An inter-school debate presented the youth’s opinion on Bulgaria’s participation in the EU
On 06.06.2024 at the Primary School “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”, Malorad, a debate was held between the students of the “Hristo Botev” United School – Banitsa village and the students of the “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”, the village of Malorad under the title: “Bulgaria in the EU – “for” or “against”.
The teams:
The team from the village of Malorad was represented by Mirela Ilieva Angelova – 7th grade, Leonardo Metodiev – 7th grade and Sergey Metodiev Sandov – 7th grade, and they were represented by the team from the village of Banitsa in the form of Boryana Hristova Borisova from the 6th grade, Iliyan Angelov Tsenov – 7th grade and Maria Rosa Leporo from 6th grade.
The presenter was Irina Asenova – Regional Coordinator at the “Amalipe” Center for Northwest Bulgaria, and the jury was made up of directors and teachers.
The debate was extremely heated, but in a good tone, correct and with listening. The team from the village of Banitsa controversially showed the disadvantages of our membership, while the team from the village of Malorad argued for the benefits of the EU for Bulgaria and its citizens. In the part with the questions to the opposing team, the young people came to a consensus that everything depends on them, they are perhaps the future MEPs or ministers of our country and realized how important it is to be educated and to vote responsibly and consciously when they have the legal right.In the final part, they came to the point that the truth is somewhere in the middle. We have exceptional benefits from the EU in various sectors, but the financial aid they give us is perhaps not distributed properly and therefore things are not happening as they would like. They shared that it is good that such meetings should become known to the politicians in order to hear the opinion of the teenagers, because it may be too early for them to vote, but this does not mean that they are not aware of what is happening in our country.
The audience gave their input and appreciated the performance of the contestants by stating that they are not like those they watch on TV and cheered and supported them impartially.
The inter-scholl debate is part of the project “EMPOWEREU: Fostering participation of youth and vulnerable groups in the EU elections” funded by the European Parliament. The authors are fully responsible for the content of the episode and the European Parliament is not responsible for the use of the information therein.
