LLB student at The School of Law and Criminology, Anna Barnes, recently participated in the #Vote4OurRuleOfLaw Fellowship – Berlin Bootcamp. In this article by Anna, she tells us about her experience:
'#Vote4OurRuleOfLaw Fellowship – Berlin Bootcamp
Why should a first-time voter go out and vote in the upcoming European Parliament elections and why haven’t they up to now?
This is the question that is at the focus of our research, with only 4 out of 10 first-time voters participating in the last European elections, it’s clear that there is some disconnect that needs to be addressed!
As a fellow of the Vote4OurRuleOfLaw fellowship, I got the opportunity to research Irish youth voters’ motivations and barriers, while also getting to meet the other 42 fellows and participate in an intensive bootcamp in Berlin. The foundation is run for student's, by student's Elene Amiranashvili, Zuzanna Uba and Anna Walczak, under the mentorship of John Morijn, who is currently lecturing in Princeton University. The foundation is among the national winners of the European Charlemagne Youth Prize for this year.
The fellowship aims to get more first-time voters into the ballot boxes for June’s European Parliament elections. The fellows are comprised of 43 students who are first-time EP voters, from 14 different Member States, 8 of which are Irish students and 3 are from MU!
For the 3 weeks prior to our trip to Berlin, we were split into smaller subgroups to research and analyse youth voter motivations and barriers in different Member States/ Regions to begin building a report which will be published in May. I was working on Team Ireland, but we also have teams working on Germany, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Central and Eastern Europe and a Pan-European team, who look at EU wide trends.
Each team carried out detailed research on the Member State/ Region and we all developed communication strategies that would target first time voters, particularly those that may be identifies as stay at home progressive or as switch voters. We had weekly lectures from EU democracy experts and MEPs. The bootcamp would then offer us workshops with communication experts to refine our plans and a chance to compare strategies with our colleagues.
Three weeks’ worth of hard work through research and witing was worth in once we arrived for the beginning of our bootcamp at Humboldt University. Day one we got lectures and engaged in discussions from experts Dr. Maria Skóra, speaking about her recent research project “RESILIO – Resilience observatory on the rule of law in Europe”, Dr. Anna Delius. Who spoke about “lessons from Poland”; and Thomas Coombe who gave us a workshop on hope-based communications, showing us some of his successful campaigns across the EU. That evening we were invited into the Dutch Embassy in Berlin where we had the chance to speak to young people working within the embassy, the Deputy Ambassador Mira Woldberg and a number of representatives for Berlin-based NGOs, while also getting to show to these individuals the importance of our work and why the push to increase young voter turnout in a necessity!
Day two we hit the ground running once again. The first half of the day was spent with each group refining their communication strategy that would later be presented to the rest of the group and representatives from several Berlin-based organisations. While groups were preparing, some sub groups got to engage in small focus groups with Andre Wilkens, the Director of the European Cultural Foundation to aid in their research. The European Cultural Foundation has been instrumental in the introduction and execution of the Erasmus programme that so many of us avail of. The foundation is currently working with young EU citizens to explore what culture can do within the EU and are looking for what the next ‘Erasmus programme’ may be.
That afternoon we all presented our strategies to each other and Berlin based professionals in the area and wrapped up the bootcamp. While it was an intense few days we still managed to save some energy to celebrate that night!
Post bootcamp is now focused on developing and refining our report that will be published on Europe Day (9th May 2024), so keep your eyes peeled for that. But that is not all. After the success of our presentations in Berlin, the OurRuleOfLaw team is currently in discussions which have the power to take our communication strategies from an abstract concept to a tangible campaign.
If you are reading this as a first time voter and wondering what you should do next, firstly mark the election date on your calendar Friday 7 June 2024 (local elections will happen at the same time). Next, which is hugely important, make sure you are registered to vote here: https://checktheregister.ie/en-IE/ . NOTE: you have to register before 20 May 2024 to be eligible! Finally, is to learn out what the election may mean and what each candidate is promising to do. To keep up to date with us and inform yourself on the upcoming election follow our Instagram account @ruleoflaw_ie '