Cypriot students in Brussels for the Final Debates!

November 2021

University of Nicosia Research Foundation:

Cypriot students in Brussels for the final Debates competition of the Project

“End Climate Change, Start Climate of Change”!

The project ‘End Climate Change, Start Climate of Change’ funded under the framework DEAR (Development Education and Awareness Raising Program) of the European Commission aims to attract the interest of young Europeans to understand the interrelationship between climate change and migration. The vision of the partners is to create a movement of informed young people, willing to change their way of life, to demand new economic policies and advocate for a just and fair society. In Cyprus the Project is implemented by the Research Foundation of the University of Nicosia.

Within this context Debate contests were held in Cyprus from April to June 2021 by the Research Foundation of the University of Nicosia, among university and high school students. The Cypriot students who qualified (3 University students and 6 high school students) travelled to Brussels in 10-12 November 2021 to compete in the Pan-European Final Debate Championship. The competition lasted a total of three days, with 200 entries from students from all over Europe and included the following phases: Preliminaries, playoffs (in case of a tie between teams), semi-finals and final matches. Cyprus was represented by the University of Cyprus students Leto Theodorou, Demetris Papadakis and Alicia Jordanou and high school pupils of Pascal English School Lemesos The university students managed to compete in the semi-finals while the student Danae Fella was a member of the winning team of high school competition.

During the contest all the students had the opportunity to discuss with MEPs and enquired them about pressing issues related to protection of migrants and EU policies regarding the climate change. Throughout the Pan-European Contest students interacted among them, exchanged knowledge and ideas they had the opportunity to meet the Project Partners and overall gained a unique experience. The participation of the Cypriot students to the Pan-European Debate Contest in Brussels was another step to gradually create a community of young people in Cyprus who are aware of the phenomenon of climate change and its implications, and advocate for climate justice as well as equality and diversity in our society.