According to Article 39 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU) «Every citizen of the Union has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at elections to the European Parliament in the Member State in which he or she resides, under the same conditions as nationals of that State». As we are heading to the June 2024 Elections, it is imperative to ensure than every single citizen of the EU is well informed and ready to vote.
This article has been written by Olympia Orphanidou, teacher at Lykeio Agiou Antoniou Cyprus.
More often than not, people with disabilities are quite uninformed regarding the importance of our participation in the European family, the benefits we enjoy and the protection the Union offers to us in multiple aspects of our lives. In fact, Article 21 of the CFREU protects people with disabilities against any form of discrimination. Furthermore, Article 26 ensures their integration, «The Union recognises and respects the right of persons with disabilities to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence, social and occupational integration and participation in the life of the community».
Our team EUValues-LAA-EPAS initiated the action «The EU…Simply – Information for everyone» as soon as we had finalized our structure, in October 2023.
In early November 2023, we visited the first Day Care Center for Adults with Disabilities. We were welcomed with huge smiles and strong hugs. We spent the first hour getting to know each other and playing skills development games, guided by two trainers from the ERASMUS+ project “NFE FOR DIS: Non Formal Education for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities” coordinated by ACPELIA NGO, an organization we cooperate with in several projects. Afterwards, we sat around in small groups and we talked about the European Union, the 27 member states, the 24 official languages, the 705 MEPs, the 6 Cypriot MEPs, the euro etc. We also learned that on 1 May 2024 we are celebrating 20 years since Cyprus has joined the EU. Finally, we talked about the June 2024 European Union Elections and of how important it is for everyone to vote.
In that first visit we realized that the majority of our new friends have never had the opportunity to vote before, even though they certainly have the ability, they are able to form opinions and advocate in their favor.
Following this realization, we decided that we had to adapt and improve our activity, in order to help people with disabilities understand the concept of an election, the procedure and its importance. Following the advice of professionals who work with people with disabilities, we decided that an enactment of the entire election procedure in the simplest possible form, with the full involvement of our hosts in each of our visits, would be truly beneficial.
In our visits from then on, we go equipped with ballots, bearing the names of our visiting members, and a ballot box. After we discuss all the basic information about the European Union, five or six of our members act as MEP candidates, running their pre-election campaign. In simple words, each candidate explains the EU priority placed on top of his/her Agenda. The voters may address the candidates with any other questions they wish. The ballots are distributed and everyone votes in secret, placing his/ her ballot in the ballot box. The Election Committee, consisting of two of three of our hosts, counts the votes and announces the winner.
The activity has been received with great excitement by everyone involved. The voters are truly invested. They pay attention to the whole process and they vote with pride!
The action is greatly enrich by the booklets, maps and puzzles that accompany us to all our visits, supplied by Europe Direct Limassol.
Throughout the realization of «The EU…Simply – Information for everyone», we have been supported by a plethora of organizations, institutions, associations, companies and NGOs. After reaching out to them and informing them of our action, they have been providing us with a large amount of stationery and food supplies for the centers we visit.
While «The EU…Simply – Information for everyone» continues, we are also preparing for another event, entitled «Entrepreneurship … Simply». On 19 March 2024, people with disabilities from all the day care centers in Limassol are invited to participate in a training event for the development of basic entrepreneurial skills. The event will be organized with the support and guidance of Junior Achievement Cyprus.
Who are we?
EUValues-LAA-EPAS is a team formed in September 2023, by 25 students of Lykeio Agiou Antoniou (LAA), a High School located in Limassol, Cyprus. LAA is one of five High Schools located in Cyprus, Denmark, Greece and Italy participating in the ERASMUS+ Jean Monnet project «European Union Values – EUValues» 2023 – 2026. The project is coordinated by eCampus University, Novedrate – Italy. EUValues aims at introducing systematically European Civic Education topics in schools’ classroom teaching and extracurricular activities. The 25 members of EUValues-LAA-EPAS form the core student team working with their teachers in the development of the relevant teaching material, under the guidance of Prof Roberto Castaldi and in cooperation with the other four partner schools.
Furthermore, 20 of the 25 members, students of grades 10 -11, participate as Junior Ambassadors in the European Parliament Ambassador School Programme – EPAS, a programme that aims at increasing students’ awareness of European parliamentary democracy, the role of the European Parliament and European values.
The group has been actively promoting the European Union Values since September 2023, through a variety of activities, including the participation of its members in 5 ERASMUS+ Youth Exchange Projects, coordinated by ACPELIA NGO. Through these projects, EUValues-LAA-EPAS has been interacting and cooperating, both online and face to face, with young people from numerous organizations located in the EU and neighboring countries, including Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Ukraine.
You may follow the activities of EUValues-LAA-EPAS at www.facebook.com/euvalues2023
The original article is available here
