STEAR Townhall 2022

Goals of the Event

• Identify the key issues in Europe-Asia multilateral cooperation and highlight the needs of multi-regional cooperation in the pandemic era.
• Create a network of young people active in Europe-Asia relations to build a forum where people with common interests can get together and exchange opinions for future actions.
• Foster strong relationships among young working professionals and student think tanks and lay the foundation for future collaboration.
• Bring the voice of young people into multilateral policy by presenting the event’s conclusions to leading institutions in the Europe-Asia space such as ASEF, TTCSP, European Parliament, and EU Center in Singapore (TBC).

Event Activities

• Opening Ceremony: This will be held as a hybrid event in Singapore at the offices of the EU Delegation to Singapore. Speakers are to be confirmed. Opening Panel: Following the Opening Ceremony, we will invite established figures and young professionals based in Singapore to talk about the importance of youth involvement in international cooperation, particularly speculating on what young people can do to make their voices heard in the policymaking arena.
• Focus Group Discussions and Final Presentation: The main event of our Town Hall will be the two discussion sessions in which our Focus Groups will have a chance to prepare a short communique for a final presentation, where they will present the group statement to leading policymakers across Europe and Asia. The Focus Group Topics will be as follows: Climate Change and Sustainable Development; Youth Empowerment in the Policymaking Space; Economic Integration and Development; Science and Technology; Foreign Policy and International Relations.
• Closing Ceremony: Closing Remarks from the STEAR Presidents and a Guest Speaker (TBC), highlighting the key outcomes from the communiques and highlighting the next steps

Opening Panel

Young people have been historically underrepresented in decision-making processes. The panel is going to discuss the role of youths in policy-making concerning Asia-Europe relations, particularly what youths can do to make their voices heard and coordinate collective actions.

Speakers include:

Dr. Jayant Menon (Senior Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute)

Dr. Jing Rong Goh (Director at Risk Lighthouse)

Closing Panel

We conclude the event by highlighting key outcomes from the communiqué and announcing the next steps going forward. With closing remarks from our distinguished guest from the European Commission, we will celebrate our accomplishments over the past months.

Speakers include:

Themis Christophidou (Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission)