The Erasmus generation of Italy officially decided to engage themselves for the next European elections. The Italian branch of Erasmus Student Network (ESN), the main European student association responsible for the promotion of international mobility, joined the special campaign This Time I’m Voting, launched by the European Parliament last November, with the aim of debating Europe and encouraging young people to express their vote the last week-end of next May.
ESN Italy will organize activities around the country to explain the importance of the European elections, as well as the importance of having an active citizens’ attitude. For the occasion, the no-profit organization formed by former Erasmus students will convert its basic principle “students helping students” in the ad-hoc “voters helping potential voters”.
Strong on-line campaign, and not only
Thanks to the partnership between the representation of the European Parliament in Italy and the student network, off-line communication activities will be held in all universities of Italy, both for Italians and for non-Italian students. Everybody in Europe is allowed to participate to the European elections while living in another EU country. For all foreign students from EU countries studying in Italy information on how to vote will be provided by the network.
Furthermore, a communication campaign will be made on Facebook, Twitter, and all the main social media, popular among young Europeans. A dedicated video featuring Erasmus students as main characters will be produced, the president of Erasmus Student Network, Vittorio Gattari, announced.
Anche #ESNItalia supporta la campagna #stavoltavoto per le elezioni europee 2019, a cura di @PE_Italia
— ESN ITALIA (@ESNITALIA) February 1, 2019
In diretta da Roma, la cerimonia di lancio.
Maggiori info su https://t.co/o1ZY10Qzvc 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/Iicf26ACyk
“We of ESN Italy are very happy to continue in our commitment of promoting active citizenship by joining the This Time I’m Voting campaign”, he said, announcing the partnership with the European Parliament.
“Thanks to the more than 1,700 volunteers present in 53 sections at the local level, we hope to give prominence to the campaign, to raise awareness of a greater number of young people and thus contribute to enhancing the European feeling that underlies the so-called ‘Erasmus Generation’ that we represent”, he said.
Record numbers for Italians in Erasmus
In Italy the industrial world has already joined the campaign, as we already wrote. The youth organization of Italy’s Confindustria joined the initiative before the end of 2018. Now another important part of the Italian society does the same.
In 2018 around 38,000 Italian students alone studied in another EU country thanks to the Erasmus program, according to official data given by Indire, the National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research, the Italian Ministry of Education’s oldest research organization. This is a new record for Italy, illustrating that tens of thousands of Italians voters will be out of Italy the week-end of the European elections and will have to be properly informed to be able to vote.
That’s why the cooperation with ESN is “extremely precious”, the Director of the Office of the European Parliament in Italy, Valeria Fiore, stressed. This partnership “brings to our campaign the enthusiasm and the passion of hundreds of young people who have lived Europe in depth”, and can explain what Europe is about and what Europe means.
Italians are second in terms of interest in EU
According to the latest figures made available by the European Parliament, there are 150,000 activists who already joined the This Time I’ Voting campaign, 15,000 of which (10%) are Italians. So far Italy is thus the second EU country after Germany in terms of number of people engaged for the promotion of the next European elections, and calling others to participate.
