Over the coming months, students from secondary schools across Europe will get ready to brainstorm together on how to fight disinformation in Europe. In March, they will select the most popular ideas to present to EU leaders.

"The truth about lies. Youth challenging disinformation" is the title of the EESC's 13th flagship youth event "Your Europe, Your Say" (YEYS).

561 secondary schools from the 27 EU Member States and the 5 candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey) applied to participate in YEYS 2022. Registration closed on 2 December 2021. The participating schools, one per country, were selected in a random draw on 9 December 2021. The list of selected schools is available online.

The debating sessions will take place remotely on 31 March and 1 April 2022. Preparations to welcome all 99 students and their supervising teachers are in full swing at the EESC.

By mid-January 2022, EESC members acting as mentors will start visiting the selected schools to help students prepare for the main sessions.

The event is intended to raise awareness of the dangers of disinformation and to encourage young people to become more active in fighting fake news.

YEYS2022 has been flagged as one of the main events of the European Year of Youth 2022. (ck)