The YouthEUVision Online Academy for Debates was designed to provide young people with a structured yet open space to learn, discuss, and reflect on democracy and European civic life.
While the Academy modules were slightly adapted to the project context, they remain fully aligned with the original online learning framework, ensuring coherence, relevance, and continuity across all partner countries.
By combining online learning modules with moderated debates, the Academy transforms knowledge into practice encouraging young people not only to understand democratic processes, but to actively engage with them.
This module introduces democracy as a living and evolving concept rather than a fixed system. Participants explore democratic values, participation, representation, and human rights, while reflecting on current challenges such as political disengagement, lack of trust in institutions, and the role of citizens in sustaining democratic societies.
The module encourages young people to question how democracy works in practice and what it means in their everyday lives.
Building on the foundations of democracy, this module focuses on how citizens participate. Participants explore political education as a key tool for informed decision-making and analyse voting as both a right and a responsibility.
The module also highlights political activism and civic engagement beyond elections, including advocacy, community action, youth movements, and social participation, empowering young people to see themselves as active political actors.
This module addresses the growing importance of media literacy in democratic societies. Participants examine how information is produced, shared, and consumed, with a focus on misinformation, disinformation, algorithms, and social media influence.
The module strengthens critical thinking skills and encourages responsible digital behaviour, helping young people navigate today’s complex information landscape and make informed democratic choices.
The final module focuses on the European Union, its institutions, values, and policy-making processes. Participants gain a clearer understanding of how EU decisions are made and how they affect daily life at local, national, and European levels.
The module also highlights opportunities for youth participation within the EU and encourages young people to engage with European policies and democratic mechanisms shaping Europe’s future.
Each online debate was directly linked to one of the four modules. Participants completed the learning content in advance and then joined moderated online debates where they could:
exchange perspectives
reflect critically on the topics
connect theory with real-life experiences
engage respectfully with diverse viewpoints
This blended approach ensured meaningful dialogue, shared understanding, and active participation across borders.
Implemented across six European countries, the Online Academy for Debates brought together young people from different social, cultural, and national backgrounds.Despite local adaptations, the common module structure ensured a shared European learning journey, reinforcing democratic values, civic awareness, and youth empowerment.
The Online Academy for Debates is a sustainable educational tool that:
promotes democratic literacy
strengthens youth participation
supports critical and media awareness
encourages informed engagement with the European Union
By adapting the modules to the project context while preserving their core themes, YouthEUVision ensures that democracy is not only taught but experienced, debated, and lived by young people.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
