Contest rationale

Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, sustained the idea of "building a union between people, not cooperation between states", suggesting that the basis of European construction is a communion of values and ideas shared by the people of Europe.

For this reason, encouraging dialogue becomes necessary both to deepen mutual understanding and to reinforce common European values that will lead to a better future.

This is why we invite you to join this dialogue by writing about your thoughts, ideas, and aspirations about the realities you are facing or the prospects of the European Union!

In this regard, we invite you to participate in the Essay Contest, organized on 15 May 2019, to advance forward your own views on the European integration process, the challenges of European construction, its values, the future of the European Union or another associated subject.

The competition is part of the set of events included in the ENACTED project - European Union and its neighbourhood. Network for enhancing EU's actorness in the eastern borderlands (2017-2625), co-funded by the European Union.

Terms of Participation

General

• Students enrolled in undergraduate and master university cycles can participate in the competition;
• The competition takes place in two stages: national and international. The national phase implies the registration of the papers, their evaluation and selection and their oral presentation in a public competition, to which both the participants and their colleagues or friends, as well as the entire interested public, are invited. The first three papers awarded at the national stage will be considered for the international phase, along with the first awarded essays from each participating country (Romania, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary). Therefore, in the case of winning the national phase, participants must be willing to translate their essays into English. In the international stage, in person presentation of the works is no longer necessary, the essays being evaluated by an international commission composed of representatives of the network’s partners.
• Deadline: 26 April 2019
• Written and accepted papers will be presented in person at the event, held on 15 May 2019, starting at 13.00 PM
• Presentations will take about 5-10 minutes and will include the main ideas presented in the essays. Presentations should not be accompanied by graphic support, PowerPoint slides etc.;
• Participation in the contest is free of charge.

Conditions of form

• Essays can have one single author and must be written in Romanian or English;
• The papers should contain 1000 - 2000 words and should take the form of an argumentative essay.
• Editing requirements: see template.
• The papers will be sent in PDF format to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Before sending, the document shall be saved with the name "essay_name_firstname"

Content

• Papers must be original and written in a style appropriate to academic writing;
• Content must be clear and logical;
• In order to support the ideas proposed by the essay, different points of view will be considered, including both arguments and counter-arguments, in order to outline a pertinent point of view.

To make the best argumentative essays, we recommend going through the Harvard University Academic Writing Guide available at https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/strategies-essay-writing.

We are looking forward to your essays related to:

• current important topics related to the European Union;
• what kind of Europe young people want, and what are the opportunities and constraints offered by today's European space;
• what kind of challenges arise in the context of the new economic and social realities in the EU;
• how the young people are regarded or included in the current European integration model.

Awards

Each of the selected participants will be given a Certificate of Participation. The winners of the local phase will receive Diplomas and will be able to participate in the international phase with the essays translated into English. The first five papers awarded at the international stage will receive Special Prizes (1st Prize: 350 EUR, 2nd Prize: 250 EUR, 3rd Prize: 200 EUR, Mention 1 and 2: 100 EUR)

Deadlines

• 26 April 2019, submission of the paper;
• 15 May 2019, presentation in person of the paper in Neighbours’ day;
• The winners of the local phase will be subsequently notified of the following deadlines necessary for translating the essays for the international phase and for their evaluation.

Evaluation criteria

• Conditions of form (observance of the editing terms, general appearance of the paper) 1 p.
• Paper’s clarity and logic coherence of 3p.
• The quality of argumentation. 3p
• Originality 3p.
• Fluency and attractiveness of presentation (for national phase only). 2p

We are looking forward to your participation at our events!