DESTINATION EU Project Workshop in Zadar

On Friday, 30 November 2018, Centre for Democracy and Law Miko Tripalo organized a Destination EU: The Future of Youth in Croatia project workshop at the University of Zadar. The workshop was aimed at youth and the goal was to discuss and explore the causes that affect the level of knowledge among young people about the European Union and their rights as citizens of Europe. The workshop was attended by 25 participants, 17 of which were young people.

The workshop is a part of the project Destination EU: The Future of Youth in Croatia, which is financed by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. In the first part of the project, four analytical papers were written on the topic of first five years of Croatian membership in the European Union and the way in which it affected various segments of life among young people in Croatia. The papers serve as a cornerstone for further discussion with young people. With this project, Centre Miko Tripalo seeks to improve the level of knowledge of youth about the European Union and thier rights, with an emphasis on advantages that the EU membership provides for young people.

At the beginning of the workshop Dario Čepo, project manager, summarized the goals of the project and workshop objectives to the participants. Afterwards Berto Šalaj, from Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Zagreb, gave a presentation on the topic of future of the European Union, role of Croatia within the EU and the role of youth in creating that future. The participants were divided into four groups and each group got one question for discussion (Should young people participate in politics and why?). After the discussion within groups, one representative from each group briefly presented the reflections and conclusions of thier group.

After a short break Marko Kovačić, from Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, spoke about the impact of youth on decision making and policy creating in Croatia and the EU. In second part of the workshop Marko Kovačić, together with the participants, discussed about the mechanisms that can be used by young people for their inclusion in the process of policy creating. He gave them another question (Do you think that your generation will have a better life than your parents?). At the end of the workshop, all participants were given a questionnaire where they were asked to write how they see their future in Croatia and the European Union.

Finally, Dario Čepo summarized the results of the workshop and underlined the importance of having this kind of conversations with young people on European issues, with regard to the upcoming European Parliament elections and Croatian presidency of the Council of the European Union.