AEGEE, which stands for Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe (European Student Forum), is one of the biggest interdisciplinary student associations in Europe. It embraces 17,000 students, active in 260 academic cities, in 40 countries in Europe, which represents an amazing cultural variety. AEGEE is a secular, non-profit organisation, not linked to any political party. All projects and activities are based on its members' voluntary work.
"I want to work actively for European integration for 20 more years, until 2025. This will make a total of 40 years as I started with AEGEE-Europe 22 years ago. Then I'll let the next generations take over," says Franck Biancheri, who founded AEGEE in 1985. The energetic French think-tank leader will be 66 by then, but he was already listed by Time Magazine as one of the "Top 20 European Heroes" in 2003 - joining a group of famous personalities like Nelson Mandela, Zinedine Zidane and Pope John Paul II. The reason for this recognition was the Newropeans Democracy Marathon, organised by Mr Biancheri himself.
However, no-one would have predicted that the AEGEE project would succeed when Biancheri started his studies in the early 1980s. His reason for entering the elite French University Sciences Po did not suggest a future leader of European integration. "I was mainly a scientific person. My baccalaureat focused on mathematics", he recalls. "I did not want to become an engineer. I decided to enter Sciences Po, mainly because it is located in the centre of Paris."
Soon he became involved in university politics and served three years as president of the Bureau des Eléves, the student office at university. This was when Biancheri developed the idea of creating AEGEE. "I missed quite a few classes because of my activities," he remembers.
What started with nine Western European cities, today is active in 42 European countries. It was at the first conference entitled EGEE where he aimed to overcome the continuing paralysis of the European integration process, with 700 young Europeans from nearly all of the EC countries attending the event. Held in Paris and co-ordinated by Biancheri, the conference presented the views of the participants to national and European institutions. Later, the participants began to establish local groups to promote European integration in their home cities, thereby creating a network which was called AEGEE from 1988 onwards.
Erasmus mobility programme
It was during the early stage that AEGEE took a big step with the successful lobbying campaign for the implementation of the Erasmus mobility programme. AEGEE representatives had a series of meetings with several government representatives, crucial in this respect being a lunch with French President François Mitterrand.
Christoph H. Vaagt, at that time a young student from Munich, took part in the meeting that successfully launched one of today's most important and popular student programmes throughout Europe: the Erasmus mobility scheme. "It was an intensive meeting, but we were very well prepared to make this happen", commented Mr Vaagt. "Non, Monsieur Mitterrand, je suis representant de l'Europe!", he said while recalling a small anecdote about his encounter with the French President, when he asked him if he was representing the German students.
Without AEGEE, over a million European students between 1989 and 2007 might not have had the chance to study abroad.
Today, AEGEE co-operates with other student organisations such as the National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB) and Erasmus Student Network (ESN). A Socrates Action Day was launched in autumn 1997, which not only promoted Socrates programmes, but also helped to reveal its weak parts, as a first step to improve them. Another important project was a joint initiative with ESIB, ESN and the European Commission, entitled "Socrates on the Move".
This project took place for the first time in 2000. It produced a joint statement on the importance of mobility, the setting up of a collaborative network among the European student organisations and European institutions working in the field of mobility and the dissemination of information concerning mobility with European education. Its success was continued by Socrates on the Move II in 2001.
For 2007, AEGEE-Europe's Yearplan Project is entitled "Unlimited Education" and aims to improve European education and promote students' mobility.
AEGEE structure
One of the factors distinguishing AEGEE from other student associations is its unique structure. As it is an ambassador for promoting international co-operation and braking physical and mental barriers within Europe, AEGEE does not recognise any national level or national administration in its organisational structure.
The association operates on two levels, the local and the European one. Academic cities across the continent provide bases for the AEGEE locals (aka antennas), which directly implement the aims of the association in a way that best serves the needs of their local student community. Being active on campus, organising conferences, seminars, debates, cultural excursions, sports tournaments, parties and social activities for the local and Erasmus students on their respective campus, are some of the typical activities an AEGEE local organises throughout the year.
AEGEE has consultative status at the United Nations, operational status at UNESCO, and participatory status at the Council of Europe. It is also a member of the European Youth Forum and has close relations with OSCE and the World Bank.
