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Young Democracy Defenders: Stories from Our Pan-European Projects
90 Plays3 months ago
Welcome to Our Rule of Law: The Podcast, the definitive podcast on democracy and the rule of law, brought to you by the Our Rule of Law Foundation.
Today, we are honoured to have participants from our two latest pan-European reserach projects — The Our Rule of Law Academy, and Vote4OurRuleofLaw Fellowship. During the The Our Rule of Law Academy, the participants had a unique chance to write policy proposals on how the EU should better protect the rule of law, and during the Vote4OurRuleofLaw Fellowship, first time voters encourage other first time voters to participate in the last European Parliement elections. Candela, Julia, Canan and Elpiniki will discuss, why it is so important for students and young people to get engage with rule of law and democracy early on, and what lessons they have learned during their projects.
Are you also keen on making your impact? We are currently running an exciting initiative dedicate to youth from across Europe and beyond, where the participants will contribute to “Our Democracy Report” — a report aiming to review the state of democracy from EU Member States, and Candidate Countries. Young Democracy Rapporteurs will be receiving training from world-renowned experts in EU law, media reporting, and political communication. The Rapporteurs will be trained to write concise analysis rooted in quantitative and qualitative approach. This Pan-European effort aims to create the Our Democracy Report (composed of national chapters) that will be published on the Foundation’s website, publicly available to every citizen.
Apply by the 24th of January 2025 23:59 CET: https://bit.ly/Application_OurDemocracyReport.
For more information about the project, please visit: https://www.ourruleoflaw.eu/our-democracy-report
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact project.management@ourruleoflaw.eu
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Transcript
Podcast and Episode Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Our Rule of Law, the podcast, the definite podcast on democracy and the rule of law, brought to you by the Our Rule of Law Foundation. In each episode, we'll be joined by leading professionals from experts in the field to policymakers, academics to activists to dis dissect, debate and discuss the principles that underpin our society.
Meet the Participants
00:00:23
Speaker
Our goal is to enlighten, challenge and inspire you with a deep dive into the laws that govern us, the right we cherish and the duties that we uphold as rule of law defenders.
00:00:35
Speaker
Tune in and gauge and let's explore the foundations of our democracy together. Today, we're honored to have participants from our two latest pan-European research projects, the Art Rule of Law Academy and vote for our Rule of Law Fellowship. During the Our Rule of Law Academy, the participants had a unique chance to write policy proposals on how the EU should better protect rule of law. And during the Vote for Our Rule of Law Fellowship, first-time voters encouraged other first-time voters to vote in the last European Parliament elections. Candela, Yulia, Janan and El Piniki will discuss why it is so important for students and young people to get engaged with rule of law and democracy early
Participant Projects and Impact
00:01:20
Speaker
on.
00:01:20
Speaker
and what lessons they have learned during their programs. At the very end, you will also hear about our new project that you can also get involved with. Without further ado, let me pass the mic to Candela, who will be our kind host today. Hello, everyone.
00:01:37
Speaker
I'm Candela, you are hearing me from Naimehim, a lovely place in the Netherlands. And today I'd like to invite you to know some past participant projects for both the fellowship, which I took part in, and a or our rule of law academy. So they can share their experience and reflect on how these programs help shape their perspectives on democracy and the rule of law. From this experience, you can maybe know that you are ready to take part in the next problem, or Remocus will report. So, let's mean that now. a Maybe we can pass a microphone to Yannan. Yannan, can you introduce yourself?
00:02:22
Speaker
Hi, all. I'm Janan. I'm a former participant at the Judicial Independence Working Group at the Aarulofla Academy and a Matcha lover. I'm currently pursuing my studies in Maastricht University. I'm originally from Turkey, but I've lived in the EU with my entire life with backgrounds in Bulgaria, Poland and the Netherlands. That's great. Thank you so much, Janan. Maybe we can meet now, Julia. ah Hi, I'm Julia.
