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ENLIGHTENMENT21- Media Team of Ganja ‘14|ISSUE #0

21Dear participants,

After exhausting hours of travelling, we are finally in the city of Ganja hosted with a tireless hospitality and effort. Everything around you is a product of months’ work of many dedicated indi-viduals, including this very issue you hold in your hands.

“Enlightenment” is the age of challenging the widely accepted ideas, breaking out of the traditional perspective and promoting reasoning and intellectuality to lead to new conclusions. These challenges require the energy and enthusiasm of the youth.

That’s where European Youth Parliament steps in. Sparks of bright new ideas brought together demonstrates that we, the young Europeans, are determined to take steps to reshape our future. By taking part in this session, you have taken your first step.

We hope that this issue will help you gain a basic understanding of the topics that will be discussed in the committees, and present you a different approach to the issues. The more articles you read, the more ready and involved you will feel in the debates.

Stay golden, stay enlightened and make the most out of this ex-perience.

Yours,

Alper and BilgeThe Editorial Team

2

EDITORIAL

Table of Contents

3

4 Act, React,Impact 6 Educational Justice 8 Money over Morality 10 Islamophobia: An Irrational Fear of Religious Discrimination 12 Different Moral Norms, Same Obstacles 14 To Trust or Not to Trust

This booklet is brought to you by: “21-Media Team of Ganja’14-1st International Youth Forum of EYP Azerbaijan”.

EDITORIALASSISTANT

BILGEOZENSOY (TR)

JOURNALIST

ANILSIMSEK (TR)

JOURNALIST

CRISTINALINCULESCU (RO)EDITOR

MURAT ALPEROZKAN (TR)

JOURNALIST

EIRINISAMARA (GR)

JOURNALIST

NINOPAPUNASHVILI (GE)JOURNALIST

RAFIZNOVRUZOV (AZ)

JOURNALIST

SERTACSARI (TR)

**

With the turnout in the European Parliament

elections falling to 13% in Slovakia, what is

the way to bring back the interest of EU citi-

zens in politics at Union level?

**

Committee on Constitutional Affairs

AFCO

4

About 40 years after the First Enlarge-ment, the European Union seems to be on its turning point. With the voter turnout of the European Elections in Slovakia reach-ing the astonishingly low percentage of 13%, the lowest ever scored in the history of EU, and the turnout in other European countries not exceeding the general mean of 43%, one can only wonder why the Eu-ropean citizens had chosen not to vote. While in some countries Euro-enthusi-asm may seem a little diminished, in others, like Slovakia, it never existed in the first place. In regions such as Velke Slemence, a city on the borders with Ukraine, most people have never elected a single member of the Euro-pean Parliament, which does not come as a surprise. The EU fails to come up with solutions to crucial problems affecting their everyday lives, such as the trade policy between the two neighbors. Moreover, the national politi-cal parties sometimes tend to block the way to a quick and smooth change. On account of citizens’ low interest to European matters, the political parties make the minimum ef-fort to inform the voters regarding the EU elections and turn just to their “core voters”. I don’t want to believe that in a chal-lenging 21st century, European citizens care so little about their continent’s future. Gen-erally, in the case of all recently acceded Member States, awareness is all that is need-

ed. The citizens need to comprehend that the European Parliament plays a vital role and affects their everyday lives to a great extent. It is crucial to familiarise with the vot-ing procedure and the way that the parlia-ment works, as well as to get further informed on the participation of their representatives.

In the rest of the countries, and most-ly in the southern ones, where the turnout doesn’t exceed 43%, people’s absten-tion declares their disapproval regarding the Union’s economic policy. It is wide-ly known that countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal face serious financial problems and are suffocatingly pressed by the Union’s instruments to purge their finan-cial status. In these countries, abstention is translated to loathing towards elections, in a try to punish those who suppress them.

Europe needs us as much as we need Europe. No matter how disappointed we may be regarding the current situation in Eu-rope, we should never forget the following; we are the ones who can actually change it. Therefore, abstention is actually a self-punish-ment. With all these new challenges coming up in the field of international affairs, it is signif-icant to remain united under a common vi-sion. As our teachers used to tell us “It is really easy to smash one chalk, but if you try to break six together you are probably never going to make it.” Imagine a whole bunch of 28. •

by E

IRIN

ISA

MA

RA (G

R)

Act, React, Impact

5

Committee on CULTURE AND EDUCATION

CULT

**

Given the multicultural and socio-econom-

ically diverse nature of European societies,

how should the EU ensure the accessibility to

equal educational opportunities for all?

**

6

Educational Justice

Providing a foolproof education sys-tem results with all rounder individuals to build a society. This is the one and only ba-sic step to raise high qualified people and found a sustainably developing country. Most of the EU Member States place spe-cial emphasis on their education systems to leave the field clear for their citizens and ensure that they become well educated.

Unfortunately, the socio-economically diverse nature of the European societies caus-es “educational injustice” in European coun-tries. Even if € 15.6 billion of scholarship funds are available in Europe each year, govern-ments of EU are quite far from solving this issue.

