NOTICIAS/BLOG

Today I had the opportunity to moderate & speak at a debate in Deusto University in Bilbao gathering 80 participants from 10 nationalities (students and representatives from Industry, Civil Society and Academia).

The aim was to elaborate jointly -in a co-creation activity- a new Schuman Declaration (which celebrates its 70th anniversary next 9 May), using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as our main tool.

• The first part of the event consisted on 5 brief impulse statements from representatives of Academia (from Deusto University: Rosa Santibáñez, vice-Rector for Research & Transfer; and Rocío García-Carrión, Researcher), Eurochild (June Albalá and Victor Ciunca, two very enthusiastic youngsters), the Union of European Federalists (Valentina Presa, Director of UEF’s Brussels office) and myself.
• In the second part, participants were distributed in groups (10 tables -see picture above- each of them analysing 5 different SDGs) where they shared their dreams, challenges and opportunities for the EU on topics like gender equality, education, health, reduction of inequalities or climate action.
• The session ended with an idea-sharing exercise -which I moderated- gathering the main thoughts mentioned in the previous discussions.

As stated in the short video interview from the European Federalists -see here and below – I believe that 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are a very appropriate platform to build up the Schuman Declaration 2.0.

The geographic diversity in the event was combined with a fresh, inspiring demographic diversity: participants were aged between 13 and 75 -students, professionals, retired people…- what a wonderful experience!

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg7KZFG5GCA