1985 - The EC is in a phase of deep Eurosclerosis: the Cold War is still going on, the continent is divided by the Iron Curtain and Peace and Stability between Eastern and Western European countries was far away from real. In 1985 the idea of the European Community extending to the other side of the Iron Curtain was seen as lunacy. In 1987 Gorbachev's spokesman Gerassimov came to AEGEE events. This is just one of many examples of how AEGEE steps forward political developments – also on the field of peace and stability, AEGEE was ahead its time.

1988 – On its third birthday, AEGEE started its first big European project on Peace and Stability: the Moot Court in Community Law was that successful that it is still going on independently. The organizers strongly believed in the initial idea of a unification process – to create a stable order of peace – can only be reached by a strong and unified Europe. To help to promote the development on the level of individuals was a general intention of the Moot Court. This project was a bilingual (English/French) competition on European Community Law for teams of students from the European Community.

1989 – In the end of the eighties Europe became more and more aware of its relations to its Eastern part and so did AEGEE. Hence AEGEE established in 1988 a Working Group called EastWest, which should deal with the relations between Eastern and Western students. The Working Group (WG) reflected the political development and contributed to better east-west relations with its first East West Relations congress in the Berlin Reichstag in 1989. This congress and the work of the EWWG ensured an intellectual preparation of our members to be able to establish antennae in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain in November 1989. The Student’s Forum was involved in various projects, established new antennas and organized two AGORAs in former Soviet countries.

Soon, AEGEE realized that after the end of the cold war, minority conflicts had become the most important problem of the 20th century, especially in Europe. Therefore, AEGEE-Budapest dedicated a big conference on Minorities in Europe in 1994. By analyzing the historical and political roots of these conflicts, the organizers confronted the individual with hidden prejudices and showed ways to strive for Tolerance.

1996-97 – AEGEE’s next big project in the field of peace and stability, focused on the transition process in south-east Asia. Here as almost everywhere in the world, students play a key role in countries with developing countries. They are also the prime target of the ruling regimes in these countries. Indonesia and Burma are two of these countries, AEGEE focused in 1997. The student’s forum planned series of lectures about these countries to inform about the severe political crisis in these countries and to show possible ways for students in helping the situation: In the case of Indonesia, AEGEE offered those students a platform to make their cases public. At the conference “Human Rights in past Suharto Indonesia” taking place in Heidelberg in 1996, students from Indonesia were invited to talk about their situation. AEGEE-members also offered practical support: In 1996 they initiated a collection of school books in English for imprisoned students. The Human Rights Working Group and AEGEE-Heidelberg held a lecture in Burma and an exhibition of an exiled Indonesian artist in Heidelberg.

In 1997, AEGEE launched the yearplan-project “Neighbourhood Europe” to promote peaceful coexistence and conflict prevention especially among young people who would be once responsible for their countries. In a series of seminars, conferences and a case study trip dealing with the relations between the people and states in Central and Eastern Europe and the forces shaping these relations. In nine events the altogether 700 participants were confronted with different cultural environments and backgrounds and covered topics such as minority policies and the democratization process of these countries. This project should make people more open-minded, immune against nationalism, tolerant towards their neighbours and capable to fight their prejudices.
During the project, it became clear that there is a great need of improving the relations between neighbour countries. The question “How can a peaceful Europe be created?” was more current than ever before. AEGEE’s answer to this question was its Yearplan-project which made 1999 the Year of peace for European Youth: The Peace Academy. In the biggest project ever, 25 AEGEE antennae plus several working groups collaborated to analyse conflicts and consider ways and tools of preventing them. “Despite the fact that the cold war is over, there are many wars going on in the whole world this very minute”, said project co-ordinator Dijan Albayrak from AEGEE-Istanbul. Is there no way to prevent this deadlock in the third millennium? “Of course there are ways”, affirms Dijan, “and our generation has an important role to play. If our open-minded generation cannot identify a way towards reconciliation, how can we expect our politicians to perceive one and implement it?”. The prevalent need to make this project happen created an unmatched network of cooperation, resulting in 11 congresses, three Summer Universities, one film festival, one case study trip and several smaller seminars. The project was co-ordinated by the AEGEE branches Athina, Istanbul and Ankara. It was concluded in August 2000 with a Peace Summit taking place both on the Greek and the Turkish side of the Aegean Sea. Yet, while young people were discussing peace, the conflicts in Kosovo made the realization of their aims questionable. The spring Presidents’ Meeting of AEGEE took place in Novi Sad just some weeks before the bombing on the very same city started.

2000 - It had just been eight years ago, when the members United Nations promised at the UN conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro to finally realize sustainability. At the dawn of a new millennium, these promises were still far from being realized. As a reaction AEGEE started the project “Our common future” to sensitize the public opinion in Europe for a sustainable policy and to contribute to improving the political education of the young people. At a congress during the EXPO 2000 in Hannover/Germany, a new European youth organization for intergenerational justice and sustainability was found. It was realized by the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, AEGEE, AIESEC, the Young European Federalists (YEF), Rotaract and YOIS.
In preparation to the meeting in Hannover, participants developed their working materials in an Internet University. The results of this congress were brought presented to the governments of Europe in a Rally of Youth, a bike ride to two European capitals.