AEGEE has always been on the frontline of action shaping Europe. It was one of the first European NGOs to expand beyond the Iron Curtain, one of the first European NGOs to accept local branches in Turkey, offered support to students in Bosnia, supported democracy movements such as in Serbia and in Ukraine, and set up a grant programme for students from the Balkans.
Several working groups on the European level have been created so that debates and serious discussion are held within the network, enticing further events and seminars to happen across the 240 antennas. The Cultural Working Group was created in 1997 to enhance knowledge and understanding of Europe's cultural riches. The East-West Working Group was influential in the first enlargement of AEGEE into Central and Eastern Europe. AEGEE had been a Western European association until 1990. With the reopening of the East, the organisation was forced to find a new structure that would suit its future needs.
The meeting point for people who are interested in the European dimension of higher education is the Education Working Group, whereas, the Human Rights Working Group, founded in 1994, addresses issues such as civil society, migration, and crimes against humanity. It organises conferences on human rights issues, and its members campaign against human rights violations.
A particularly active Working Group is the International Politics Working Group (IPWG).
The IPWG as it is commonly known, has been organising conferences, seminars and workshops on international relations and politics issues. In 2004, the IPWG co-ordinated the Yearplan Project "Europe's identity".
A Public Relations Working Group supports the whole network, working groups and antennas in PR activities. Twice a year it organises a PR European School, which is well attended by members who want to become active on the European level. It also develops strategies for attracting and involving members at all levels of AEGEE.
Last but not least, AEGEE has its own academy, where it provides strategic support for AEGEE's work by training and motivating members. It organises training seminars, provides trainers for local training courses and maintains a large database of teaching materials.
The latest addition to the list of working groups is AEGEE TV, where students interested in journalism, communications as well as film making, come together to work on various related projects and seminars, in a truly multi-cultural environment. An annual AEGEE Film Festival event is organised within the network.
Summer universities
AEGEE summer universities is the most successful project ever. History was made in 1988, when 11 summer language courses were organised in ten cities - Amsterdam, Barcelona, Heidelberg, Kiel, Madrid, Milan, Orleans, Paris, Seville and Toulouse - in which 290 people participated. Since then, AEGEE has given the opportunity to thousands of European students to explore Europe in a different way, every summer.
An unforgettable two-week summer experience spent with a group of young people from different academic backgrounds from all over Europe for as little as €120, is the essence of an AEGEE summer university.
With over 150 destinations to choose from, and organised by students for students, the summer university provides an exceptional first-hand experience to explore new cultures, improve language skills and make new friends. One could be learning Italian cooking in Salerno, become a medieval knight in Munster, sail on a ship in Peiraias, volunteer in a children's theatre in Zaragoza, be a movie star in Istanbul, learn Maltese in Valletta and more. This explains the diversity and endless opportunities on offer.
Since AEGEE was founded in Paris 22 years ago, the association has worked hard for European integration. Europe in 2007 is no longer what it was in 1985. With European integration close to completion, what is left for AEGEE to fight for? Does the association still have a goal? The answer is a definite yes!
With the ideological battle between communism and capitalism won by the latter, the struggle seems to have shifted to the cultural and religious divisions in the world. European integration is not just based on political and economic motives. AEGEE believes in the fundamental values of tolerance, human rights, freedom of speech and religion and international understanding.
With a Europe comprising so many different cultures, AEGEE has to argue as strongly as possible against discrimination and simplistic populism. We must continue our efforts to bridge cultural and ethnic divisions, acting as an international example.
Our association can look back with pride on the results achieved for the benefit of Europe. The future will demand students who are strong, stubborn and open-minded. AEGEE has changed and its role in Europe is changing, so it is important that students - the future leaders - set new goals that address the needs of our time.
AEGEE is and remains the key to Europe. We make Europe happen! For more information about AEGEE, click on www.aegee.org or the AGORA event Website: www.agoravalletta2007.org
Ms Toth, 24, is a board member of AEGEE-Europe Public Relations Working Group. Currently reading for an Master's in English Business Studies at the University of Szeged in Hungary, she is now in Malta to finalise her thesis: "The PR strategies of the language schools in Malta".
Last year she was in Malta to attend the AEGEE-Valletta summer university. She has been active in the AEGEE network since 2005, where she has taken the role of publications manager, co-ordinating AEGEE-Europe publications.