From 27 to 29 June close to 100 young liberals and democrats from all over Europe gathered in the European Parliament in Brussels for the 2018 ALDE Summer Academy. This event is co-organised by the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) and the Young Democrats for Europe (YDE), the two youth organisations of ALDE.

This year’s edition of the Summer Academy was a crash-course into the European Parliament, especially aimed at new members or members with little or no prior experience of European policy-making or the legislative process in the European Parliament. A number of liberal Members of the European Parliament inspired the young leaders with their speeches, including ALDE Party Vice Presidents Fredrick Federley MEP and llhan Kyuchyuk MEP, and Catherine Bearder MEP.

Day two of the #ALDESummerAcademy opens with an explanation of trilogues, starting with @federley_eng explaining the procedure from the point of view of the European Parliament. pic.twitter.com/sgFdhmDSrK

— LYMEC (@LYMEC) June 28, 2018

Very happy to welcome @ilhankyuchyuk MEP and president of our 🇧🇬 member organisation @Youth_MRF to the #ALDESummerAcademy to give his views on the #FutureofEurope - very topical as we are joining the #wakEUp manifestation in a few hours! pic.twitter.com/EZcmLfvgWd

— LYMEC (@LYMEC) June 28, 2018

The main outcome from the event was a joint statement on the youth's view on the future of Europe from the hosting organisations: "The future of Europe depends on the youth: by fielding young candidates and educating future generations we can ensure it not only survives but thrives. For the upcoming European Parliament elections, we want to see creative, citizen-centred campaigns that are done online, targeted at youth and concretely explaining what the EU is and has done for each and every one of us."

See the full statement here.