So what is the root cause of this issue? When one considers that money plays a key role in our century, it is quite clear to detect the central problem. As I mentioned, EU countries spare nearly €16 billion for schol-arship each year. Although that amount of money cannot be underestimated, EU is definitely in need of additional financial

resources to supply millions of students. On the other hand, quality difference between public and private schools is another point to underline. As a result of public schools not being able to meet certain standards of education, private schools were founded. Consequently, the “education” sector has turned into the “service” sector, causing so-cial class and educational level differences.

How can we stand against an idea like “money buys future” , when the ‘lev-el of income’ of a family specifies the ‘lev-el of education’ of a person? What kind of steps should EU take to attain educational justice and remove social labels? Providing scholarships in return of taking part in social responsibility projects is an idea that could be taken into account. Improving the public schools’ education level is another responsi-bility of the EU Member States. It’s a long way for the EU Member states to solve their issues and bring justice to their education systems, but a great reward awaits in the end. •

by S

ERTA

CSA

RI (T

R)

7

**

Shortcomings in public sphere still remain

one of the main challenges for the

Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. What

are the possible solutions or successful

models, which could be adopted in the

EaP countries in order to advance good

governance?

**

Committee on DEVELOPMENT

DEVE

8

Nowadays, we can see corruption spread in many spheres of life. People of-ten compare it with the cancer that wrecks public life. It doesn’t become permanent and rampant overnight, but in the long-term, its effects are severe and devastating.

Usually, when people talk about cor-ruption in their daily lives, they imply the term corruption in politics; state and central governments, business and all the others industries. In most government offices, de-partments dealing with the public have the highest rates of corruption. It simply won’t be committed if nobody supports it, although it may be declared as free of charge.

The incident mentioned above is pre-vailing for Azerbaijan as well as many oth-er countries. According to Transparency In-ternational’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Azerbaijan ranks 139 out of the 176 coun-tries assessed, with a score of 27 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Until recently, the citizens’ experi-ences with corruption were consistent with these findings. 47% of respondents to the Transparency International Global Corrup-tion Barometer Report in 2010-2011 had paid a bribe in the twelve months preced-ing the survey. While no data is available on citizens’ experience of corruption for 2013, the situation seems to have significantly im-proved in the past two years, as 41% of Glob-al Corruption Barometer 2013 respondents felt that corruption had decreased over the last two years and “only” 27% felt that it had increased, compared to 52% in 2010-2011.

The government of Azerbaijan recognises that corruption is a problem in the country and has taken important anti-corruption steps in the recent years, including the adoption of the state programme on combating corrup-tion in 2004 – aimed at addressing patron-age and cronyism in job appointments, the creation of the Commission on Combating Corruption in 2005, the adoption of a code of ethics for civil servants, and the launch of a national strategy on increasing transpar-ency and combating corruption in 2007.

Anti-corruption efforts have been largely welcomed at the national and in-ternational levels and many local and in-ternationally renowned sources recognise tangible progress in the recent years. The government has been credited internation-ally for taking important steps against cor-ruption. In 2009, Azerbaijan became the first compliant country in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Other important le-gal and institutional developments have tak-en place in the areas of public sector reform and money laundering, among others. These efforts have started to pay off, translating in a significant decrease in citizens’ perceptions of corruption in many sectors, as reflected by the recently launched Global Corruption Barometer 2013. However, the government’s human rights track record continues to fuel a culture of impunity – undermining the effec-tiveness of recent anti-corruption reforms.

Finally, for a definite end to this prob-lem, we should remember the speech of the Indian minister about anti-corruption policy: “when it comes to fighting this adversary, the first blood must be drawn by general public.” •

Money Over Morality

by R

AFI

ZNO

VRU

ZOV

(AZ)

9

Committee on Human RIGHTS

DROI

**

Considering Islamophobia as a contrived

fear or prejudice and the religious minori-

ties believing that their fundamental human

rights are being violated, how should the EU

protect the right to freedom of religion while

ensuring the integration of minorities into

European societies?

**

10

Islamophobia: An Irrational Fear or Religious Discrimination

Islamophobia is an irrational fear or prejudice against Islam, especially towards a political force. There are many people who are familiar with this term, but I am sure a lot of them are experiencing it after some incidents that occurred, such as 9/11, for which Islamic groups were held culpable.For those incidents, we cannot blame Islam but some small groups who thought they needed to serve justice on their own. One should be aware that 10 years ago, the term Islamophobia changed its meaning. It is now seen as phobia of Arab people in gen-eral, and not only Islam. Moreover, many people are thinking about how to protect the right to freedom of religion, but at the same time encouraging the integration of minorities into European societies, but how? In the first place we can get the public to gain an understanding of the meaning be-hind Islamophobia because this fear is due to lack of knowledge about Islam. Secondly we should punish discrimination against Islam and bad publicity on social networks, where there are many groups that are trying to pro-voke more people into Islamophobia. In con-trast, we can highlight the Islamic role models.Hate towards Islam is exercised by not allow-ing Muslims their freedom to religious belief,

via banning the public display of cultural ele-ments; impelling them to change it so that they can be accepted into society. For instance in France, any face covering including the burqa is prohibited whereas it is against the law to call yourself a Islamophobic in public .

