Young European Ambassador network (YEA)

General Information

The Young European Ambassador network (YEA), initially established as a communication network of active young people in the Eastern Partner countries, over the years has been evolving in its size, capacity, organisation, outreach, and scope. By the end of 2022, the network had reached 900+ active YEAs (including 11 coordinators and a dedicated key expert). The report of the year 2022 showed that the initiative implemented +400 activities and reached out to +50k people in person, while online reach was over 2.2mln people. This has ensured ongoing capacity-building, enthusiasm and well-functioning of the YEA network. Nowadays, YEAs have become much more than a communication network, actively taking part in various advocacy and policy consultation processes.

The Young European Ambassadors are divided into different working groups to efficiently act on specific topics. For more than three years, a specific group has been working on the Environment and Climate change in the EU and in the Eastern Partnership countries. We mainly aim to raise awareness in those regions and create solutions to counteract climate risk and, more generally, environmental change.

Pathway Pledges

Multi-Topic

Sustainable consumption

1. The Young European Ambassadors commit to providing waste separation options. Thereby raising awareness on how to separate waste properly and why this is important. In addition, the YEAs commit to reducing their waste by avoiding printing unnecessary materials, via

• Use sustainable fabric to produce t-shirts for events, alternatively avoiding excess production.
• Use digital communication materials like QR codes to replace printed material.

2. The Young European Ambassadors commit to avoiding using single-use plastic products (SUPs) such as plastic bottles and disposable cutlery during their events.

3. The Young European Ambassadors commit to switching their gifting to sustainable goodies: sprout pencils and plantable seed papers.

4. The Young European Ambassadors commit to switching their means of transportation slowly and durably towards a lower carbon footprint. Therefore, for events in the EU, the Young European Ambassadors will privilege options such as trains, buses or carpooling when practicable.

5. The Young European Ambassadors commit to purchasing more sustainable food by opting for local and seasonal products when organising local events:

• Depending on the event’s logistics, the options will vary (E.g. local, seasonal and possibly dairy-free products, avoiding meat).

6. The Young European Ambassadors commit to purchasing more sustainable food by opting for local and seasonal products for their YEA offices.

Educational and advocacy

1. The Young European Ambassadors commit to raising awareness about the current triple planetary crisis in all their events and explain to the participants the necessity of acting now at any level of society (individual, local, national, European and international):

• Individual level: The Young European Ambassadors will display a disclaimer at the beginning of each event on the logistic decision to use a specific type of materials, food, and means of transportation. It aims to demonstrate that a slight change in individual consumption habits is less challenging than often anticipated.
• Local, National, European and International level: The Young European Ambassadors aim to act on the local, national, European and international levels by contacting decision-makers such as city mayors, EU delegations, and EU Ambassadors. We must recall that the main objective of the Young European Ambassadors is to facilitate and foster dialogue, exchanges of ideas and perspectives, and cultural encounters between the EU and UK Young European Ambassadors and the Young European Ambassadors from the Eastern Partnership countries. To do so, we will share knowledge among the EU and UK YEAs regarding the current situations in all the regions of the European continent: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. From this knowledge, we will develop solutions for activism on all levels of action (from the individual to the international one) with the help of the YEAs from the Eastern Partnership countries.

More precisely:

The Young European Ambassadors commit to organising 11 events, including eight in-person events on the environment, within the Eastern Partnership countries and in the EU.

Status: Submitted (10/31/2022)

Data source: https://euneighbourseast.eu/young-european-ambassadors