Europe, would you be my valentine?

14 February 2018 | Spending time with your significant other on Valentine’s day? That’s what we did! We <3 Europe 

Instead of spending time having a nice dinner, drinking some wine and eating amazingly delicious Belgian chocolates, JEF Brussels came up with a better way to spend Valentine’s day: a training on how to spread the love for Europe on social media.

Social media expert Laurens Soenen explained the participants what the different algorithms used by social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are and how to make the best use of them. The aim of the event was to learn how the EU should brand itself when informing and involving citizens on its policies concerning youth, employment, integration, borders and criminal organisations. 

After that, we also had a brief informal discussion on those different topics on which the EU should better communicate to its citizens.

This event was part of the Enjoy Your Future Project, more information can be found on the Facebook page here.

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Belgium vs Europe: The Battle of Federalism

7 February 2018 | It’s still more than a year before the European elections in May 2019, but it is never too early to discuss the future of European integration.

In the framework of the Enjoy Your Future Project, JEF Brussels organised a debate with two expert speakers to discuss the differences between European and Belgian federalism and how they can be examples for each other. Leonie Martin, Vice-president of the Young European Federalists (JEF Europe), explained the main features and benefits of European federalism and compared it to the current structure of the EU. Karel Reybrouck, PhD researcher in Belgian Constitutional Law, continued the debate with setting out the structure of Belgian federalism with all its specificities (oh yes – there are (too) many of them!). 

There was a lively discussion about whether a federal structure could be a solution to the problems the EU is facing or not, whether the EU should integrate more, which policy areas should get priority, and whether the EU should expand to other European countries.

Interested in debates like this? See you at the next event!

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