Fixing a hole – closing the gap in democracy

At the end of October, JEF-Europe organised in cooperation with JEF Finland, this year’s international Autumn seminar in Helsinki, Finland. We received for this event Financial support from the European Youth Foundation (EYF) of the Council of Europe, as well as support from various partners.

The surprisingly cool and sunny weather for this time of the year in Finland allowed all the participants to enjoy a week of discussion to get an in depth view into the topic of democracy not only at the EU level but from local to global democracy.

At their arrival on Saturday afternoon, the participants were already at the heart of the topic with a brainstorming in small groups about the meaning of democracy, the challenges ahead of it and the ways to cope with those challenges in some of the core aspects of democracy. This group work, allowed people to deal with the core topic of the seminar right from the start as well as served as an ice-breaker, making people discuss within their group and with the other groups during the presentation of the flipcharts they came up with.

The second day of the seminar, Sunday, was focused on continuing this theoretical work about democracy. With its political aim, JEF is still a youth organisation and the morning put a special focus on youth rights within the UN and Council of Europe framework. The afternoon was dedicating to discussing democracy in a larger context before using the concepts of the day to brainstorm about ways to cope with the challenges the groups had defined the day before. Then, and to relax after a busy day, it was time for the traditional International Evening. An occasion to discover food and drinks as well as music from the 25 different countries represented during the seminar.

The rest of the week was focused on the different levels where democracy has to find the best way to express itself. Monday was dedicated to local democracy. And what other city to talk about local democracy than Porvoo, the oldest Finnish city, situated less than one hour away from Helsinki! After a meeting at the Porvoo City Council with members of the City Council and representatives from the Youth City Council 3 groups went for a visit of some of this historical city centres of interest. And what else to end this day dedicate to local democracy than a reception at the city hall of Helsinki. Also a perfect transition towards Tuesday’s Finnish Day.

The participants assisted and participated during the morning to a debate with representatives of the 4 major Finnish political parties youth organisations before going for a visit of the Parliament. After a tour of the building, seeing some of the plenary debate, a presentation on the functioning of the Parliament and discussing with Finnish MP … we can say that by the end of the day, we managed to get a glimpse at the big trends of the political life in Finland. And of course, since it is Finnish day, an evening of Finnish traditions at the Students’ House of Helsinki. A perfect evening to be ready for the European Day.

For this day, we changed the venue once again, this time taking the bus near the coastline of Helsinki and seeing more of the marvels of the Finnish capital. But that doesn’t mean the participants weren’t intellectually challenged during the day. After some questions about the rise of the “True Finns” party the day before a presentation on the rise of populism brought once again this party at the centre of the debates. Always using the concepts developed in the presentations to try to find a way to “fix the hole”, workshops were used to brainstorm and come up with original ideas to campaign to fight xenophobia, or islamophobia for example.

In a time where interdependence is growing and where the question of democracy goes beyond the mere question of democratic government in our countries, a seminar about democracy couldn’t skip the question of the global aspect. This day made participants discover the UN from the inside with participation to a simulation of the UN Security Council. JEF went out of European thematic and challenged the participants with negotiations on a topic that was probably outside of their field of expertise: the Eritrean- Ethiopian conflict.

Eventually the seminar was over. After a week of working, partying, laughing, living together the seminar created this atmosphere unique to JEF and it is as friends and as member of the JEF family that people left the seminar. This enriching experience, perfectly mixing presentations, debates and workshops to put in practice the important concepts used during the week will hopefully have widened everyone’s point of view about democracy and the participants will bring with them a new motivation to keep the good job and “bridge the gap in democracy” through their activities in their countries and their participation to JEF Europe activities like the TNF, with an article “Fighting fascism in the XXI century”

The project was financially supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. The European Youth Foundation (EYF) is a fund established in 1972 by the Council of Europe to provide financial support for European youth activities. Since 1972, more than 300,000 young people, aged between 15 and 30 and mostly from member states, have benefited directly from EYF-supported activities. In 2007 the EYF supported some 300 projects involving more than 15,000 young people.

Its purpose is to encourage co-operation among young people in Europe by providing financial support to such European youth activities which serve the promotion of peace, understanding and co-operation in a spirit of respect for the Council of Europe's fundamental values such as human rights, democracy, tolerance and solidarity.

Join JEF!

JEF Sections

Search