Packing a suitcase always means an opportunity, a new one every time. So I am not being untruthful when I say that we young people live on the move: trains and planes that take us to our future, one in which after the pandemic, "no one will be left behind", as Commissioner Elisa Ferreira shared, words that still resonate and to which we must remain faithful.
I was born in one of Europe's most heavily depopulated regions. There, we know that opportunities are at the end of the road, never at home. That is a fact. The ticket, often, is only one way.
For generations, part of our heritage was made up of visas and work permits. This time, it was me who undertook the journey, and as always, I brought home more goods than I had with me before.
The Youth4Regions programme allows young journalists from all corners of the continent and beyond to join the EU Regions Week to pursue opportunities. We are the generation that is emerging in Europe's blossoming after the pandemic. Now it is our turn to take part in it. Because it is our future that is at stake. Young people are, in the words of Ferreira, the ones most affected by the pandemic crisis. But we are also the ones who must drive the post-Covid-19 Europe forward. Engaging young people and continuing to build new paths from Brussels to our home.
The responsibility to mediate in the dialogue between citizens and institutions to connect the new generations that move, mix and think together. For five days, aspiring journalists have exchanged personal experiences, sharing local stories that have crossed national borders: days when macroeconomic data have interlinked with examples of projects in villages of a thousand inhabitants. That is what I bring back with me: hope and a new vision.
The pandemic has been a turning point. Now, it is time to write a new chapter in which borders will never be closed again, that nothing will prevent Europe keep on the move: let it be easy to go and even easier to come back. Let the regions be agents of change, and let us be able to tell the story. Journalism is the spark, small and powerful, that allows us to see the world that is already happening. And now, we have a new generation of journalists that have realized that their local stories can reach almost 500 million people. We are more empowered than ever.
Travel and see, return and put into practice. To carry stories back and forth, in all directions, from the bottom to the top and vice versa. That is our job.
Because of that, not just leaving home but returning is also an opportunity. Our future must come from the regions, these historical cohesion funds will support us, but our commitment is what can make us get there. The forests of Castilla y León, Spain, can generate economic and sustainable development in the region, as is demonstrated by the Life Co2 Int Bio project. The Green Deal is present where we believe there was nothing left, and now, forests can be one of the reasons to return. Like this one, thousands of projects dot places that seemed like they would never get a new story, but now, there is a new chance for development.
Although it seems that Europe is at the end of the plane ticket, it is exactly in front of us. More than ever. The Covid-19 has stopped us for a moment to meditate and to understand that recovery must be "local", as the commissioner assured us.
Keep on the move. To go, to see. And then come back. That is our desire for the future of our land. Be able to return to every corner of Europe so that it can flourish widely. To keep Europe vibrating and create opportunities to undertake further round-trip travel.
Irene Barahona Fernández
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