00:02:50
Speaker
I took part in the vote for our rule of the fellowship. ah Currently, I'm a student of University of Amsterdam, ah which is really cool. If you guys would ever want to study there, I highly recommend. In my free time, I love drinking cappuccino. So, yeah. And finally, our last participant, El Piniki.
00:03:13
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Alpiniki. I'm a law student from Athens, Greece, and I'm very passionate about the rule of law, as everyone here. ah But I also like EU law in general, which led me to do some internships in Brussels at the permanent presentation of Greece to the European Union and in Germany at the Academy of European Law.
00:03:38
Speaker
Now I'm very lucky to um be an intern at the Council of State, which is the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece, and also even luckier to work ah with the Foundation on our new project as a project assistant in the Project Management Task Force.
00:03:57
Speaker
Back in 2023, I participated in the Earl of Law Academy as a researcher, and I was lucky enough to work with an incredible team on the topic of the amicus curiae at the Court of Justice of the European Union under the guidance of Professor Alemano and Professor Kromendick Yes, thank you so much for your introductions.
Academy and Fellowship Experiences
00:04:21
Speaker
So let's go to analyze some of the projects. Yannan, it's a way to have you here. Could you give us a brief overview of your experience in the overall flow academy? What was the academy about? How did it equip young leaders to contribute to European democracy? Tell us something about it.
00:04:43
Speaker
Of course, I think our rule of law academy was essentially about educating future generations of rule of law defenders. um It was essentially about learning the current EU legal framework. And I really, really loved the project because it gave the students an opportunity to see how EU policymaking actually works. um So we were put in the shoes of policymakers and given the floor and the freedom ah to basically be creative and i really really like that about it and especially with our amazing experts and mentors and professors judges.
00:05:26
Speaker
all sorts of experts. It was a great opportunity to meet fellow rule of law defenders. I actually met my colleague from our rule of law academy at the European Parliament last week, which was an amazing experience because you get to see where we were and now we're we are going to. um So I think it was also a great experience of networking, getting to know people and working on the report together that is published. um So I think that was a very fulfilling ah project to be part of. So my next question is also regarding to the Academy. Do you think, Alviniki, do you feel you can answer it or I can go to Yuria explaining something about the fellowship? What do you think? Have you read the question?
00:06:15
Speaker
I guess. It's like, it's the question I've, I've done international. Yes. It's more, it's this one is more informal. I think you can. Yeah. Okay. So yes. Okay. I'm going to try. If we don't like it, we try something else. Maybe with you. Yeah. but just see Okay. Perfect. o Um,
00:06:47
Speaker
Thank you so much, Yannan. Let's go to talk to the participants of the Academy. El Pinniki, could you share more about how working in such a diverse and international team impact your understanding all of rule of law talent across Europe? Tell us i about your experience, please.
00:07:08
Speaker
I would say that one of the most rewarding aspects was meeting fascinating students from all across Europe, many of them ah of whom I am still in contact with, as Janan said. ah These connections have been invaluable in both my professional and ah personal growth.
00:07:28
Speaker
And I think it's because of the different ah perspectives and the collaborative environment that it really broadened our understanding of ah the issues that we had to deal with. ah I was expecting when I applied to the Academy to learn more from the experts and the mentors, but I ended up learning more from the student researchers and having very interesting interesting discussions ah like over lunch breaks or late at night in our hostels, something that I didn't expect to happen. But it was truly empowering seeing students discuss these kinds of topics and have a voice. I still apply ah the knowledge I gained from the academy ah at my university, at my studies, or even during the traineeship at the Academy of European Law, we had to organize an event on the rule of law.
