Making Europe a better place

"National problems, European solutions: Is the EU grass still greener?". This was the title of the European Youth Media Days, 2013 organized in Brussels by the Euroepan Parliament last October.

120 journalist from all Europe gathered together to work on this topic in different teams. The result of the workshop is here. Also, Rebecca Bengtsson, main coordinator of the program describes the importance of these activities:

There are also many other Euroepan initiatives that promotes the unity among its member states and that helps to create a better Union. Antonis Christakis, Vice President of Youthnet in Greece explains what the European Citizens´ Initiative means to him:

Finally, Ioannis Darmis, Head of the Media Services and Monitoring Unit, EP gives an overview about the role of the journalists to create a Union of people in Europe:

Now, it is the moment of thinking ahead. Next step, the European Elections 2014: "Act, React, Impact".

A join project to promote an European Society

The European Youth Media Days (EYMD) 2013 started today in Brussels with the support of the European Parliament (EP) . These three workshop´s days gather 120 professional and student journalists from all Europe with the purpose of "reflecting questions that something we [EP] forget", said Ioannis Darmis, Head of media services and monitoring unit of the EP.

The first day impressions, as they explained in the introduction speech, are that there are not national problems that countries can solve on their own. Europe needs to work at a higher level of integration. Othamar Karas, Vice President of the European Parliament in charge of communication expressed this way, "We need to act together" and in this democratic process journalists are needed to influence the decisions to be taken.

The most important thing is to create a fair, independent and responsible media where journalists should represent a true reality because Europe is not only black and white, but very diverse. As Karas highligtthed, "We are all Europe" and it is all at the interest of the community.

The problem of coverage
Breaking stereotyes -The role of media in promoting an inclusive European society- was the title of the last panel discussion of the day. Here, the crucial point is to know when coverage goes right and when goes wrong. What is the main responsibility? has it anything to be with ethics? influencing society? to what extend do we have resposibility as a journalists?

Journalists should not talk only about one side of the discussion, they need to have the complete picture of the situation, show the diversity and create a honest relation with readers. Tell the story as it is and do not reinforce steroetypes.

Journalists are the only ones who can research for the truth, show it their audience and create a more integrated Europe.

"National Problems: European Solutions?

Next 15th to 17th of October, the European Youth Media along with the European Parliament host the European Youth Media Days 2013 (EYMD) under the title; "National Problems, European solutions? Is the EU´s grass still greener?"

My workshop there is called "#EU- European policies online, is the EU keeping up eith the present times?" We need to know and analyze how the EP is communicating, what´s the strategy behind and what are they doing to improve the conncetion with people.

I believe this topic has a lot in common with the globalization movemetn. The social media has given us the opportunity to share and being in touch with everybody in the globe without barriers and this is a positive thing. However, it is necessary to regulate the web somehow and its contents, giving people alternatives, in the way everybody will be prepresented. Pluralism on the social media is important. Also, reaching people through Internet.

I would like to mention here the anti-globalization movements that took place in Seattle in 1999. This movement grew in importance thanks to the social media.

Nowadays, along with the economic crisis, the uncertainty about if the EU is going forward towards a more political intregation, or backwards towards a more national independence (instead of interdependence) is an important questions itself. I believe in the European Union, but it is visible that its primiry ideas has been distorted. We cannot fail again as it happened in the Copenhagen Summit in 2009. We need to work together to get out of this situation, to fight back stronger than ever and this initiatives (as well as the European Initiative for Media Pluralism) help to reach an agreement. The EU needs to provide alternatives to youth Europeans to gather together and maybe to make real the idea of the United States of Europe.