On Monday 2 October, Inter Alia hosted the debate “Why should I care about EU elections?” with Lefteris Papagiannakis, Director of the Greek Council for Refugees, former Vice-Mayor on Migrant and Refugee Affairs of the Municipality of Athens and former assistant in the European Parliament. The event took place at the Liaison Office of the European Parliament in Athens, where 20 young people from Belgium, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Tunisia and Finland sat together to exchange opinions and points of view on the next 2024 EU elections.
The topics discussed varied from what could go wrong if citizens and, especially, young people decide not to participate in the next elections, to how the European Parliament’s composition and agenda will change should far-right movements gain space within the institution. Guided by Papagiannakis, they tried to understand how the European parties and their Members (MEPs) work to find agreement on important files and the way they vote, discussing which interests and rights the MEPs represent and give voice to at EU level.
Participants were also interested in talking with Papagiannakis about the current situation of migration management in EU border states, the regular breaches of human rights that are happening in the Mediterranean as well as expectations and worries about what will happen in the future.
One of the concerns emerging from the debate is that young people feel disconnected from the present system of representation, especially taking into account that EU elections keep being used by national parties as grounds on which to measure their strength and presence, rather than an opportunity to push forward a truly European agenda and work towards common, transnational goals.
