Stand Up for Europe is a non-profit committed to bridging the gap between EU citizens and institutions through active civic engagement. |
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Interview with MEP Rasa Juknevičienė |
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Interview with MEP Marina Kaljurand |
Interview with MEP Damian Boeselager |
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Interview with MEP Vania Neto |
Interview with MEP César Luena |
Youth Recommendations for the Future of the EU: Guidelines for Policymakers
See how passionate young voices tackled Europe’s biggest challenges—from climate action and security to equality and youth empowerment. Dive into the full report to see the ideas shaping our shared future! |
REFERENDUMS: DEATH BY DIRECT DEMOCRACY By Drakoulis Goudis |
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MAKE ELECTRICITY CHEAP AGAIN!By Drakoulis Goudis
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MEET THE NEW COMMISSION!By Drakoulis Goudis
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Brussels Youth Take Action: "BXL Votes for EU: GenZ in Action" Empowers Young VotersBy Miguel Suárez |
Expanding Democratic Participation: A Symbolic Vote for a More Inclusive European GovernanceBy Amedeo Gasparini |
05/09/2025
Today, social media is one of the dominant forms of communication, connecting people across the world. Consequently, it has also become a dominant source for news and politics. According to Globalstats, Facebook (80.59%) and Instagram (7.12%) are the two most-used social media platforms in Europe in 2024 and 2025 (Globalstats 2025). Instagram is mostly pictures, reels, and short videos. Facebook is mostly text and picture posts. The way users engage with the media is reflective of this discrepancy. Today, youth utilize social media as a means of political engagement across all sites, yet in spite of this engagement, we are still seeing democratic backsliding and continued erosion of democratic institutions, which begs the question: Why?
04/04/2025
While OpenAI stirs talk about GPT-5 and China deploys AI-driven content farms at the industrial scale, the European Union has chosen a different path: regulate now, innovate... eventually.
28/03/2025
In November of 2024, the roof of a newly renovated train station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, collapsed, killing 15 people and critically injuring two more. Since then, the country has been grappling with massive demonstrations against the country’s instability, its corruption, and its president, Mr. Aleksandar Vucic. Vucic has been in power since 2014, first as Prime Minister and since 2017, as President.
14/03/2025
As the US support for Ukraine wanes, the EU is compelled to raise the level of harmonization on foreign policy and defense issues. Although significant effort has been invested in harmonizing internal policies and establishing a single market, achieving a common foreign policy has proven to be a persistent challenge. While technically an intergovernmental, not supranational, responsibility, today's Europe is more than ever required to stand united against Russian aggression. In its pursuit of further integration, Europe has experimented with a variety of approaches to coordinating foreign policy over the years. This article casts a retrospective eye on three of the largest efforts at consolidating European foreign policy: the Pleven Plan, the Fouchet Plan, and the Davignon Plan. All of these proposals sought to enhance political cooperation in Europe but all were faced with challenges that mirrored the diversity of interests among the European states. While debates are ongoing in contemporary times regarding a common European armed forces, there is a need to critically re-examine previous efforts to integrate foreign policy into the EU.
Canva Generated Image, 2025
DISCLAIMER: all opinions in this article reflect solely the views of the author, not the position of Stand Up For Europe.
28/02/2025
Imagine scrolling through your favorite social media feed, about to comment on a hot political debate, only to find out your post has been removed. Not because it was hateful or illegal…but because it didn’t fit the platform’s "community guidelines."
Now, picture this happening at a national level. Imagine that this is not just the policy of a private social media company,but a government-enforced mandate that determines what can and cannot be said in the digital public space.
This concern was highlighted by the U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference, where he warned that European nations were actively suppressing free speech under the claim of combating misinformation. His claim was striking—he argued that European censorship poses a greater threat to democracy than external adversaries such as Russia or China. While some dismissed his remarks as an exaggeration, they ignited a broader debate about the balance between regulating harmful content and preserving the fundamental right to free expression. In an era where misinformation spreads at unprecedented speeds and AI-generated content can deceive millions, the tension between regulation and freedom has never been more relevant.
21/02/2025
The United States are since last month, and will be for the foreseeable future, an ally of Russia.
This simple fact, clear enough for a primary school student to grasp, is proving too bitter a pill for many European citizens and political leaders to swallow. In just the last week, Donald Trump, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, and Elon Musk have made it blatantly clear—through public statements, tweets, and sheer bombast—that their newly installed regime views Europe with contempt and hostility while openly admiring Russia’s political and societal model.
