With the Th!nker Christina Michael
Conference on the future of EU democracy held in Leeds, UK on Friday, 13 March 2009
The JMECE Lab kindly invited Christina Michael to speak at our conference, celebrating 30 years of the first elections to the European Parliament, about her experience as an employee for the EU. Invited to speak at a round-table organised by the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence (JMECE) and the JMECE Lab at the University of Leeds, Christina, whom I met at the Thinkaboutit Brussels launch event, gave us useful information regarding work experience opportunities in Brussels and elsewhere.
The event included talks by Professor Juliet Lodge, Director of the JMECE; Simon Duffin, Head of Media at the UK Office of the European Parliament; Judith Stamper, Teaching Fellow in Broadcast Journalism at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds; Geoffrey Martin, Special Adviser to the Commonwealth Secretary on Strategic Relationships; Dave Fortune, Chief Inspector, Police Forces of Yorkshire; Mark Green, Honorary German Consul in the Yorkshire region; Dr Simon Lightfoot, Department of Politics, University of Leeds; Lynette Falconer, Information Manager, Europe Direct Leeds; Dr Alina Dobreva, European Commission stagiaire; Christina Michael, journalist working for the Cordis website; Neill Schofield, the European Movement and Dr Katharine Sarikakis, Senior Lecturer in Communications Policy at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds.
Thank you, Christina!
With the Th!nker Mario Giuseppe Varrenti
Leeds, 22 May 2009 / Euroelections 2009 JMECE lab Promotional Events: Leeds University Campus & City Centre
JMECE Lab in conjunction with Leeds Europe Direct and Lynette Falconer (responsible for the strategic direction of information and e-services in Leeds public libraries and manager for Europe Direct Leeds) organised two events aiming to promote citizens awareness about the Euroelections 2009. Leeds city centre: Our main partners of that event were: the Leeds Europe Direct office, Mario Giuseppe Varrenti, Speaker of AEGEE-International Politics Working Group and President of AEGEE-Warwick (accompanied by 15 students from all around Europe). Mario, whom I also met at the Thinkaboutit Brussels launch event, and his team arrived in Leeds as one more stop of the “Y Vote 2009” tour, which is a Europe-wide campaign designed to create a continuous platform for young people, aged between 19 and 22 (therefore first-time voters, at the European parliamentary Elections, and not only) to be able to take stands on most important social issues in Europe, exchange and develop them together, effectively spread them by taking active role in democratic processes of different settings and structures with central focus on encouraging and empowering young people in Europe to make informed choices at European Parliament Elections in 2009. The campaign included a launching festival-style event in London, UK-wide campaign tour in 26 cities and a closing international youth convention in Edinburgh.
The Leeds citizens we met and interacted with seemed to be a little bit reluctant and sometimes they expressed their unwillingness to vote in forthcoming Euro elections. Most of the responses were not encouraging. However, a strong percentage of people happily received the info-packs we prepared.
Thank you, Mario!
With the Th!nker Joe Litobarski
Last but not least, Joe has written an interesting article titled “I Think I’m Turning European” for the latest JMECE Lab Newsletter: 6th edition, which will be published tomorrow here: www.jmecelab.com
Thank you, Joe!
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