EGiA National Policy Panel

The ESN Ireland National Policy Panel aimed to facilitate a robust exchange of ideas and insights on the significance of the upcoming European Parliament (EP) elections. This panel focused on three key areas:

1. Election Importance
2. Youth Engagement
3. Active Citizenship

Speakers:

- Brian Hearne: Policy and Communications Manager at Irish Council for International Students (ICOS)

- Áine Gourley: Research & Policy Officer at European Movement Ireland (EMI)

- John Sutton: International & Skills Summary Projects Assistant at National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI)

Moderator:
- Ellen Murray: Member of the Organizing Committee

Welcome/Conclusion:
- Mark Mc Gee: Member of the Organizing Committee

The panel was moderated by Ellen Murray, ensuring that discussions remained focused and time-managed. Speakers presented their insights on each key topic, followed by a Q&A session with the audience to foster interactive engagement.

Key Points Discussed:
- Mobility: Discussion highlighted the importance of mobility in shaping electoral engagement, noting how trends like Erasmus exchanges influence young voters' perspectives and participation.
- Internationalisation: Speakers emphasized the role of international factors, such as global political movements and transnational issues, in shaping voter behavior and election outcomes.
- Youth Engagement: Innovative strategies to boost youth voter turnout were explored, including educational campaigns, social media initiatives, and the creation of youth-friendly voting environments.
- Push/Pull Factors: Analysis of factors driving or hindering electoral participation, including socio-economic conditions, political climate, and accessibility of voting processes.
- Active Citizenship: The panel envisioned methods to encourage sustained civic engagement, stressing the importance of continuous community involvement beyond election periods.

Other:

 - Each of the panellists also discussed their backgrounds in relation to the event and why they were interested in the panel.

 - They also each talked about their experience abroad with the Erasmus+ Programme as Áine did her Erasmus at Sciences Po Grenoble, Brain did his Erasmus in Graz and John did his in Sweden.

 - Áine talked about key EU and national policy and political developments within the European Movement Ireland. She also talked about key EU institutional developments and reports that EMI recently published with going deeper into some of these findings.

 - Brain talked about leading research, policy development, and programme-level marketing and communications efforts within the Irish Council for International Students. He also mentioned being the Co-founder of the initiative: National Voter Registration Day (30th April) within Ireland and the ICOS Accommodation Survey of International Student 2023 and how this impacts voters (especially those who are international).

 - John talked about the National Youth Councils Skills Summary and International Teams within the National Youth Council of Ireland. He also mentioned his work involves the rolling out of National Consultations within the European Youth Dialogue Process as well as covering the Youth Democracy Festival 2024 and Young Voices: EU Youth Dialogue within NYCI.

Outcomes:

- We ran a LinkedIn campaign for the event which gained 14,808 impressions 

https://www.linkedin.com/events/erasmusgenerationinactionpolicy71990036…;

- The event was very interactive from the participants, there were a lot of engaging questions towards the panellists.

- We had discussions from both local and international students which shaped the panel, giving both perspectives which made the conversations with the panellists  very enriching. 

The ESN Ireland National Policy Panel successfully highlighted the importance of the upcoming European Parliament elections by addressing critical issues related to mobility, internationalisation, youth engagement, and active citizenship. By involving key speakers and policymakers, the panel fostered a meaningful dialogue and encouraged active participation from young voters.

Impact - after the event we planned a series of social media campaigns to highlight what was discussed and also to promote the event, voting, Erasmus and once again the together.eu platform.

• Regarding the buffet that we booked, the venue gave us only this option for catering as it had to be internal. We also had a deadline in terms of booking this in advance (it was a tight deadline) so we ordered the amount of food for the amount of people we expected to join the activity. On the day of the activity we had a lot more people who had pre-registered to join us who then didn't show up. The venue kindly gave us some containers to give to the participants so they can take the extra food home with them so it didn't go to waste.
• We planned for the event to have an impact on the participants who joined us nonetheless, we arrived early to set everything up including the room, the registration desk, banners (to promote EU voting) and the technical aspects (microphones, speakers, presentation etc). After the panel the participants enjoyed the buffet where they further discussed the topics presented with the panellists. During this time the Organising Committee also stayed with the cleaning up and breaking down all of the materials within the venue.
• Mark was the main organiser of this Policy Panel and the EGiA grant as a whole, therefore it was essential that he comes back from Paris (where he lives currently) to ensure the success of the event.
• For the transportation reimbursement and hostel booking, we had refunded transportation costs and booked the hostel both as inclusion measures for participants and volunteers. We had both joining us from all corners of Ireland and with having both of these measures in place this insured we could welcome a larger variety of opinions and be more inclusive towards these volunteers and students.