Commissioner Margot Wallström urged young Europeans to speak out and thus contribute to democracy and their future. The Commission’s Vice President and Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy was taking part in an online Spring Day debate on 13 May 2009.

The debate covered a wide range of topics from the younger generation's responsibility to set up the future political agenda, their power to shape politics and to put pressure on politicians, the upcoming European elections and how to communicate Europe to its citizens.

Vice President Wallström while debating with young Europeans

Asked about the Commission's communication policy, Wallström replied: "We have achieved a lot. We have modernised the Commission's communication, introduced EUTube with 14 million hits so far, Citizens' consultations and we have decentralised communication efforts." She also pointed out that communication "is the common responsibility of member states and political parties."

As for bringing the EU institutions closer to its citizens, Wallström pointed to the success of the Back to School initiative where "Politicians and civil servants return to their old schools to tell students about the EU and to listen to them."

The debate was the eighth hosted by Wallström at European Schoolnet. Previous debates have covered such topics as environmental education and EU Communication policy. Taking part were 12 schools from seven countries - Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. János Blasszauer, the teacher coordinating at the Hungarian school, told us that his students found the debate "very instructive and were really excited to interact with Vice President Wallström."

Related information

Photo-gallery

Chat transcript

08/06/2009 by: Petru Dumitru