At the end of November I was in Vilnius invited by Koen Geven, the president of ESU (European Students Union) to follow the seminar on gender equality and thet the General Assembly of ESU in Vilnius.
The seminar was very interesting and I had the opportunity of knowing how ESU works, and they really work hard! Even plenaries after dinner and at night! But very professional. I got many interesting ideas about gender equality, something we are not addressing in ESN, but it could worthwhile to give at least a brief overview.
Unfortunately the general assembly was in the same days of the CNR in Sarajevo, so I couldn't participated but when I was already gone Koen phoned me telling me that they voted unanimously for accepting ESN as an associated member of ESU.
Afterwards in the December Board meeting we gave ESU the status of our associated members.
What does this mean?
As associated members of ESU we have the right of participating at all their meetings and to access at their documents, and the same will be for them.
To close this partnership with ESU was one of the priority of the Board.
ESU is the only student association which is consulted by EU, Council of Europe and the Member States, for policies in Education and is the only
students association which is following the development of the Bologna process.
A close cooperation with ESU at the international level gives us another opportunity to bring the voice of exchange students to the main stakeholders.
Moreover they are starting a very interesting project about Mobility for which they asked our support and I am sure we can give a great contribute.
Many of our sections (are or are part of) students union and finally we established a strong cooperation at the international level.
So let's spread the news that now have an opportunity more to collaborate with students unions to develop great projects together!
