The European Parliament launched Instagram competition “I am Europe”: share your photo and win a trip in Brussels, to the open day of the European Parliament, on May 4^th.

The idea behind the contest is that Europe is, and will always be, about all of us. A point that, according to the Parliament, is important to remind expecially now, with the European elections (planned for May 23^rd – 26^th) closer and closer.

Every day, in fact, we publish our photos on social media, sharing pieces of our lives, that, from this point of view, are also pieces of the life of Europe.

Who can participate?

To participate “I am Europe” contest you need to be at least 18-year-old, live in one of the EU countries (UK included), own the copyrights of the photo, have a public account on  Instagram.

Rules

The rules are quite simple and consist of 3 steps:

• Share a photo of yourself or someone special to you and tell the story behind it;
• When posting the photo, use the hashtag #iameurope and tag @europeanparliament;
• Subscribe to the European elections platform: thistimeimvoting.eu

Winners

Among all the published photos, there will be only 6 winners.

5 will be chosen by the platform;

1 will be chosen by users: every day, in fact, the Instagram account of the European Parliament will share the best photos. The one that will get more “likes” will be the winner.

The winning photos, and the other best (but not winning) photos, will be part of an exhibition during the Open day of May 4^th.

Deadline

You have time until April 1^st 2019, at 12.00 (time of Brussels)

To know more, download “Citizen’ App”, developed by the European Parliament, on your Smarphone: learn about this and much more opportunities and news.

L'articolo “I am Europe”: share a photo and fly to Brussels proviene da Youth Networks.

Exactly one week ago, the plenary of the Parliament voted a report made by the Employment Committee with which the European Social Fund was incremented for €106,8 billion – around 19% more than the amount proposed by the Commission.

The multiannual financial framework

Looking closer to the tabs, more interesting details show up. According to the European Parliament proposal, “the level of the 2021-2027 MFF should be set at EUR 1 324.1 billion in 2018 prices, representing 1,3 % of the EU-27 GNI” (see p. 6 pt. 5 of the document). Of these, the amount aimed at improving the Erasmus+ programme is over 46 billion (see p. 53 of the document), that is the Parliament position – whereas the Commission had suggested 30 000 billion. The amount set out for the previous seven-year preriod (2014 – 2020) was 13 536 million: so, the budget almost triplicate from the last programme. It complies with the initial resolutions, according to which the Parliament (see p. 7 pt. XII) “Triple the current budget for the Erasmus+ programme”.

The trialogue

That should mean that way more funding for the Erasmus+ Programme and for youth policies in general are to come. But that is just an interim report made by the Parliament: the way towards the adoption of the act has still to overcome the next steps of the trialogue between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission. The report was in fact released in the framework of the interinstitutional negotiations usually carried out when adopting EU legislation.

It is now up to the negotiators designated by the EU Council and Commission to have their say, until they reach a common agreement.

L'articolo Multiannual financial framework 2021-27: more funding for E+ programme to come proviene da Youth Networks.

The budget will increase from approximately €89,6 billion to approximately €106,8 billion – around 19% more than the amount proposed by the Commission.

The proposal of the Employment Committee

At the beginning of last December the Employment Committee voted a proposal to increase the budget in order to strengthen the ESF+. It passed with 38 vote to 3 and the Parliament voted exactly the evisaged measures.

The main issue to tackle regards the young people currently not in employment, education or training (NEET). It was decided that at least 15% of the ESF+ shall go to the countries with a percentage of NEET above the european average or at least of 15% – the European Commission set the bar at 10% of the Fund. Moreover, at least 5% of the available budget shall go to the implementation of the European Child Guarantee (for which it has been also introduced a specific allocation of EUR 5.9 billion).

The management of the budget is partly shared between the European Commission and the member states. The Commission proposed that this should be 25% out of the total, while the Committee made it increase up to 27%. What is left to the Commission to manage (for EUR 1,1 mio, out of a total of EUR 106, 781) are the two strands of employment and social innovaton, on one side, and health, on the other.

For more details, check the Multiannual Finance Framework 2021-27.

L'articolo More investments for young people: MEPs voted for strengthening of EU Social Fund proviene da Youth Networks.