The participation of young electorates at the age of 18-24 for the European elections in 2009 was only at 27%. Hence, prior to the European elections 2014 the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe initiated a series of events called „Understanding Europe“. This includes a series of EU Crash Courses which each take four hours and aim at imparting a basic knowledge about European politics to pupils interactively and mobilising first-time voters for the European elections. For every crash course two trainers are sent to schools where they are moderators for discussions and a much broader programme. Since 2014 the EU Crash Courses are sucessfully conducted in Austria by the European Youth Parliament.
300+
EU crash courses
16
Countries involved
7500+
Participants
70+
Trainers
You are interested in a free EU crash course at your school? We would love to hear from you!
The EU Crash Course
Why does the EU exist? Who is part of the Council of Ministers? What are the responsibilities of the European Parliament? And what exactly does the European Commission do?
This is just a quick overview over the many questions which will be answered during the EU Crash Course. The trainers will be with your class for four hours and focus on the following topics:
Why does the EU exist?
In this small group, participants set out in search of different EU stories and personal reference points.
Who determines EU policies?
Participants find out who is really behind the phrase “the EU has decided…”. They discuss and assess the possibilities for exerting influence in the multi-level European system.
How can I have a say in European politics?
In this workshop participants formulate their own political concerns. They develop ideas for action and discuss the possibilities for implementing them as well as possible hinderances to doing so.
What proposals are there for a fair distribution of asylum seekers in the EU?
In a role-play, participants discuss the idea of migrant quotas for member states and discover how tough the negotiation process can be.
During the group work the students will be supported by the trainers all the time. They will have the oppportunities to ask questions outside the day-to-day school routine.
There is no need for any preparation from the teacher’s side and, of course, the EU Crash Course is free.
The Trainer Team
The EU Crash Course follows a peer-education-approach. Our trainers are young people who have been trained to conduct these courses.
Their aim is to teach the students some basic knowledge about the EU and moderate an open and objective discussion to help the students form their own opinion about European issues.
The Aims
We want to share our knowledge about the EU in an interactive and interesting way. The four hour EU Crash Course should help the students to gain factual and objective knowledge.
During the Crash Course we also show different ways of participating in the EU directly and how young people can make the EU their own.
How To Participate
The EU Crash Course is aimed for high school students from the age of 16. Please keep in mind that the maximum number of participants is 25. Contact the responsible project coordinator at the European Youth Parliament or write to understandingeurope@eyp.at.
Sophia Weiser
Understanding Europe Coordinator