College of Europe students Norbert KUCHARIK (Bruges), Lydia STODDART (Natolin), Marek SOBKOWIAK (Natolin) and Jonas ROLEDER (Bruges) participated in the Karlspreis-Europa-Forum in the historic Aachen city hall on Tuesday, 3 March 2016. They were warmly welcomed by Mr Bernd VINCKEN, Manager of the Stiftung Internationaler Karlspreis zu Aachen. During the morning session of the conference, Jonas ROLEDER participated in the panel discussion titled "Europe – a place of yearning?", alongside with Mr Elmar BROK (MEP), Professor STURMER (historian) and former prize winners. The other students contributed to the debate by posing questions. Issues discussed were refugees, other continents' region building and Europe of different speeds. Security issues such as "third world war with Russia?" were also discussed.
In the afternoon, a second panel titled "Work, growth, competitiveness – is Europe moving forward?" took place with, inter alios, Commissioner Valdis DOBROVSKIS. The participants valued the discussion papers that the students had written for both discussions. The panel also addressed issues of taxation justice, the suitability of the "European semester" for European economic governance, and strategies on how to increase the share of the working population.
Afterwards, Mr Martin SCHULZ delivered a speech on the ‘State of the Union’. His speech centred on peace, security, prosperity, and challenges of the European project. He also took the time to shake hands with the college students after the speech. In the evening, the Charlemagne Youth Prize was awarded to Greek, Italian and British projects.
