28 member states, 4.38 million square kilometers and over 500 million inhabitants: that is the European Union (EU). The Austrian town of Mödling, the Italian town of Velletri, Esch-zur-Alzette from Luxembourg and Offenbach, among others, are organized in the European twin town ring. At the invitation of the Youth Council of the City of Puteaux, young people from the twin towns met in the French twin town from April 12 to 14, 2019. Andre Veit, city councillors Kim-Sarah Speer and Dominik Imeraj took part in the meeting from Offenbach.
After the young delegations got to know each other on Friday evening, Constance Le Grip (LR/EPP, former MEP) and Philippe Juvin (LR/EPP, MEP) opened the Youth Forum on Saturday. The subsequent opening presentation by the local youth council of the city of Puteaux covered a range of topics from the European Union in general, technical progress using the example (of ESA's European space activities), economic cooperation (using the example of Airbus), Erasmus studies and the European elections on 26 May 2019. At the closing plenary session, Dominik Imeraj praised the family atmosphere in the young group: "When we form friendships on the basis of town twinning, this contributes one hundred percent to the idea of peace in the European Union."
All participants then visited Paris together. First they visited the artists' quarter of Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur basilica on the hill, and later the group also visited Notre Dame Cathedral. As well as talking about the sights, they also discussed current political issues, such as the impact of the yellow vest protests, which could be seen, for example, in the closed metro stations.
"We definitely want to continue exchanging ideas and discuss the establishment of a joint youth council between the twin cities," said Imeraj on his return.
For him and his fellow travelers, Europe has moved a little closer together. It is clear that they now want to promote the European idea and encourage their peers in particular to get involved. To mark the upcoming European elections, they have made a European election appeal (see below).
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