14/02/2025
Online hostility is accessible everywhere and to everyone, particularly the youth. 1 in 2 EU citizens between the ages of 16 and 29 reported that they had encountered hateful messaging online, and nearly 1 in 3 believed that these individuals were targeted because of their sexual orientation. Why is that? Does access to online hate speech indicate a country’s inclusivity toward the LGBTQ+ community? How important is a country’s digitalization in spreading online homophobia?
31/1/2025
Across Europe, democratic engagement is declining, especially when examining traditional democratic metrics like voting, party membership, and trust in political institutions. When focusing on these metrics, the engagement of young people is especially low. This alarming trend coincides with the rise of far right populism across Europe, but also offers an opportunity to critically re-examine our understanding of democratic and, in a broader sense, civic engagement.
DISCLAIMER: all opinions in this article reflect solely the views of the author, not the position of STAND UP FOR EUROPE.
27/11/2024
Over the past decade, no issue has sparked greater controversy or provoked more intense debate in Europe than immigration. It has been weaponized by far-right movements, exploited by populist leaders, demonized by the most unsavory elements of society, and mishandled by mainstream political parties. This contentious topic has fueled friction, unilateral actions, and deep disagreements, emerging as a persistent threat to the European integration project.
DISCLAIMER: all opinions in this article reflect solely the views of the author, not the position of STAND UP FOR EUROPE.
11/11/2024
Convicted felon and sexual abuser Donald Trump won the US Presidential Election on Tuesday and will return to the Oval Office in January. Trump’s triumph (he won the popular vote for the first time in his 3 presidential campaigns) is more shocking and appalling than his 2016 win, because this time everything about who he is, what he represents and what he plans is widely known–he wasn’t hiding it. America chose a vile bigot with multiple convictions, who believes that “the truth is what I say”, admires dictators, despises everything the modern West stands for and has the character we are all aware of, to be their president.
1/11/2024
On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court made a historic decision - an arrest warrant was issued against Vladimir Putin. He is allegedly responsible for the war crimes concerning unlawful deportation of population (children) and unlawful transfer of population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation
05/10/2024
Make Electricity Cheap Again! would actually be a great slogan, appealing to the type of voters who want three-word solutions to multi-dimensional problems whose root causes can be traced decades in the past. In the real world, driving the electricity prices down is complicated, requires political and financial capital, vision further ahead than the next national elections, and for some governments to unbury their heads from the sand. Nonetheless, courses of action which can turn the tide do exist
29/09/2024
In this two-part article, we will today investigate the reasons European citizens saw their electricity bills skyrocket the last few years, analyze how the electricity market works, why natural gas has a disproportionate impact on the price, and in the 2nd part we will explore what can be done to shield consumers from rising prices.
image copyright: European Commission
20/09/2024
Following two long weeks where one delay succeeded another, full of drama, accusations and last-moment changes (with the highlight being Thierry Breton’s resignation/dismissal), Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her new Commission, subject to parliamentary approval for each member.
15/09/2024
On September 9th, Mario Draghi’s long-awaited report “The future of European competitiveness” was released to the public. The 77-years old former ECB president (and former Italian Prime Minister), a well-respected figure amongst European financial and political circles, was tasked by the Commission to diagnose the issues the EU is facing regarding competitiveness on the global stage and recommend courses of action to remediate them.
08 September 2024
With the summer break over in the EU bubble, September’s spotlight is on the formation of the 2nd Von der Leyen Commission. The European Commission is the primary executive arm of the European Union. It operates as a cabinet government with 27 members (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. There is one Commissioner per member state, but members are bound by their oath of office to represent the general interest of the EU rather than their home country–even though several national governments seem to conveniently forget that.
With a 41 votes majority (401 votes in favour out of 719 MEPs), the European Parliament re-elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission on the afternoon of July 18th. The result of the vote marked the end of one of the most discussed European election-related sagas and found von der Leyen at the helm of the European Union’s executive body for 5 more years.
The 2nd term of the former Defence Minister of Germany was not at all ensured a few months ago. Parliamentary discontent about her modus operandi, a shifting political environment rearranging the balance of power between the European political groups, and conflicting interests between her own EPP and its coalition partners (social democrat S&D and liberal Renew) had cast doubts over whether she would have enough support to continue leading the Commission after the June elections.