00:08:27
Speaker
and the insights I gained from the different perspectives I learned at the Academy, really helped me understand what we wanted to have on the program. ah So I'd say that the connections and the information we gained ah ah really helped both in personal and professional level. Great, that sounds like a lovely experience, the same also as me and Julia had during the fellowship. So Julia, could you tell us something about this experience? How do you think it differs from the academy? I would say it was quite the same. ah I come from the like different backgrounds. So I don't study law, I study communication science. And at the beginning, I thought maybe this might be you know a problem in the process. But what surprised me the most was that
00:09:20
Speaker
lectures that we had at the beginning before doing the report actually allowed me to like understand the topic deeply without having like so much knowledge about it earlier only the probably basis that I got from the snippets of information through like media and newspapers that we all read. So like, that was something that I loved the most that you don't have to be a specialist just yet. Like the there's the process that will teach you everything. And that was amazing for me. ah I also the same as girls said already, love the experience with other people, which allowed me to like learn how to participate in this
00:10:00
Speaker
like different situation. It's not school. It's not obligatory to like actively be a part of the project, but people are just so into it. Like everyone that I met during the project is so invested and so into the case that there was never a problem with, you know, communication or someone not doing their parts.
Engaging Young Voters
00:10:22
Speaker
And I truly loved it. And I am still in touch with my friends from the fellowship and That was just an amazing experience, not only knowledge wise, but also just entire life wise, I would say. Yes, that's really cool. I completely agree that it's really nice to have people from different backgrounds because it's true that most of us are like law students are really keen and obsessed with rule of law and yeah.
00:10:52
Speaker
or three things, but it's true that having people from other backgrounds makes this experience even keep them better, you know what I mean? And yes, I think also regarding the fellowship, it was really nice that we had some lectures and some workshops about communication, which was, yeah, a really key part in our project in the social media campaign in how to engage young people to vote So I think that part also had a really good impact. So although most love students, we don't have like a communication background, we learn also that. So it was a perfect balance for me. I think it was a really nice combination. I have another question for you.
00:11:35
Speaker
How do you think the program prepared you to engage with young voters and encourage them to go to the pool in your country, in Poland? Do you feel your social media campaign has a real impact? Yeah, so that's a really interesting question. I think for most of us, ah it's not common for people our age to think of like how to make other people vote. I would, as I saw it before the fellowship was mostly the old people, people that already voted multiple times would try to engage the younger ones. So ah personally, I wasn't even aware of like multiple reasons why young people
00:12:17
Speaker
don't vote like from my perspective which we all have this like short view on the things just as we see them was that well everyone probably would go because it's just we have so many things we can change and it's like why wouldn't we go?
00:12:31
Speaker
So seeing other reasons and other perspectives ah like the that the whole fellowship allowed me to like deeper research and analyze allowed me to like understand other people differently. So it allowed me not to be like such a short view person that would say oh just go vote it's important but rather to try to communicate to people with different backgrounds, different views and try to make them see that the thing is important because the key is not to make people that know voting is important go vote, but rather to make someone who's just not sure. So I think our campaign that we thought about learning, like showing people that voting is so important was actually a great thing to try and just being in this like position of trying to come up with something that will change other people minds. That was, that was amazing.
00:13:28
Speaker
I don't know if I completely answered your question, Candela, I just like, you know, flow, but yeah, I thought it was just amazing to create something for me.
Bootcamp Highlights
00:13:39
Speaker
The combination of the skills you need for that, crazy.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yes, thank you so much for your insights, Julia. Maybe we can come back to the academy. So, Janon, how was the bootcamp in Brussels? It should be an amazing experience. Can you tell us more about some highlights and what it was like to present your policy proposals to actual policymakers? That's really impressive.
00:14:09
Speaker
Well, I can say it was very stressful ah but a very rewarding experience. um You know, you're not used to having experts in front of you every day and pitching your ideas.
00:14:21
Speaker
especially as a student, but the our mentors have prepared us in such a way that those you know pitches and the policy recommendations went great. um We had lots of insights um from the experts as well and the conversation and the dialogue basically went back and forth that we later on made additions to our um report.
