EGiA National Policy Dialogue ESN Bulgaria 2024

This is the final conference for the EGiA project on the part of ESN Bulgaria with the aim to discuss what EU brings for us and encourage young people to vote in the EU elections. 

During the first part of the conference the panelists shared different benefits of being in the EU: freedom of travelling, working abroad, starting a new business, roaming. Especially, the Erasmus + programme provides students with many opportunities to study or do a traineeship abroad and get paid through a grant; moreover, Erasmus + projects let you turn your ideas into reality. Some potential improvements in the field of education & youth were mentioned.

In the second half of the event the reasons why one should vote were discussed. Among the mentioned ones were the duty to vote as a citizen, the importance of each vote (in the context of the referendum for Brexit as well where young people could have changed the outcome), the changes that concern different groups of people, like the budget of the Erasmus + programme does students; the fact that one cannot complain about decisions made on the EU level when they have not voted. The panelists highlighted the importance of reading the agenda of the candidates for MEPs due to the fact that it is crucial to the future developments in the EU. More specifically, creation of important documents on the EU level that can have a direct impact on all of us. 

There were various questions from the audience. Regarding upcoming changes in the whole Union there were different examples that any change is hard and there is fear of the unknown in people, but the opportunities the we can get are extremely positive. Another tackled point was that content creators have to be careful about what they share publically because they can get cancelled in some cases; for this reason it is hard to find people to spread messages to society and encourage them to vote. Negative news prevail in people's minds over positive ones, which makes the task even harder.

At the closing of the conference the panelists shared positive messages to the young people in the audience.