election-watch.eu

Steyr, 29 April 2019: Within the European Youth Week framework Election-Watch.EU held a preparatory democracy workshop with 22 students of the metallic technology class at the vocational school Steyr 1 on 29 April.  The workshop focused on the European Parliament elections. Following a general introduction into democratic principles and European institutions the students developed their questions to the Austrian top candidates to the European Parliament. The workshop was well received and positively evaluated by the students.

This workshop was proceeded by other citizen education activities in Austria: At vocational schools and schools for higher education, workshops with young and first time voters have been conducted to raise awareness about the European elections and prepare for a discussion event with leading candidates for the European elections at the House of the European Union in the framework of the “this-time-I-am-voting” campaign of the European Parliament on 7 May. The discussion event will be accompanied by an innovative social media campaign to inform and motivate young and first time voters to go and cast their vote in the European elections on 26 May. This project was supported by a small grant of Zukunftsfonds Österreich; and the workshops took place in the context of the European Youth Week as well as the “Aktionstage für politische Bildung” of the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research.