Inspiration, motivation, and new friendships, these are the three words that best characterise European Student Assembly 2024 or ESA 24. The assembly took place from 10 to 12 April 2024, in Strasbourg, France, at the European Parliament.
The ENLIGHT delegation consisted of nine students from different partner universities, specifically from:
- Ghent University
- University of Groningen
- Comenius University in Bratislava
- University of Galway
- University of the Basque Country
Approximately 4% of all universities were represented by the ENLIGHT European University alliance, which is excellent!
The assembly began on Thursday around noon with the arrival of students at the European Parliament. The students received accreditations and were able to enter the parliament. The programme started with great speeches from ESA representatives, university presidents in Strasbourg, Uni Italia, Franco-Italian University, Franco-German University, an online speech from the Vice President of French universities, and the speeches concluded with a video message from the French Minister of Higher Education and Research.
Overall, students had the opportunity to choose from 11 panels, each covering a wide range of topics. Therefore, every student could select a panel relevant to their field of study. Subsequently, individual panels were presented, ENLIGHT European University students were represented in the following panels:
- Panel 2 - Greener is better
- Panel 3 - Cohesion through budget policies
- Panel 5 - EU in the world
- Panel 6 - EU Artificial Intelligence Act
- Panel 7 - European Heritage
- Panel 8 - Cure for the Future
The first day concluded with a panel discussion full of inspirational debates. The day ended with a group photo of participants in the grand and beautiful room of the European Parliament.
In the photo below are students who were representing ENLIGHT European University alliance at ESA 2024. The photo was taken by the phograher Banu Bekirova©.
Day two was a day full of panel workshops and discussions where students had the opportunity to discuss and brainstorm about panel issues and mutual recommendations. These panel discussions addressed very current topics. At the same time on this day, the Village of Alliances was opened, where each of the alliances participating at ESA had the opportunity to present their alliance to students, and ENLIGHT could not miss this. We thank all the students who stopped by, as well as the students who helped us present the alliance.
During the alliance meeting, the possibilities for the future were discussed. ESA and representatives of the alliances shared their experiences and recommendations on how to improve ESA in the future. It was a productive debate full of different views and inspirational ideas, not only for ESA but also for all alliances. For example, a possible inspiration for the future could be the organisation of 'Alliance Olympic Games'. The second day was also devoted to students' practicing voting, as the third day was all about elections.
Day 3, or rather, Voting Day? On the third day, each panel presented the students' recommendations, which were then either accepted (adopted) or rejected. This opportunity for students to engage in the election process within the EU Parliament was invaluable, allowing them to experience firsthand the democratic principles in action. Thanks to their active participation in the elections, this initiative truly reflects the authentic voice of the student community. Presenting all the proposals would be very time-consuming, so we would only like to mention examples of these recommendations from each panel. For example, these recommendations were adopted:
- Panel 1: Preventing Misinformation among social media users: AI algorythms, tracks of false information. Evolution and education content on the danger of missinformation.
- Panel 2: AgriTechEU+: Empovering farmers through cutting edge agritech tool and training.
- Panel 3: Maximising the efficiency of EU funding distributioon.
- Panel 4: Creating an EU agency responsible. For processing all imigrants coming to the EU.
- Panel 5: Strenghtening the Space policy of the European Union by promoting research and internation cooperation.
- Panel 6: Boosting AI literacy: Enhancing understanding of potencial risks and benefits.
- Panel 7: Establishing an Annual European Heritage Competition for Secondary school.
- Panel 8: Integrated novel wearable biosensors into European healthcare system to improve patient care.
- Panel 9: Making scientific publication open and research data accesible for academia and beyond.
- Panel 10: Empower integration: gradual EU accesion and inclusion of expert in progress monitoring.
- Panel 11: EUmythbusters: Combating Disinformation through Funding Independent bodies.
The adopted proposals will be processed and sent to higher EU authorities.
The third day concluded with a tour of the beautiful city of Strasbourg. In conclusion, it was a fantastic experience, and we are already looking forward to the next edition. 