The famous Greek youth centre, Komotini, welcomed young people from across Europe to the ProVote event “Mobilising Citizens for Stronger European Democracy“. The one-day programme brought together around 40 participants from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, and Spain, offering interactive workshops, panel discussions, and debates designed to strengthen democratic engagement and understanding of the European Parliament.
Organised in partnership with UNCJR, Region Hannover, Partenalia, ALDA, Regio Dev, Diputación de Jaén and System and G, the event highlighted the importance of transnational cooperation in fostering youth participation in democratic processes.
The programme opened with official welcomes from Dimitris Gartsonis, Consultant of the Mayor of the Municipality of Komotini and Nicolas Reynès, Coordinator of Partenalia and Tessy Melidi, Coordinator of RegioDev.
Interactive workshops formed the core of the event, focusing on youth participation in democratic processes through innovative tools such as Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, debating exercises, and discussions on the role of youth centres.
A panel discussion on “Youth Participation in Democratic Processes” was moderated by journalist Natasa Vafeiadou, publisher of Paratiritis Thrakis. Panellists included Konstantinos Sitaras, President of ELSA Komotini; Charalampos Stafylidis, non-formal trainer; and Dimitrios Gartsonis, Consultant to the Mayor of Komotini.
The event concluded with the presentation of key survey insights and closing remarks by Nicolas Reynès and Apostolos Alexiadis, who highlighted a case study from System and G.
91.7% of young people, participants of a questionnaire are discouraged from voting because they feel their vote does not matter. 75% intend to vote in the next European elections, while 45% stressed the need for more informative campaigns about the importance of voting. 50% respondents would be more likely to vote or engage in political discussions if they had greater opportunities to interact directly with decision-makers. 72% felt issues such as climate change, education, and employment are somewhat represented in European elections, but require stronger focus. 33.3% identified social media campaigns as the most effective way to encourage youth voting. 58% said they only occasionally participate in political or social campaigns.
ProVote is a European initiative aimed at strengthening citizen engagement and participation in EU democracy, with a particular focus on underrepresented groups such as young people, women, marginalised communities, and mobile EU citizens.
