On the 17st- 21st March 2014 I participated in a trip that took me to the wonderful city of Brussels. However this was not your average family trip- in fact there was no sight of my family at all. I travelled with 30 other students from Bournemouth University, all of whom were studying a variety of courses to go and visit the Parliamentarian and learn more about European Politics. Does a university trip signify that young people are engaged or is there still room for improvement?
Well from my perspective I believe that there is defiantly room for improvement where engagement and young people are concerned because of the decline in the percentage of 18-24 year olds voting. According to a post-election 2009 Eurobarometre survey carried out by EU Public Opinion Monitoring Unit there was only a 29% turn out for the 18-24 year old voter bracket. I believe that there is strong case that education is linked to voting patterns amongst the young electorate. My trip was only a minor representation of people who are actively seeking out information to inform themselves before the election.
During the trip I also had the opportunity to interview the ex-Labour MEP Glynn Ford. It was interesting to learn how willing people were to talk to us about European Politics. His view was that youth vote is declining because they don’t realise the ramifications of not voting during the EU elections in the first place. I’m sure that if most young people realised that the predicted increase in the amount of far right nationalist parties would affect the different music, clothes and food, especially the fish during their Friday night post drunken fish and chips, then they would get off their backsides during the upcoming election in May and vote.
So it seems to be that there is lack of education where the European Union institution is concerned and that this could be a central reason as to why young people are not voting. Perhaps if young people were more educated we would see an improvement in participation, seeking out more information by themselves and thus improving the percentage of young people who vote in the EU elections.
Overall the trip was a success for 31 students, including myself in terms of engaging with different institutions and people connected to EU politics and promising to make that all important vote this May. To find out more and educate yourself visit BUs very own pre-EU election coverage by following @BUEU2014 and liking the Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BUEU2014. Alternatively you can visit the BU Politics society page and become more educated on politics in general: https://www.facebook.com/BUPoSo.
Michelle Harris
