From 29 February to 3 March, the Regional Session of the European Youth Parliament will be held in Pisa, at Leopolda station and in the city University venues: “Telecommunications: Networking through Radio and Internet”. Registro .it is among the partners of the event, sponsored by the Region of Tuscany, the Municipality of Pisa, the University of Pisa, the Province of Pisa and the UPI-Toscana (Union of Tuscan Provinces).
During the closing ceremony on 3 March, Giorgia Bassi (CNR-IIT and Registro .it) will speak, illustrating the activities of Registro and Ludoteca.
The event will bring together around 120 young students from all over Italy and Europe: the aim is to inspire young people to be informed, open, active and responsible citizens; to bring them as close as possible to active citizenship education; to stimulate the acquisition of a series of fundamental skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, teamwork in an international group, leadership, multilingual debate on specific topical issues, and negotiation. Through an interactive process and by simulating the European Parliament procedure, participants improve their social skills and form their own opinions on European politics. All this in an English-speaking environment, which helps to improve their English language expression and interaction skills.
The initiative, aimed at all students from secondary schools in the region and nationwide, will also bring two international delegations of foreign students to Pisa, so as to foster not only an exchange of ideas on the future of the Union, but also cultural dialogue among the participants. “Telecommunications: Networking through Radio and Internet” is the central theme of the session, created to honour a city like Pisa, full of history but projected into the future, always at the forefront of innovation thanks to its University, the CNR and other research centres. As early as 1902, Guglielmo Marconi decided to build here the first, and most powerful, long-wave radiotelegraphic station in Italy, managing to connect with the Americas and the colonies in East Africa. The city also played a central role in 1986, when Blasco Bonito, at the headquarters of the National University Centre of Electronic Calculation, CNUCE-CNR (Centro Nazionale Universitario di Calcolo Elettronico del Cnr), made the first Italian Internet connection with the USA.
In this context, Pisa reflects one of the ideals of the European Youth Parliament (EYP), namely to ensure dialogue between young Europeans who are aware of the past and motivated to drive innovations forward. It will be up to the participants to have fun and explore the past, a resource to learn from and be inspired by for new discoveries.
EYP Italy, the Italian section of the European Youth Parliament, established on 28 March 1994 in Milan, promotes the European dimension and identity in Italian universities and upper secondary schools as the Italian National Committee of the European Youth Parliament, and involves more than 1,000 young participants (pre-covid data), including Italian high school and university students and international students, in its events every year.