About the European Student Assembly

Credits: Banu Bekirova

The European Student Assembly is the main initiative of EUC Voices' Erasmus+ project. It is an annual event gathering on average 250 selected European students to discuss a series of essential themes of the European Union.

Interested students can apply as participants or coordinators to take part to the Assembly and contribute to one discussion panel of their choice. The selection of participants and coordinators is jointly conducted by EUC Voices partners and the European University Alliances. The selection criteria have been designed to ensure a fair, inclusive and transparent process.

The selection criteria lay the stress on the students’ interest for European politics, culture and society, on their motivation to participate in an intercultural event, to defend their opinion and have an impact on their community, as well as their excellence in their studies.

Panel coordinators, playing a major role in the European Student Assembly, are especially selected for their motivation and former experiences as group leaders in similar initiatives.

The role of participants and coordinators

Panel participants taking part to the Assembly play an active role in their panel from the preparation phase to the Assembly itself. After being selected, they are expected to take part to training sessions and weekly online meetings with experts and other members of their panel.

Each panel is supported by 2 panel coordinators, also students, who monitor the progress of their panel, help to plan meetings with experts, and support the drafting of proposals while remaining neutral. During the on-site gathering, they will moderate the debate between panel members and present the result of the panel’s work. Every panel participant and coordinator is called to vote on all panels' recommendations during the final session of the assembly. All the policy recommendations designed by the panel participants are gathered in a handbook, which summarises the results of the Assembly.

Panel members and coordinators are called to contribute to the European Student Assembly dissemination to ensure preparation of the following year edition, sharing their experience and spreading the recommendations to policy and decision-makers, making their voices heard by the institutions.

Eligibility criteria for panel coordinators and participants

  • Before applying, please check that your higher education institution is involved in a European University Alliance 👉 European Universities Alliances
  • Students who participate for the first time to ESA may apply as participants and/or panel coordinators
  • Please note that students who participated in previous editions of ESA may only apply as panel coordinators, former coordinators cannot apply anymore.
  • Please note that members of the faculty are not eligible unless they are PhD candidates.

Please note that eligibility criteria may be updated from one edition of ESA to the next. Eligibility criteria will be published every year at the opening of the application period.