00:14:46
Speaker
And I think it was also a great experience because we also got to meet the other participants from other mentor groups. um So it was a great experience of ah networking. It was a great experience of learning because we had done a lot of reading ah beforehand. you know for I think it was like more than two months. If I'm not wrong, you know regular meetings every week and working on it so it was actually like a course. um So I think it was a great experience and we were very ready to be at Brussels after an intense crash course. I also want to say that I was always a human rights activist active at different and various NGOs throughout the years but I consider myself to be a rule of law defender
00:15:36
Speaker
only after the academy, because I got to know so much during that experience that I thought I should be active. So our rule of law foundation has a very special place in my heart. um If I may also add to what it Janan has said, unlike a traditional university course, the academy was very hands-on and practical.
00:16:00
Speaker
um We weren't just learning about the rule of law, we were actively contributing to it through our research and policy proposals. And for some students I think it's the first time that we were actually doing something ourselves and not just studying what others have done.
00:16:18
Speaker
um The other thing that I really want to mention and is that the organizers were truly exceptional. And I don't say that because now I'm ah working at the foundation. I say that because you don't have to worry about the logistics. Like they truly took care of everything, ensuring that we can focus entirely on our presentation and the learning experience. Like this is the level of dedication that I hope we can bring to the upcoming project as well.
00:16:52
Speaker
Cool. I would like to ask Julia about her experience also. Our bootcamp was in a different place with being in Berlin, visiting also the city and doing some plans with our fellows. How was that experience for you? So our bootcamp was for sure intensive. So for that, you got to be ready. It was a whole day full of inspiring lectures, but also some workshops, creating things together.
00:17:20
Speaker
and just brainstorming our vision for the project. But I would say like I wasn't tired at all just because the energy of everyone was so high. And like we I just got to mention that everything was super planned. like The only thing we got to worry about was to learn and to like come up with great ideas. But everything was there prepared for us.
00:17:45
Speaker
which I wouldn't expect like from any project like that at all, but it was there, ah just amazing. And I think amazing thing about Bootcamp was also that we got to spend some time together after working for I'm not sure how long was that, like, I think above a month or something like that. Like meeting all these people you knew from like online meetings was just this great experience. And so I think, yeah, that was the most important thing to me that I got to learn and spend time with people that would bring me inspiration and just a great vibe. Also seeing like,
00:18:24
Speaker
people at work. So like the girls that created our rule of law, you know, creating all this stuff telling us, oh, we go there, that just the fascinating interaction and the level of connection they have after creating and all that. I don't know, just really great experience that you should definitely try. Yeah, I also agree that I was amazed with all the work it's bootcamp and the whole project has behind. So yeah, it was a really nice experience also in terms of commodity and to be comfortable with your fellows and yeah, just worried about your project and not anything related to organization.
Future Opportunities and Research Invitation
00:19:10
Speaker
So yes, I think it was a really wonderful experience both in an academic but also personal way
00:19:15
Speaker
So I really encourage everyone hearing us today to take part in the next project or democracy report. Thank you for tuning in to our Rule of Law, the podcast. We hope that Candela, Yulia, Janan and L.P. Niki's experience showed you how important it is for students and young people to stay engaged and protect our democratic principles.
00:19:38
Speaker
Are you also keen on making your impact? Well, we are currently running a new exciting research project dedicated to you from across Europe and beyond, where the participants will contribute to our Democracy Report, a report aiming to review the state of democracy in EU member states and candidate countries.
00:19:58
Speaker
Young democracy reporters will be receiving training from world-renovated experts in EU law, media reporting and political communication. The reporters will be trained to write concise analysis rooted in quantitative and qualitative approach.
00:20:15
Speaker
This pan-European effort aimed to create the Our Democracy Report composed of national chapters that will be published on our website and will be publicly available to everyone. You have until the 24th of January to apply and you can find more information in the description of this podcast.
00:20:36
Speaker
I am Anna, and on behalf of our Rule of Law Foundation and the entire team, thank you for listening. Stay informed, stay engaged, and we hope to see you at our next project. Bye!