We are excited to announce a new opportunity to make your voice heard! We want you to let us know your thoughts on a pressing issue for today's Europe: social justice. 

In some European countries over 50% of young people are currently unemployed. Does Europe need more justice? The proposal of an unconditional basic income is said to be a model for the future and a way to create a more just society. At its basis it means that every person gets a certain amount of money every month no matter what - without conditions. We are interested in your view of justice in your country, justice in Europe and the unconditional basic income.

E&M, along with FutureLab Europe and the Körber Foundation, has developed a short survey and now we need YOUR voice. Participate at www.europeandme.eu/survey and share! 

Your view will help inform our representatives when they go to the annual conference of the European Foundation Centre (EFC) in Belfast this June. During the Europe@Debate discussion, we will be sharing the views of young Europeans with leading policy makers and academics. And of course, we will share the outcomes of the survey and debate with you. 

THE RESULTS

Still need convincing? Here's the amazing infographics Franc Camps-Febrer made for us from the results of our last survey on European foreign policy. And you can check out videos of our authors and editors confronting politicians with the voice of young Europeans!

Help us raise the voice of young Europeans!

The Editorial Team

Open letter from the editors of two European youth magazines to the European Commission

Recently, Stefano Sannino, the European Director General for Enlargement, hurriedly withdrew a promotional video which was supposed to encourage young Europeans to think positively about EU enlargement.

It's hard to say which aspect of this video was more ridiculous.

Many newspapers pointed out the racial stereotyping of the three scary men who surrounded the white woman in the Kill Bill-style leotard. Then there was the fact that the woman summoned 11 identical versions of herself to defeat the outsiders, who vanished to make way for the EU flag. What happened to the old slogan, "unity in diversity"? If they had to go with this concept, couldn't she at least have summoned a whole variety of people, all dressed in different yellow outfits? Let's not forget, the EU consists of 27 countries, each with their own traditions, languages and peculiarities. It's very unlikely that they would choose to wear the same outfit... And then there was the budget, for which there were probably an infinite number of better uses, given the public reaction to the video.

You’ve probably already circled the 1st of April 2012 on your calendar: after all, it’s the publication date of E&M’s 16th issue. But it’s also the deadline for applications to the Studienkolleg zu Berlin, the international programme where E&M was born.

If you happen to be planning to found a new transnational project, you’ll need a lot of different ingredients. A group of motivated people, plenty of unrealistic ideas, a lot of patience... plus, somebody who believes in you, who supports you with resources and with encouragement. For E&M, the Studienkolleg zu Berlin was that "somebody."

In September 2007, five students met at the Studienkolleg induction week. They came from Germany, Bulgaria, Poland and Latvia, and they had at least two things in common: they all wanted to create a medium which would make Europe personal, and they all felt that now was the moment that they could really do it. The Studienkolleg invites 30 young Europeans each year to take part in its programme of talks about Europe and work together in groups on Europe-related projects, while studying at a Berlin university. For a year, they receive a monthly stipend which supports them through their studies. It gives them a bit of space and time to think about what Europe is, and what Europe needs.

In June 2008, E&M was ready to go online. It had five unusually named sections, an awesome design, a great team of writers, and five exhausted and excited editors. The other members of the Studienkolleg all danced manically at the launch party to celebrate the very first issue, which - among many other things - explored the complex voting dynamics of the Eurovision Song Contest, told the Erasmus Love story of Susu and Fede, and - my personal favourite - featured a Baby article called Sexy Bum.

Our crazy ideas department has just come up with a few more exciting ways to get involved in Europe's best online magazine. 

The "Best of E&M" E-Book: 

Still recovering from the hangover of publishing Issue #15, oh and our New Year's celebrations, we decided to put together our favourite six articles from 2011. We added the stories behind the authors and a short review of the projects we've been involved in to raise the voice of young Europeans over the last year. And best of all for you - its free!

Download it here - just one facebook/twitter share and its all yours!

E&M delivered to your inbox

In the world of a thousand news feeds and global information overload, we want to offer you something different: a unique transnational approach to live European issues. Our Sixth Sense is now featured on the central news hub Bloggingportal.eu and if you want to stream our regular blogs straight to your google reader/feedly/other feed reader, here's the RSS feed: http://www.europeandme.eu/sixthsense?format=feed&type=rss 

We're accepting reader submissions!      

So, you want to be a writer? Take the first step to a career in journalism and submit your pieces to E&M for publication in Sixth Sense. We've got readers from across the continent. We're developing our own approach to European issues, which we call transnational journalism, so we've established some guidelines here. But it's your magazine, and we will read all submissions and give advice on developing your writing skills as well as help in crafting magnificant pieces of European journalism.

And what's next for 2012?

Well... let's just say the crazy ideas department of E&M have at least 3 new projects in mind! We wish we could tell you, but we can't! But maybe your suggestions are better? Send us an email on what we can improve in 2012 at: editorial[at]europeandme.eu