Four IVY volunteers presented opportunities to get involved in European Cooperation Policy at the European Youth Event 2023: their experience was a great success.
- 15 June 2023
Ancor Armas Martin, Julie Gondouin, Silvia Guastella and Julia Salabaraas shared their experiences as IVY volunteers at the EYE2023 in Strasbourg last week. With four sessions dedicated to cooperation policy, they informed over 400 young people about the European Commission’s Interreg Volunteer Youth programme and the Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy.
Silvia Guastella, IVY volunteer at Interreg Euro-Med, was happy for this opportunity: “It's a very important experience for young people because we have the opportunity to exchange with other young people from all over Europe. [...] A lot of people were very interested in what we do and for us it was very important to give them an insight of IVY and Interreg”, she said.
“We've managed to organise four informational sessions and it's been well received, the audience has been quite large and showed great interest. A lot of people stayed even after the session to ask for further information on how to participate and contribute to cross-border cooperation”, added Ancor Armas Martin, IVY volunteer at Interreg South Baltic.
Julie Gondouin, IVY volunteer for the Alpine Space Interreg projects ADAPTNOW and X-Risk CC was also impressed by the active participation of the audience: “We had a lot of questions, people were really interested in the IVY programme [...] But we have also received questions about Interreg funds: how they work and how it’s possible to participate in Interreg with youth associations.”
Julia Salabaraas, IVY Project Partner for the Atlantic Area Interreg project SAFER, encouraged AEBR’s team to participate again in the EYE in the future: “There was a lot of turnout, [...] so it would be a very good opportunity to continue spreading the word and meeting new young people interested in European cooperation and IVY in particular”.
With many young people interested in shaping the future of Europe for more solidarity and cooperation, the EYE is a perfect occasion to make regional cooperation policy better known and more accessible.