The youth exchange gathered 40 participants from Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, UK, Portugal, Denmark and Finland. It was held in Orahovica in July 2019. Some of the goals included promoting active participation of young people in decision-making processes in their local communities and on the national level.
The activities were grouped into three segments:
basic terms of politics and economics – in this section the participants learned about some basic principles of every system of politics and economics, and how different schools have different understanding of concepts like liberty, fairness, poverty and equality.
diversity of political-economic systems in Europe – in this section the participants examined what are the results of three different political and economic systems in Europe -social-democratic, liberal and conservative (or christian democratic) model of capitalism. Participants learned how these systems were developed and how they are grounded in different culture, including religion. The participants also analysed how these three models can respond to key challenges of the EU – ageing population, migration, climate change and globalisation.
models and tools for youth participation in decision making processes – the first two segments were meant to get young people interested in politics and economics and in this last part they focused on how to make an impact in their communities and get involved into decision making processes that affect the lives of young people.
Participants are more passionate about the importance of continuing with the European project. They have learned about the threat to it from Brexit and right-wing populism, which in some countries like Hungary even challenges the idea of liberal democracy. They have analysed the challenges that every European country faces – globalisation, climate change, ageing population and migration. Even though they learned that some systems of political economy in Europe are better in dealing with these challenges – the majority reached the conclusion that Scandinavian social democratic model is best suited to resolve these challenges – all the participants have reached the conclusion that it will be easier to resolve these issues together than separately as every nation state individually.