Besides this global view, AEGEE was very active in working on the field of regional conflicts in south-east Europe. Especially when the lack of communication between Balkan states became evident, the European Student’s Forum built new ways that brought students of those stated together. This was not always easy, especially not on the field of peace and stability: where the leaders of states were still in deep conflict, AEGEE offered young people a chance to come together and to look ahead in a common future.

In February 2000, AEGEE visited Ljubljana, Zagreb, Beograd and Skopje to observe what kind of changes occurred during a three year’s period. Participants were impressed by the development that had been pushed forward by journalists and the media on the one hand and the long and unique history of this region on the other hand. The Case Study Trip revealed more about the mentality of people, their hopes and dreams for the future than it was ever thought possible. Consequently AEGEE was also deeply involved in the heated discussion in the Air Strikes against Yugoslavia that were going on in March 2000.

The projects “Bridges to kosov@” and “Balkanidea”, students from all ethnics, living at the Balkan, could get to know each other and organize activities in the framework of mutual understanding and peace building in the Kosovo region. The main tool of co-operation was to let young people of the both sides of the conflict in Kosovo get together and meet other youngsters, involved in different conflicts in Europe.
During this project, AEGEE organized the conference “Kosov o/a – understanding the past – looking ahead”, which took place one year after the attacks. There students from the region as well as from other parts of Europe met and discussed potential solutions to the problem. Scientists and diplomats gave an input to the discussions, by analyzing the background of the conflict and its escalating. Young Serbs and Albanians presented their views and their experiences. People from other states were directly involved and asked to question and think about the policies of their countries.

2001/02 - To foster the process of regional dialogue and cooperation and in order to link it to international efforts to create peace and stability in south-east Europe, a training program for young leaders had been planned. With the successful launching of the Balkanidea Project in the year 2000, AEGEE had made the first steps towards the establishment of a wide network of “befriended” students and youth NGOs in the Balkan region. To further this process of regional dialogue and co-operation, and in order to link it to international efforts to create stability in southeast Europe, a training programme for youth leaders has subsequently been planned. The (twin) Academic Trainings Programme “Youth for SEE” aimed at helping young activists from transition countries to gain deeper insight and understanding of the complex matters which influence their daily lives. In several steps, the participants got from information and first exchanges towards a co-operation in multinational teams and the establishment of a network of befriended NGOs.
These aims were reached through an Academic and Trainings Programme, consisting of two trainings with a strong academic component, organized by AEGEE-Istanbul and AEGEE-Beograd. While the training in Istanbul focussed on Regional Co-Operation and Stability, the training in Beograd was about European structures and European studies.
After the success of both seminars in – Istanbul and Beograd – it became apparent that the project should be continued with a wider range of activities. Besides new Training Seminars scheduled as the direct follow-up of the project, many new initiatives were born, now working under the umbrella “Youth4SEE”.

In 2003 the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians goes on, despite all peace contracts. At the beginning of the conflict Europe played a significant role, mainly due to the holocaust and the English mandate afterwards. What should its role be in the future? This was the question; participants were discussing on events that took place during the Palestinian-Israelis-European-Project (PIE). As result of a conference in August 2002 in Hamburg, the “PIE project Team” aimed to alleviate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by supporting and encouraging the dialogue between Palestinians, Israelis and Europeans. This was a yearplan project within the “Europe in the World” project.
Not only the PIE, also the yearplan project 2003 was focusing on Europe’s role in the world: The yearplan project 2003 was titled “Youth and Globalization” and included global study meetings in addition to Summer Universities, an online-survey in addition to congress-meetings and the participation in the World Youth summit. The project was investigating the effects, globalization had on the five thematic pillars politics, economics, culture, geo-communications and civil society. All started with an online-survey in which nearly a thousand people took part “This gave us a very useful bases for discussion at the subsequent study meetings”, says Alexianne Galea, project manager. At those meetings in Bayreuth, Paris, Riga, Cluj-Napoca and Izmir, all five thematic pillars were analysed and resumed in position papers. During a joint study meeting in Udine and Trieste, these documents were evaluated to produce the Working Document for the World Summit. There, young delegates from all over Europe gathered to formulate the final Strategy paper on the burning problems of Globalization. This paper was also used in 2004 as a base for further discussions on civic enlargement, cross-cultural dialogue, sustainable development and democratisation.

2005 - Following the current international development, AEGEE again focuses on Europe’s role mediating conflicts all over the world. With its current conference “Building Bridges – European Conflict Areas”, the organizers of AEGEE-Lodz are referring to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, General Secretary of NATO. He emphasized Europe’s significant role in building bridges between European countries on their way to peace and stability. The organizers would like to focus on Central and Eastern European Conflict areas and their influence on future Europe. The debates on this topic can be found in everyday in the news: the problem of the Ukrainian elections, conflicts between Russia and the Caucasus republics, the Balkan as a conflict region and the influence of the Israeli-Palestinian and Iraq conflicts on European countries’ policies.

For the future, AEGEE will launch projects on the resolution of conflicts as well as on Pluralism in Europe. Our members are keen to discuss questions as “What can WE do to ensure long-term peace throughout Europe?” and “How can we actively promote pluralism, tolerance and cooperation?”. The growing interest in the Euro-Islam project that was found in 2003 shows that AEGEE again deals with problems that will influence Europe’s future.

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Published on: 2005-06-22 (247 reads)