Von der Leyen needed 3 conditions:
Introduction
As of the 1st of July 2024, and for the next 6 months, Hungary is holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lost no time in using his new position to meet enemies of the West, like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump while pretending to be “EU President”.
Public outrage ensued, with civilians expressing their frustration that the EU appears to be represented internationally by a far-right populist who vocally despises Western liberal values, admires authoritarian leaders and would happily hand Ukraine to Putin given the chance.
In a powerful initiative to equip young people for civic engagement, EQUAMA, with the support of the European Parliament, partner associations and individual Brussels citizens, successfully concluded the "BXL Votes for EU: GenZ in Action" project. This groundbreaking program targeted first-time voters in the Brussels region, empowering them to actively participate in the recent 2024 European Elections.
Ahead of the European elections on June 9th, the upcoming symbolic vote organized by ECIT Foundation, Voters Without Borders, and Stand Up for Europe presents an opportunity to advocate for a more inclusive European democracy. Scheduled for April 26th, in Brussels – on the esplanade of the European Parliament and in Place de la Petite Suisse, close to ULB-Solbosch – the event aims to highlight the importance of extending political rights within the EU. Volunteers are free to join and will be asked to hold a symbolic vote on three demands, while a parallel symbolic vote will be held in Paris, Berlin, Bologna, Geneva, and London to celebrate International Voting Rights Day. An online symbolic vote will also be open until June 9th, when a full report on the results of the symbolic vote will be published and sent to the newly elected MEPs.
In the realm of European Union (EU) discussions, a prevailing assertion stands out: that as much as 80% of the legislation within the EU stems from the Union government. If this statement holds true, it would portray a highly centralized governance system where the Union wields considerable influence over member states. Nevertheless, a more thorough analysis of the EU's legislative procedures unveils a much more complex reality. Along this article, the 80% claim will be put to question, and with the scope of the upcoming European Elections in June, we will try to determine to what extent Brussels actually decides the legislation of the Member States.
Belgium, as a Member State of the EU, has also been at the forefront of discussions surrounding the voting age and electoral participation. In 2022, Belgium enacted a law that expanded voting rights to include Belgian citizens and other EU nationals residing in Belgium, aged between 16 and 18, in European elections (Mańko, 2023). This legislative change marked a significant departure from the previous voting age requirement and aimed to empower younger citizens to participate in the democratic process. Currently, the Court has suspended a provision in the law (see ruling nr. 35/2024), which makes voting mandatory solely for adults and not for 16- and 17-year-olds. This ruling means that voting will now be compulsory for individuals aged 16 and 17, with the possibility of sanctions for non-compliance. However, the implementation of this law has faced legal challenges and ongoing debates regarding mandatory voting and associated sanctions.
Vladimir Putin submitting documents to Central Election Commission in December 2023. Photo: Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation
The three-day electoral exercise – [the 2024 Russian presidential ‘election’, that was held from 15 to 17 March] - is over. And this article will cover why it was illigimate from the very beginning to the very end.
Let's remember about the legal framework of what was going on in Russia in 2020 - the constitutional changes were taking place. The constitution of the Russian Federation was changed - the word 'consecutive' in: ‘limit to 2 consecutive terms’, - was destroyed. The amendment allowed Putin to run for the presidency in 2024 again by nullifying his terms. Preservation of power is the main purpose and raison d'être of any autocracy.
During this Tuesday’s plenary session, 12th March 2024, the Green Claims Directive (GCD) proposed by the Commission in March of 2023 passed. This initiative echoes the objectives of the European Green Deal looking to transform Europe into a circular economy, which means managing resources efficiently, conserving energy and reducing waste, thus benefiting both the economy and the environment. In practical terms, this deal legally requires all EU Member States to reduce Europe’s emissions by a minimum of 55% by 2030.
But what is the GDC and why is it needed? How does it hold companies engaging in greenwashing accountable? And how will small businesses be impacted?
