Your Europe, Your Say 2022

Eight concrete proposals were handed to the European Commission's Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová by secondary school students from all over Europe. The students were taking part in the virtual youth event Your Europe, Your Say! (YEYS2022) under the title: The truth about lies. Youth challenging disinformation. The event was hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 31 March and 1 April 2022. Our school has been the Spanish representative.

1.      ICEBREAKER

What’s the typical dish in your country? Food was the chosen topic to begin the day while meeting students and teachers from all over Europe.

Opening Session

This session was moderated by Cillian Lohan, EESC Vice-President and there were different speeches regarding fake news and media literacy.

·         Opening speech by Christa Schweng, EESC President

Ruurd Oosterwoud, founder of DROG

·         Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, journalist and founder of Lie Detectors

After the opening session, students and teachers split up in two different groups.

 

1.      Day 1

-          Students: Under Pressure Game

Students played a game which was divided into levels. In the game you were the one who created the disinformation. You had an account where you uploaded posts and depending on how good you were fooling people you gained more followers or not. There were six levels and each level dealt with an aspect of disinformation. For example, there was a level of trolling and a level of polarisation. We finally talked about the results of the game and agreed that what makes people believe information that is not real is emotions and making an impact in people's heart.

 

-          Teachers:

a)      House of European History

The session began asking teachers their own definition of fake.

Later on, Lauren Bragard, explained different interactive activities that the House offers to students. There are many learning possibilities and they also offer the possibility of online visits.

a)      Council of the European Union

Brief introduction of the organisation and presentation of the civil education package.

Day 2

-          Students: Workshop in breakout groups

Throughout the second day, all YEYS participants were organised into groups and subgroups with whom we worked together, thinking, and working as the fake news makers. As a result, we came up with a fake news campaign. By working in the place of the fakers, we learned what details make the difference between fake news and real news. After several hours of work, we presented to the rest of the classmates. 

-          Teachers

o   Welcome by Biliana Sirakova, EU Youth Coordinator within the European Commission, who presented the Youth Goals.

o   European Commission:

§  Presentation of the Learning Corner

Presentation Spot and fight disinformation

o   European Committee of the Regions: presentation of the “Back to School” activities.

o   European Parliament Ambassador School programme (EPAS)

1.      Closing session

Presentation of the proposals to the EU Commissioner by the students

Keynote speaker: Ms Vera Jourova, European Commission Vice-President and European Commissioner for Values & Transparency