8th Congress of Young Europeans ‘Independence Days: Our challenges, our responses’

19-22 October 2023

 

The independent living, a huge challenge for today's young generation, was the theme of the 8th Congress of Young Europeans entitled 'Independence Days: Our challenges, our responses', which we organised on 19-22 October together with the Green European Foundation (GEF) and the Young European Greens (FYEG), as well as with ActionAid Hellas and Infinity Greece as local partners. Housing problems, low income and labour insecurity, mental health fragility and the major issue of political representation of youth in decision-making centres were the four sub-themes of the event, which were addressed by the participants in workshops on Friday 20 October. The next day, an open conference was held to discuss the same topics but this time by politicians, academics and civil society representatives. On the last day, once again through a workshop, an attempt was made to draft a document or a speech summarising the problems and the demands of youth on the topic of independent living. Apart from this, the participants had the opportunity, mainly through presentations by our partners, to get to know a part of the work that the Heinrich Böll Foundation does in Greece. They also took part in a cultural programme consisting of special guided tours, exhibitions, concerts and parties, which helped them to get to know the city, its history and its people. Most of all, these four intense and busy days were full of experiences, insights, information, contacts and connections that will long remain in their life and will hopefully help them to make the difference in the future.

The 4-day Congress began on Thursday afternoon, October 19, with the gathering of the delegates at the Caravan Hotel after their arrival in the city.
There, around 100 young people from 31 countries all over Europe were able to meet in a relaxed atmosphere and make their first friends.
On the morning of Friday 20 October, the main part of the Congress started with the four workshops exploring aspects of independent living.
The workshops took place at the Glass House, the former Kindergarten at the first pier of the port of Thessaloniki, with a lovely view of the city.
The 4 workshops focused on labour market, housing and mental health issues as well as the challenge of young people's participation in decision-making centres.
Thanks to the nice weather, delegates were able to hold a large part of the workshops on the pier, outside the rooms of the Glass House.
On the first floor of the building, delegates during the breaks could present to anyone who was interested various projects they were involved in. Here Rémi Salvan presents the Scottish Youth Parliament.
Another two projects presented were on the participation of young people in urban spatial planning (Amerissa Giannouli) and the protection of an endangered whale species in Tenerife (Iro Tsarbopoulou-Fokianou).
Break from the workshops and relax under the sun.
On the afternoon of 20 October, after the workshops, the delegates were split into groups and had the opportunity to get to know our work through visits to our partners. Here at the site of the Self-Help Promotion Programme, a part of a large tour of various cooperative Social Solidarity Economy initiatives in Thessaloniki.
A group of delegates visited our office for a pitch on energy communities as a way to activate youth on the climate justice issue, by Chris Vrettos from Electra Energy coop. This was followed by a screening of the fiction film on the climate crisis ‘The Color of Trees’, which was filmed with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
In the pocket park created by the Alexandrou Svolou Neighborhood Initiative, a third group of delegates were informed by Giorgos Hatzinakos about the problems of maintaining such a bottom-up urban intervention.
A fourth group of delegates had the opportunity to find out about ActionAid’s Youth Centre, where we also presented together with Witness Change the photo exhibition ‘1000 Dreams’ on the LGBTQ+ refugee experience.
On Saturday 21 October, the open conference of the Congress took place at the ‘Olympion’ theatre, in the ‘Pavlos Zannas’ hall.
The opening and closing sessions focused on the challenges of youth and the conclusions of the Friday workshops respectively.
The two thematic sessions of the conference were dedicated to decent and affordable housing and to youth participation in European politics.
More than 20 speakers participated in the conference, while the audience took part in a very active way with many interesting questions and comments.
On Saturday afternoon, the delegates were able to get to know Thessaloniki through organised cultural activities. One option was a guided tour of the city’s seafront and a boat trip on the Thermaikos Gulf.
‘The spectre of the people’, the main exhibition of this year's Thessaloniki Photobiennale on populism, gave the delegates the opportunity to get to know one of the city’s most important cultural festivals.
A compact lesson on the post-war political history of Greece was held in front of the monument to the MP and pacifist Grigoris Lambrakis, who was assassinated in 1963.
Immediately afterwards, on the same street where the assault on Lambrakis took place, there was a concert by the Rubayat band, which often participates in events on social issues.
Of particular interest was the guided tour of the red-light districts of Thessaloniki, where delegates got a glimpse of the interesting history of the sex worker community.
The busy day of Saturday ended with a party at the ‘Rehab’ pub.
All the delegates stopped by the party and many of them carried on elsewhere!
Despite being up late the night before, on Sunday morning 22 October everyone was on time on the first floor of Modiano Food Market, where the day started with a breakfast that included products from the shops on the ground floor.
The Congress of Young Europeans concluded in the same venue with a workshop on how to build an interesting public speech, something the delegates were asked to do based on the conclusions from the Friday workshops.

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