France is not the only country with the aforementioned law. In Belgium, the law against burqa came in effect in 2011. In Spain, wearing a burqa is not against the law, however, Barcelona and two other cities in Catalonia announced a ban of Is-lamic face-veils in some public spaces such as municipal offices, public markets and li-braries. Moreover, several cities in Italy had banned the burqa from public places. Last but not least, more than half of Germany’s states have gone on to ban teachers from wearing headscarves. So if the EU acts like this towards Muslims, how can it expect to have only peace from Muslim minorities?As the European countries, we must inte-grate Muslims into our societies and not pun-ish them because their culture is different from ours. After all, in the European Union, we are united in diversity. We must have the audacity so we can get the innovative future that we want, so we can reshape the world. Without further ado, masalem (with peace)! •

by C

RIST

INA

LIN

CUL

ESC

U (R

O)

11

Committee on Employment and social affairs

EMPL

**

With staggering youth unemployment, many

young people have chosen to start their

own enterprises despite financial and bu-

reaucratic challenges. How can the EU sup-

port entrepreneurship for young people in

the current economic and political climate?

**

12

Over the past decades, from the beginning of international interactions be-tween EU Countries and Eastern European Countries, EuroZone has extended EUwide. That’s why many countries got into the EU accesion process. Therefore, the devel-opment plans of each country started to get faster in order to be more eligible than any other country. Thus, infrastructure of departments of states were not well done.

After getting into the EU, Eastern Eu-ropean countries didn’t move on in the fur-ther process of adaptation. Social and polit-ical improvements were proceeded with a great incentive, which is “Being an EU Mem-ber State and EuroZone Country” during the candidacy course. These small economical existences in EU (bearing in mind the fact that VolksWagen’s research and devel-opment is twice greater than Hungary’s all R&D Works) didn’t even back up other na-

tions. Immigration of Easterns caused un-employment in Western European Coun-tries. As an archetype, in France there are thousands of Crotians searching for jobs.

Secondly, different economical plans in federal governments and different working systems ( siestas in Spain, flexible working con-ditions in Greece, wrong economical policy of Mario Monti in Italy, 12 hours of work per day in Germany) are also the reasons why 3 countries went bankrupt. This has two results.

First; EU countries have the sufficient overall economic growth to compensate the debts of other countries. It’s an important val-ue of EU nature which implements the main duties of this International Establishment.Secondly; even if they do compensate the debts, European economy is mu-tually different between each country. Therefore, rather than helping to devel-

Different Moral Norms Same Obstacles

by A

NIL

SIM

SEK

(TR)

13

Committee on CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRs

LIBE

**

In part as a consequence of the financial

crisis, European economies are increasingly

dependent on its creative industries in order

to be competitive. Several new economies

have displayed an obvious disregard for

intellectual property rights. How should the

EU ensure that Intellectual property rights

such as copyright, design, patent, trade

mark are upheld in Europe?

**

14

Whether you are an inventor, an artist, a businessman or an entrepreneur, each one of you has their own intellectual property. That does not refer to your book-shelf, or even all the books you’ve read. It is your rights to things you create or invent yourself; trademarks and trade secrets, sym-bols, marks, images and the designs used in business. It includes a wide variety of prop-erties created by musicians, authors and inventors, any form of original creation that can be bought or sold; from music to ma-chinery, and from books to food products.

Intellectual property (IP) is protected by law, with patents, copyright and trade-marks, which enable people to earn rec-ognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By striking the right bal-ance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which cre-ativity and innovation can flourish. Howev-er, there is no common intellectual property rights (IPR) system in the EU. IPRs are pro-tected by national law rather than EU law.

In the past years, intellectual prop-erty infringement (the violation of intellec-tual property rights) has become wide-spread throughout the whole Europe, due to economic crisis or other various reasons. IP infringement is harmful not only for the

enterprises as they reduce enterprise and government revenues, decrease invest-ment and innovation and hinder economic growth, but also for the consumers as they are less likely than others to be manufac-tured in compliance with health and safety standards. The consumers can be the victims of deceptive practices when they are sold a fake product instead of a genuine one.

Nevertheless, the protection of intel-lectual property rights is covered by many international conventions, which are imple-mented by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). WIPO is responsible for the promotion of the protection of intel-lectual property throughout the world and for the administration of various multilateral treaties dealing with the legal and admin-istrative aspects of intellectual property. Other organisations that deal with the IPR are the World Trade Organisation, which works for harmonisation and cooperation, and the European Patent Organisation.

To conclude, here is the question dele-gates need to discuss about the given issue: How should the EU ensure that Intellectual Property Rights such as copyright, design, patent and trademark are upheld in Europe? Let’s wait for the awesome resolution to find out the answer of the awesome Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. •

To Trust or Not To Trust

by N

INO

PAPU

NA

SHV

ILI (

GE)

15

Special Thanks to...

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