Young people reflecting on the past, debating on the present, envisioning a different future.
This year’s Franck Biancheri Award Conference will take place between 21st until 23rd of April in Budapest at the Central European University, as a collaboration between AEGEE-Budapest, l’Association des Amis de Franck Biancheri and AEGEE-Europe, represented by the Civic Education Working Group and Europe on Track Project.
The founder of AEGEE-European Students’ Forum, Europe’s biggest interdisciplinary student associations, Franck Biancheri, foresaw the risks of a rise of non-democratic movements that the EU is experiencing nowadays, by pointing out the deficit of a common currency instead of a direct, democratic and active participation of citizens. Isn’t a multicultural Europe put at risk when being measured by economic criteria? The latest happenings on the political level in Europe and the crises that Europe is experiencing right now may be the first symptoms that Franck Biancheri was talking about decades ago.
The decision to have the conference in Budapest was not a coincidence. Entering the Euroland, the refugee crises, increasing popularity of nationalism and populism, the lack of civic education in Hungarian society are some of the topics
with which Hungary has confronted itself in the last few years. This context will bring more relevance and value to the course of the conference and a perfect environment is achieved.
Another important point from Franck Biancheri’s legacy is for the young Europeans to own the future, to act and to stand for their values. As he said, “we, young students all over Europe, are occupying the future, taking a stand for our values and for the democratisation of Europe”. Supporting his view the conference will bring over 60 young people together, from all around Europe and not only, to debate and tackle the perspectives for a successful democracy in Europe. That can only happen with active, responsible citizenship, for which civic education has a key role and AEGEE as a provider of it.
Observing the outcomes in our society the conference tries to offer the right framework for the participants to understand the influence of the state of education on democracy, find solutions for current ways of participatory democracy and which strategies should be adopted for the future in order to strive and achieve functional democracies.
The Organiser Team
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Download AEGEE_FBA_Conference_Booklet