The proposal made on July 20, 2021 by the European Commission to establish the European Union Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) marks a crucial stride in addressing the escalating threats of money laundering and terrorism financing in Europe. This initiative is a top priority for the European Union (EU) in combating organized and serious international crime. AMLA is a pivotal component of the comprehensive action plan introduced in 2020 to curb these criminal activities
As almost every EU citizen knows already, European farmers have stood up against the situation of injustice they live in, as a result of some decisions taken by the European Institutions. Protests have been taking place on the continent since at least 2019; however, since February 1st 2024, they have intensified notably, especially in Brussels, where the headquarters of most of the government apparatuses of the Union are concentrated. But it is worth mentioning that they are taking place in practically all countries of the old continent.
This week has seen a new episode of protests in the Belgian capital, as a consequence of the summit of EU agriculture ministers that took place on Monday, February 26th, and based on its result, it does not look like they are going to be the last ones.
We will try to address this broad topic in the best way possible, but let’s take this from the beginning: What are the demands of the farmers? What injustices are we talking about? How long will this wave of protests last? Is there any satisfactory solution in the short term? These questions, and some others that will emerge, will be the ones we will try to answer in this article.
3,655 days,
near 500 000 of total war victims (The New York Times, 2023),
more than 6 300 000 Ukrainian refugees recorded globally (UN Refugee Agency, 2024)
Since 2014, Ukrainians have been courageously defending their borders against Russian aggression for a decade. The illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea by Russian troops on March 18th, 2014, marked a turning point, followed by the outbreak of war in the Donbas region of Ukraine in April 2014, leading to devastating consequences for the Ukrainian people.
As Ukraine enters the 3rd year of full-scale war in 2024, the forms of resistance have changed. But the desire of Ukrainians to live in a free and sovereign country continues to strengthen with each passing day, underscoring their commitment to defending democracy, human dignity, and human rights.
The European Union (EU) has emerged as a key ally in Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression. Recognizing the importance of the fundamental values as democracy and human rights, the EU has played a pivotal role in supporting Ukraine through a multifaceted approach. The EU acknowledges and respects the unwavering determination of Ukrainians in their struggle for these shared values and the preservation of their territorial independence. This encompasses with financial assistance, targeted sanctions against Russia, provision of humanitarian aid, military support, and expressions of solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
This Saturday February 17th 2024, the Digital Services Act (DSA) package will become fully applicable to all digital services entities spanning from basic websites to internet infrastructure and online platforms. Although the DSA and the Digital Market Act (DMA) were both adopted by the European Parliament in July 2022 and the package became effective on August 25, 2023, it applied solely to large platforms and search engines. One key aspect of the DSA is its differentiation between very large platforms and smaller intermediaries. This innovative legal framework marks a significant milestone in the regulation of online platforms, more so now that digital services have a massive economical, social and ideological societal impact and that a minimal digital presence is a necessity in order to navigate our society. Therefore, this regulation is essential to provide all European citizens with a harmonised and sustainable regulation that values a transparent and safe digital market and society that protects democratic values and their right to confidentiality all across Europe.
Climate change and environmental degradation pose significant threats not only to Europe but also to the global community. To combat these challenges, the European Union (E.U.) formulated the European Green Deal (EGD), a transformative strategy to reshape the E.U. into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. Introduced in December 2019, this pivotal policy outlines a roadmap for member nations to achieve the ambitious goal of climate neutrality by 2050, effectively redefining Europe's economic and environmental landscape.
It is no surprise for anybody to say that women are usually underrepresented in the majority of the national legislative assemblies, such as parliaments, all around the world. At the moment, from the data recorded women represent a 26.7% (IPU, 2023) of the seats of the world legislative chambers this should indeed be surprising, given that, according to the World Bank Database, they constitute a 49,7% of the world population (2020).
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Stand Up for Europe is a movement of citizens reclaiming their hope for a better future, something only a united Europe can provide. Stand Up for Europe unites citizens from across the continent who are ready to build such a future through a more democratic and federal Europe, a Europe more in touch with the needs of its people, and thus a Europe that is better equipped to tackle global challenges.
With the occasion of the Conference on the Future of Europe (2021-2022), Stand Up for Europe has been active in creating information flows between citizens and European civil servants, civil society organizations, the EU institutions, and has supported and coordinated the creation of spaces (online and in-person) for citizens to voice their opinions and share their ideas about this European project. The Conference on the Future of Europe is an unprecedented occasion to increase deliberative democracy in the EU.
Join us to discover ways to actively participate in citizens' activities and stay up to date with the latest developments at our shared European transnational spaces. The future is yours!
