Europe Day 2020 – Celebration / Reflection / Discussion

First and foremost: this day should be a proper (bank) holiday for every European citizen. Full stop.

Although it is not a proper holiday yet, we will dedicate an entire day to celebrate, reflect and discuss Europe and federalism.

Part 1 – Social Media Action

Deadline: Friday, 8 May (ideally before 10 pm)

 

Part 2 – Webinar

“Celebrating Europe Day together – What is the link between federalism and community?

Saturday, 9 May 2020, 2 - 3 pm

The joy of the polysemic word “community” is that it includes anything from our local communities, regional communities, right up to what we termed the European Communities (now the European Union of course). Can federalism help us to strengthen our communities and to increase our civic participation?

Welcome and closing remarks by Anna-Lena Sender, President of JEF Belgium.

Keynote speakers:

  • Victoria Martin De La Torre:
    Author of the book ‘Europe, a leap into the unknown‘
  • Prof. Yves Dejaeghere:
    Coordinator of the G1000 organization. He has been involved in the Ostbelgien process as the reference person for the G1000 organization. He is also a guest lecturer in political science at the Universiteit Antwerpen.

Both interventions will be followed by a Q&A. The event will be moderated by Lauren Mason, International Officer JEF Belgium.

Further details can be found on the Facebook event page.

LINK TO THE EVENT

For further questions, send an email to ine.tollenaers@jefbelgium.eu

Part 3 – Joint European Conference

organised by JEF Europe and UEF Europe, 3.15-7 PM

Please consult the Facebook event page for further information.

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JEF Belgium at the European FC online

Jef Belgium

Showing that the heart of our community beats louder than ever despite COVID-19.

On 4 and 5 April 2020, the biannual Federal Committee of JEF on European level was supposed to take place in Hamburg. However, facing the pandemic, the amazing JEF Europe secretariat made it possible – for the first time ever – to shift the gathering of over 100 JEFers to an online platform, where we discussed, amended and adopted several new political positions.

A big and motivated team of JEFers from Belgium participated as observers, took actively part in the discussions and presented JEF Belgium’s contributions to the resolutions in the three different Political Commissions (what’s this? see below). Our president Anna-Lena Sender represented us as national delegate during the FC and convinced the FC members about our final amendments to the text.

This is also the moment to thank again the chairs of the PCs for their great job!!

And: Did you know that a JEF Belgium board member is one of them?
Our former president, Ine Tollenaers, is a directly elected member of the FC and successfully chairing PC3 with new resolutions about Africa and the Western Balkans.

So, finally, what kind of new political positions did we adopt?

At the FC, we also decided to set in place the following task forces, which can be joined by everyone in order to contribute to the goal of the TF or to receive support:

Last but not least, the Democracy under Pressure Awards 2020 took place during the FC as well, giving an opportunity to thank and highlight the commitment of sections, which participated actively in the campaign, even in times of COVID-19 measures.

Et oui: Our local section JEF Liège received an award for the best video under this campaign, raising awareness and protesting against the threats to our democracies and fundamental values by illiberal, nationalist and authoritarian temptations, which have spread across national governments and our society. More about the campaign.

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