explore new, more innovative formats when talking about Europe.