Following the success of the five episodes of the ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ series in 2021, the next edition will take place on 3 February 2022, and focus on the role of youth in cross-border cooperation.

2022 is the European Year of Youth and central to this is the recognition that full cooperation and social cohesion can only be possible with the involvement of young people and their active participation in civic life. The sixth edition of the ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ will be inspired by the  “Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy”, which is the result of a democratic and bottom-up process to involve young people in shaping the future of EU Cohesion policy, and the IVY volunteer programme, an initiative offering the possibility to young people aged 18-30 to serve as volunteers in cross-border, transnational or interregional programmes and projects.

At the event, youth representatives will present the Youth Manifesto and their ideason how to make European Territorial Cooperation more in line with their expectations; representatives of cross-border initiatives in France-Italy and Romania-Bulgaria will showcase concrete examples of cooperation that empowers young people. This will be followed by a discussion involving speakers of the IVY volunteer programme and the creators of a new Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) about territorial cooperation in Europe on how to promote youth engagement in future European Territorial Cooperation programmes.

The sixth edition of the ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ hopes to encourage young people to engage and get involved in cross-border projects and youth associations in border regions to work with equivalent associations across the border. It also aims to inspire cross-border cooperation stakeholders to promote youth engagement opportunities in their programmes.

Meet our speakers:

• Louise Floman, Programme Manager, Interreg, Cross-Border Cooperation, Internal Borders Unit, DG REGIO, European Commission
• Bektha Djilidjel, co-author of the Manifesto
• Maria Rosaria Valentini, Communication officer, Région Rhône-Alpes – on behalf of the ALCOTRA Programme (FR-IT)
• Tzvetalina Genova, Chairperson, International Management Institute – on behalf of the RoBulUs project (RO-BG)
• Birte Wassenberg, Professor of History of International Relations, Sciences Po Strasbourg – on behalf of the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC)
• Beniamino Brunati, IVY volunteer

‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debates’ is a series of online events organised by the Border Focal Point Network and is designed to highlight ways in which obstacles to cross-border cooperation can be reduced as well as to promote the pooling of services along the EU’s internal borders.

Register here and join the conversation.

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