Brussels Hosts Pan-EU Debate Contest Final and #ClimateOfChange Circus Show

The #ClimateOfChange project will take over the city of Brussels from 10 to 12 November with a thrilling line-up of events to raise awareness about the links between migration, climate change and youth.

Coinciding with the week of the COP26, #ClimateOfChange will bring young people from all around the bloc to the heart of the EU institutions to participate in the final Pan-EU Debate Contest. In parallel, the contemporary circus of #ClimateOfChange will be closing its European tour in Brussels those days with a nightly performance.

Pan-EU Debate Contest Finals

During this frenetic 3-days event, Brussels will host the final contest of the Pan-EU Debate, where 117 students from 13 EU countries will try to win using their best dialectic tactics on Climate change, Migration, Youth and Economy.

Each country will send two teams to the competition, one composed of six teenagers (from 16 to 19 years old) and the other of three university students. National representatives of professors and educators will accompany and support the students to the finals.

Once in Brussels, the national teams will be divided and 26 new European teams will be formed by young people of different nationalities. During two days of preparation the new teams will get to know each other and prepare the debate competition that will be run in a common language decided by the team and preferably in English.

Cooperation among participants from different parts of the EU will be one key factor to achieve success in this intellectual challenge. The aim is to foster EU citizenship as an evident EU added value for the youth tournament. On the 11^th of November the students will also have the chance to meet MEPs and ask questions or expose concerns about the just transition to climate justice the #ClimateOfChange demands (see more here)

A jury composed of 6 international experts and educators will name the two best teenager teams (12 people in total) and four university teams (12 people in total), and will decide who will be the final 24 “winners”. The best teams and debaters, will be nominated “Champions for a human economy”, will be awarded with a diploma and win a field trip to the Global South to become young ambassadors and advocates for a #ClimateOfChange.

Lights, drums and (climate) action!

Eight artists and acrobats, four musicians, and an impressive scenography will be exploring the links between migration and climate change, at the same days that the youth debates take place in Brussels, and that global leaders discuss the climate issue in the COP26 in Glasgow.

After a tour of 10 European countries, the contemporary circus company MagdaClan will perform an artistic experience full of deep reflections in the venue of Tour&Taxis in Brussels from 10 to 13 November, at 7.30pm.

With the support of the European Environmental Bureau and the Association of Local Democracy Agencies, the artists of MagdaClan want to engage the public in understanding the complex relationship between climate change and migration and create a movement of informed people ready to change their lifestyle and demand new development policies.

They will stage a dramatic representation of the climate crises taking place in different corners of the world, posing as entire populations brought to their knees by floods, melting Arctic permafrost, desertification and fires. The artists deal with these realities, with just few objects, few words and much rhythm.

If you are in Brussels and want to be part of the change, please join us! More information here.