The conference, called Young European Election Ambassadors (YEEA), was arranged by Young Pirates Europe to be a meeting point for young pirates (and some older ones). It was arranged in parallel with the PPEU conference and continued after it. YEEA was a mixture of presentations, workshops and social talking.

BYRRH is a huge warehouse in Brussels which served as home for the days the conference took place. The Pirates only used a small part of the giant warehouse for their conference. The rest was used in many different and creative ways for several groups. Normally BYRRH serves as a big art collective with workrooms and shows, they have a space for a small club for parties, one group is making sailing boats for disadvantaged youth (involving them throughout the process) and there is even an indoor skating arena in the building.

The YEEA conference started with  a guided tour through the European Parliament followed by the founding of the European Pirate Party (PPEU). The day continued with workshops on EU trade policy and Internet governance followed by a barbecue dinner and networking event at the Brussels Hackspace. The  rest of the event was held at BYRRH where they prepared home-cooked vegan meals for lunch and dinner every day. There was a lot of room for socializing and getting to know the other pirates present, a mix of young people and older Pirates that attended the PPEU conference a few days before.

The next two days (Saturday and Sunday) consisted of three main tracks (policy talks, workshops and barcamps) and a few talks that didn’t fit in these categories. There was also a keynote speech by Ásta Helgadóttir (Pirate MP from Iceland) and one keynote speech by Julia Reda (Chairwoman of Young Pirates of Europe).

Policy
The Third Duality, European Asylum Policy, replacement of manual labor by automation, EU wide Campaigning on civil liberties and data protection after Snowden, TTIP panel: the use of crowdsourced intelligence to defeat TAFTA, Copyright, #EP14: Disruptive tools to hack the EU elections 2014

Workshop
Take to the Streets! (EU politics through street art), wepromise.eu video workshop, Social Media: Creating a first-time voter social media campaign, Open Data: Using European Open Data, wepromise.eu, Be heard: Writing pirate articles, Data Security Post-Snowden

Barcamp
Self-sufficient society built on open technology, Campaigning on the NSA Scandal, Data Protection Regulation in the EU, Globaleaks Whistleblowing platform, Communist-Pirate Alliance in Austria, What is European identity?, Euroliquid, Introduction to how the Internet works.

Other
Do You Speak Politics?, Networking for young women and genderqueer youths in the Pirate movement, Online Campaigns for raising voter turnout

The Young Pirates are a rapidly growing force and important for the Pirate Parties. Young people are the future of the party and traditionally youth are the first to see and adapt to new changes. Youth organisations often have some of the most radical ideas, constantly pushing political parties to adapt and change some of their current political programs.

Featured image by Elin Anderssion

About Josef Ohlsson Collentine

I’m a dual citizen (American/Swede) and try to integrate my reflections from a more global perspective if possible. I’m the organizational leader for Pirate Times and work actively to strengthen the pirate movement through this work as well as being the international contact for Piratpartiet (PPSE). Elected board member of PPSE for 2015-2018.
If you would like to ask me something I speak English, Swedish and Spanish. Find me on the links below

 

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The conference, called Young European Election Ambassadors (YEEA), was arranged by Young Pirates Europe to be a meeting point for young pirates (and some older ones). It was arranged in parallel…