Students from II Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. M.Kopernika, in Cieszyn, Poland will take part in a European Youth Summit on disinformation and fake news, which will be held online on 31 March and 1 April 2022. The event is organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Three students and a supervising teacher from one school from each of the 27 Member States, and the five EU candidate countries, as well as from a Brussels-based European school, will be invited to attend, to meet virtually and discuss, debate and draw up recommendations for the EU institutions.

This EESC activity is intended to contribute to the youth chapter of the Conference on the Future of Europe, because European young people that can make choices based on trustworthy information are vital to our shared future.

To help each selected school prepare for the event, they will be visited (either in person or virtually) by an EESC member of the same nationality/origin. The aim of the visit is to explain to the school delegations how one of the EU institutions or bodies works. The visiting EESC member from the Polish school will be Mr Krzysztof PATER (https://memberspage.eesc.europa.eu/Search/Details?personId=2021179&onlyActiveMandate=True&isMinimal=False).

The 2022 Committee's flagship event for young people, Your Europe, Your Say! (YEYS), will take place on 31 March and 1 April 2022. Students will come together to discuss the best ways to combat disinformation phenomena and how to avoid fake news. Over a hundred 16-18-year-old students and more than 30 teachers will take part in the virtual YEYS 2022. The event will focus on helping youngsters to detect disinformation easily and act against it.

During the opening session on 31 March, the participants will have the opportunity to talk with Ruurd Oosterwoud, founder of DROG (https://drog.group/), Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, from Lie Detectors (https://lie-detectors.org/home-2/who-we-are/juliane-von-reppert-bismarck/), and the EESC president, Christa Schweng. EESC vice-president, Cillian Lohan, will chair the event. The closing session of YEYS22 will be attended by Věra Jourová (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2019-2024/jourova_en), European Commission Vice-President and European Commissioner for Values and Transparency. The participating students will be able to present their recommendations to Commissioner Jourová and discuss them with her.

Background
"Your Europe, Your Say!" (YEYS) is an event organised by the European Economic and Social Committee, the voice of civil society in Europe. YEYS is the Committee's flagship event for young people and started in 2010, with the aim of connecting Europe's youngest citizens with the European Union.
Every year, 16-18-year-old students from all EU Member States and candidate countries come to Brussels for two days and work together to draw up resolutions, which are then passed on to the EU institutions. These resolutions contain the students' ideas, proposals, and hopes for their future as European citizens. Due to the health crisis restrictions, the YEYS! event has taken place entirely remotely for the last two years.
Any secondary school in an EU Member State or candidate country can apply to send three students to participate in YEYS. Through this initiative, the EESC hopes to ensure that the views, experiences, and ideas of Europe's younger generations are taken on board in the EU policy-making process.

Further details about YEYS 2022 are available on the event's official page: https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/agenda/our-events/events/your-europe-your-say-2022
Watch the YEYS 2022 video: https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/agenda/our-events/events/your-europe-your-say-2022/video-and-powerpoint-school-visits