#CharlemagneYouthPrize winners at European Parliament

Young and eager to change things. These are the winners of the Charlemagne Youth Prize, awarded by Parliament and the Charlemagne Prize foundation on 3 May. On 10-11 October, they visited the European Parliament, where they presented their projects to the culture committee, spoke with President Martin Schulz and followed several MEPs during their daily routine.

The Charlemagne Youth Prize is awarded every year by the Parliament and the International Charlemagne Prize Foundation to people aged 16 to 30 involved with projects promoting understanding between different European countries. Representatives of the 28 national winning projects were invited to the award ceremony on 3 May in Aachen, where the three winners were revealed.

All three laureates presented their projects during a meeting of Parliament's culture committee on Tuesday 11 October. Later that day they also met President Schulz and observed how MEPs went about their daily work.

The winners visiting Parliament said the award was a great recognition of their work and had led to increased visibility of their project, even abroad. They had received offers for collaboration and are now looking to extend their project.

InteGREAT

The aim of the InteGREAT project is to encourage young people from all over Europe to help integrate refugees. The idea behind it was conceived in 2015 in India during the international congress of AIESEC in 2015.

"The prize helped us a lot, in making the project known in Europe and now there are ten countries participating, not only Italy," said Benedetta Turrin, from the InteGREAT project, which had been awarded first prize.  "In the future, we want to expand to the whole of Europe, having more students participate and help more refugees."

Searching for Charlemagne

Searching for Charlemagne, which won second prize, started out as a board game about Charlemagne. Now the people behind the project are thinking about developing a more complex app.

“It helped us so much, we made an app for our game,” said Charikleia  Blougoura,  from Greece, about the Charlemagne Youth Prize.

Young European Leadership

Young European Leadership, which scooped third prize, is an international annual conference, bringing together young people passionate about the future of the European Union.

"It brought awareness," said Tillmann Heidelk representing the UK project. "It was also a recognition for the rest of the team who all work as volunteers. Now we want to expand the project according to our five-year plan."

Your chance to win

If you are between 16-30 years and run a project with European dimensions, promoting understanding between people, then you can apply for the 2017 edition starting 28 October.

You can also follow the Charlemagne youth prize on twitter and check out the website.

InteGREAT: website, facebook, twitter.

Young European Leadership: website, facebook, twitter.