Concerned about prospects of signing the Association Agreement, the nation’s youngest adult demographic – the most pro-European, according to surveys – hopes the deal will be sealed in November when both sides will meet in Lithuania. And the most active part of this pool of optimistic Ukrainians has for 13 years operated through the European Youth Parliament in Ukraine.
“Celebrating
the 13th anniversary of European Youth Parliament in Ukraine, all of
us made one wish while blowing out candles on the cake: ‘God give us European
Union membership in at least in 10 years!’,” said Iryna Garbuz, an EYP activist.
She believes
that this non-profit group has contributed to Ukraine’s European future. In the
13 years of its existence, more than 1,000 participants of annual sessions have
made this group a key driving factor of bringing up a new generation of EU
citizens living in Ukraine.
EYP was
founded in France in 1987 as a non-partisan and independent educational
project. It has since expanded to 36 countries organizing nearly 200 events
annually. People aged 16-22 take part in
regional, national and international sessions that give them a chance to leap
into the world of diplomacy and become international decision makers.
“EYP is the
best thing that ever happened to me,” says Gabriel Diaciuc from Moldova, “I
hope that my example of EYP-activism will motivate many young people in my
country for membership in this amazing organization”.
Turkan
Vusat, another member of EYP and a co-founder of EYP Azerbaijan, began her EYP
career after attending a session in Georgia with a team of five friends. “We
were so inspired by the spirit of the youth parliament that we immediately
decided to establish it in Baku. It is a big school. It has taught me to speak
louder, to express my ideas, advocate for them and achieve opponents’ support.”
Contrary to
the newer youth parliaments, EYP in Ukraine has been around for more than a decade.
Yet its origin story was the same. Inspired by an international session, Olga
Smirnova gathered a team of like-minded people. One co-founder, Vasyl
Myroshnychenko, now director and head of the Ukrainian Office at the Ukrainian-British
City Club and partner at CFC Consulting, says it wasn’t easy to get things going
at first.
“Nobody
knew us and it was very difficult to raise funds for our activities. Also, it
took us a while to go through all the procedures to register an international
youth NGO at the Ministry of Justice. Apart from the red-tape, we had a feeling
that the ministry was not very enthusiastic with registering international
youth NGOs in those days.”
The group’s
main concept is to implement social and political initiatives among youth. They
take part in regional, national and international sessions to discuss the world’s
pivotal topics and to write resolutions. When asked whether EU officials take
into account resolutions, EYP vice-president in Ukraine Egor Vlasenko says: “There
are precedents when decisions of our organization are being discussed at European
Parliament sessions. Furthermore, politicians of the highest rank always react
to our youth polls.”
Regardless
of their wholehearted devotion to parliamentary sessions, EYP participants do
not necessarily strive for a brilliant career in lawmaking.
“We do not
prepare human resources for the Verkhovna Rada. Our organization gives people
keys how to act and think in a European way. So this knowledge will be handy in
any field for creating a new European-like Ukraine,” says Vlasenko.
Challenging
oneself is what makes the EYP experience so effective for young Ukrainians.
“I would
never have read European documents on energy policy before. But now I have to
deal with it, I have to be fully knowledgeable about conference topics,” says Garbuz.
“I have grown up like an individual learning more about human rights and
tolerance within cultures.”
Recently EYP
in Ukraine won the right to host an international session in autumn 2014. Six people have been working for several
months on the project that will eventually gather more than 300 people from across
Europe in Kyiv. The event’s budget is nearly €150,000 with the host country expected
to cover 70-80 per cent of the amount.
But the Ukrainian
organizers aren’t too worried about the cost. This will be the third
international EYP session held in Ukraine.
Kyiv Post intern Yuliya Hudoshnyk can be
reached at [email protected].
