“The European Union necessarily concerns us since we are part of it.
» Sylvia, a 17-year-old high school student in first grade, will not have the right to vote in time for the European elections on June 9, but that is no reason to lose interest.
So how can we mobilize young people around this institution and its parliament?
This is the challenge set by the European Movement - France association, which recently stopped off in Yvelines to meet teenagers.
It was in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, at the house of Jean-Monnet, a senior civil servant responsible for European construction in the 1950s, that the meeting took place on March 1st.
An operation which is part of a national awareness campaign.
But here, by inviting a majority of high school students from European classes, she seeks to rejuvenate her audience compared to her usual conferences in the theaters and town halls of Yvelines.
“We cultivate the interest of young people in the long term”
If the interest in raising high school students' awareness of European issues is obvious, such an emphasis on the European elections among citizens not yet old enough to vote seems more surprising.
“Personally, I started to be interested in Europe before I came of age,” Mariolina retorts.
This 21-year-old Luxembourger came to lend a hand to the workshops organized during the day as a volunteer for Ensemble.eu, an initiative of the European Parliament, which owns Maison Jean-Monnet.
“These young people can relay to their families, and we cultivate their interest in the long term,” she continues.
In addition to future challenges, the organizers wish to convey the already sensitive heritage of the European Union.
“These young people have not known anything other than the euro and Schengen, so we must make them feel that there is incredible achievement,” says Christian Francq, president of the Yvelin section of the European Movement - France.
“We must also highlight the importance of voting,” adds Véronique Auger, president of the Association of European Journalists.
What they don't like can be changed by voting for the party that best represents their ideas.
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A different political vision of the national scene
Klaus Welle, Secretary General of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2022, rightly underlined, in the preamble, the interest of the vote.
In Strasbourg, “even the party with the most deputies is only the largest minority”, he boasted of a political theater where negotiation takes precedence over controversy.
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Opposite, the interest of high school students ranges from passionate tirades to the simple contentment of being on a school trip.
However, almost all of them are optimistic about European democracy.
This is the case of Sina, 16, who says he is “quite mixed” about the action of the European Union but is eager to exercise his right to vote as “a means of expressing oneself”.
Others, more captivated, also see this day as a way to satisfy their curiosity.
“I have a rather good opinion of the Union for its usefulness on a personal and geopolitical scale,” confirms Guillaume, 17, “and this day reinforces my interest because we don't learn enough about it at school.
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