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.

Searching for innovative solutions at the 10th EMN annual conference

On June 25-26, 2013 the 10th European Microfinance Network (EMN) annual conference was held at the Clarion hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. More than 200 attendees gathered with the common purpose of finding new strategies and innovative ideas to improve microfinance in Europe.

The theme of this year's conference was 'Innovative Pathways for European Microfinance'. Fasiel Rahman, EMN president, described the conference as “interactive" with "more people integrated in the discussion.” Key stake holders were represented at the conference, including practitioners, professionals, academics, politicians, and bankers.

The two-day conference included simultaneous workshops on the different facets of improving microfinance in Europe. Several attendees commented on the success of the JASMINE Initiative (Joint Action to Support Microfinance Institutions) workshops.

EMN was  chosen to implement a new project within JASMINE called ‘Microfinance Development Services'. The workshop was open to all - individuals, micro entrepreneurs, micro enterprises and other people and organizations interested in microfinance in Europe.

Another  standout workshop at this year's conference was the 48 hour Innovation Race. This continuous discussion platform was based on the work of Kaj Mickos, Professor Emeritus in Innovation Techniques at the The Innovation Plant.

“We started producing innovations in a limited time,” Mickos said. Mickos described the race as a “highly organized process where we follow a route map that does not start with good ideas, it starts finding interesting problems.”

The groups began with Problem Mapping, which led to Problem Verification to test if there was a real problem. Ola Syse, designer at the Innovation Plant, said “it was interesting to map out where the problems in Europe are.”

He explained that a major objective of the Innovation Race was to reinvent services that were not working in some countries by using preexisting models to create new models that would work in a broader market.

Syse was in charge of the "youth" group in the race. One solution this group developed was called 'I wish.' Syse explained, “'I wish is a sort of geographical mapping of the market where we ask people living in the cities want they miss or what they want to have in their neighborhood.” Individuals who want, for example, to have a bakery in their neighborhood go into the service and post the demand. Then, visitors to the forum vote and and entrepreneurs can see where the demand for business is.

Workshops gave attendees the platforms necessary to discuss new strategies for microfiance, but this conference also created important networking opportunities for organizations. The City of Stockholm invited all attendants to a reception in the City Hall, the same location of the Nobel Prize dinner. NEEM (Network for Entrepreneurs from Ethnic Minorities), a partner organization of the conference, invited everyone to a dance at the hotel following the closing remarks.

Neoklis Stamkos, entrepreneur from KEPA, a private company with headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece, explained that he fulfilled his objectives during the two-day conference because “we met the people that we wanted to meet.” Stamkos added that KEPA is building their organization and this conference enabled them to find the appropriate people to provide advice and connections.

Meagan Andrews, research assistant from ICF GHK, explained that “I thought [the conference] provided a lot of different perspectives on ways to overcome the unique challenges for the microfinancing industry in Europe.”

One comment that perhaps summarized the achievements of the 10th annual conference was from Joseph Toindepi from the Faculty of Education, Health and Science University of Derby. “The conference was very productive because it focused on the important and relevant issues of entrepreneurship and innovation which are key to the future development of microfinance in EU,” Derby said.

Next year, on the 19th of June, Lisbon will host the 11th EMN annual conference under the slogan “Employment - Challenges and Opportunities of Microfinance.”

What did people take from the 10th EMN Conference?

The two days at the 10^th EMN Conference in Stockholm were very intense and productive. However, since there were many simultaneous debates, attendants could not assist to all of them. Therefore, several opinions are given to show a summary to the whole conference, as well as to know which sessions were more interesting for the assistants and what they take from each of them.

First of all, it will be necessary to highlight the success of the two Jasmine workshops. The first session (25^th of June) under the title “Innovative Technology services provision” was about the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision (CGC). This Code is “a pilot project developed in the aftermath of a Communication on microcredit adopted by the Commission in November 2007 and also feeds on work carried out previously on the regulation of microcredit in Europe,” as they described during the session.

“The adoption of the principles of the CGC will be very important in order to access the different European programs during the next 2014-2020 period,” described Karl Dayson, from the University of Salford and member of the Jasmine workshop in the debate, in the per-information details.

Neoklis Stamkos, entrepreneur from KEPA, a Business & Cultural Development Centre (a private company with headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece), explained that he fulfill his objective during this session because “we met people that we wanted to meet.” They are trying to create an organization and they need help with the paperwork and advice and there was the place where they could find people who help them.

The second session (26^th of June) had as a theme “The European Progress Microfinance Facility Reloaded: How can it work for you?”. Progress Microfinance was an interactive session, involving representatives from the Commission and Evers&Jung and past- and future- beneficiaries of the European Progress Microfinance Facility (EPMF). Positive and negative feedback on the facility were discussed as well as ideas and collaboration between partners.

Here, Meagan Andrews, research assistant from ICF GHK international company, explained that “I thought it provided a lot of different perspectives on ways to overcome the unique challenges for the Microfinancing industry in Europe.” Also, other participant summarized the two workshops as “clear, understandable, excellent introduction and very good materials and panelist.”

In relation to other sessions, Emmanuel Moyart, programme coordinator of Microfinance ACP/EU, gives some feedback for the “Back to the future...the European microfinance in 2033?” session. He explained that “the question looked interesting but later was more entertainment than something useful.”

HOGUERAS in Alicante II

18th at 00.00 in the Luceros´s square you can see the last of the fireworks/firecrakers at midnight. It means that the day after, 19th of June, Hogueras starts with the plantà or building of the monuments (the hogueras).

During the 19th to the 24th there are a serie of activities you need to keep in mind as the firecrakers at 14.00 everyday in the Luceros´s square:

Eating in the racós are the best part of it:

And of course everything goes along with music and dancing: 

And the climax of the hogueras, to burn the monuments in flames: 

Hoguera Hernán Cortés 2013 and their representatives: Belleza and Damas. Traditional dress of Alicantina.

Cremà

HOGUERAS in Alicante

HOGUERAS is much more that you can imagine. It is about music, fireworks, firecrakers, light, color, dancing, people everty time in the street, good atmosphere and, of course, our monuments or statues.

The HOGUERAS period starts from the 20th to the 24th of June, every year in the Southeast city of Spain, Alicante. Alicante is a very turistic city, with a great new airport connected to many countries in the world. Beautiful beaches, good weather, great food, and above all, our local festivities; the Hogueras of Saint John.

From the 15th to the 19th: Pre-Hogueras period

The 15th of June is the day when the girl representing Alicante during that year, the Bellea del foc d´Alacant, officially starts the Hogueras with her speech. This always happens the previous friday of the 20th of June. The weekend after that speech, called "el pregón", there are a serie of parades. On saturday every Hoguera in Alicante (there are 90!) dressed up with the traditional dress of the city, the Alicantina or Zaragüel dresses (showed in the picture).

 Also, the day after that, on Sunday, every hoguera (which represents every neighbour in the city) dressed with costumes that will mean something from thier own monument and they do the parede around Alicante (show one costume in the picture below from the Hoguera Hernán Cortés, during this 2013).

After that non-stop weekend comes what we call "la plantà" that menas the building of the monuments (one for the adults and one for the children of each hoguera) during the next couple of days:

This is the beginning of a complete full of fun week (at least) :)  This has just began! Next post will show the HOGUERAS period understood from the 20th to the 24th of June that includes firecrakers (or Mascletà), more parades (or desfiles), the finished monuments (or Hogueras), music, food, the cliff-hanger when the monuments are in flames (what it is called "the cremà), and much much more fun!