IIEA to participate in 'Young Ideas for Europe'

Young Ideas for Europe (www.youngideasforeurope.eu) is a Europe-wide initiative funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Germany to increase awareness of and participation in the activities of the European Parliament among young European citizens. It involves one school from each Member State participating alongside a German partner school. The Institute is charged with running the project in Ireland, and will be working with St. Paul's CBS in Smithfield, Dublin 7 (link).

The project will involve educating the students about what the EU, its institutions and in particular the European Parliament works. It will inspire them to actively shape Europe's political, economic and social future by giving them not only a forum, but a true voice in European politics. The focus this year will be on the policy areas of EU energy policy and tackling climate change.

Students will be participating in interactive sessions requiring them to debate and simulate the activities of the European Parliament. This will lead to them forming political groupings, drafting their own policies, debating those policies and presenting the results of their work to the school, family and friends on the final day of the project. The results of their work will be sent to our German partners and will inform the final Young Ideas for Europe policy paper on energy and climate change. This will represent the views of all the participating schools and will be submitted to the Spanish Presidency in April 2010.