Young European Of The Year

2020 - Mariya Atanasova, 23 years old, is a mentor for Roma Youth and member of the European Roma Youth Network in Bulgaria. She studies midwifery and is involved in various organizations for young people affected by discrimination and social difficulties. As a young Roma woman, she supports children and young people from her community and works for more visibility of Roma in Europe. Find more infos here.

2019 - Yasmine Ouirhrane is recognised as Young European of the Year 2019 for her outstanding dedication regarding women's equalitiy and equal participation opportunities for migrants in Europe. At the age of 23, she is already an award-winning fellow of the “Women Deliver Young Leader” programme by Women Deliver. She helped to organise the European Youth Forum’s Yo!Fest 2018 in Strasbourg and has been engaged in projects with young people in underprivileged neighborhoods in France. Find more infos here.

2018 - Madeleina Kay is a British activist and one of her country's loud voices in favor of European integration. Also know as #EUSuperGirl, Madeleina uses music and art to advocate for the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union, appears publically on a regular basis, and rallies thousands of people on- and offline.

2017 - Nozizwe Dube is the current president of the Flemish Youth Council, making the voice of young people in Flanders more present in political decision-making. She has also been especially engaged in making minorities more visible and in speaking about several European topics such as the right to vote at the age of 16 and the consequences of the Brexit vote for young people in Europe.

2017 - Haris Kušmić is the founder and president of the national chapter of the European Youth Parliament in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through his organisation, more than 2,000 young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in exchange activities in the country and abroad.

2016 – Adrian Balutel, born in 1992 in Moldova, received his Medium Professional Degree in Scienes of Commodities in 2013 from the National College of Trade and started his studies at the Academy of Economical Studies of Moldova. He was the chairman of the Young European Federalists (JEF) Moldawa until 2015. He also acted as Vice President of the National Youth Council of Moldova and is currently secretary of the National Platform of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and the secretary general of the Youth Business Association.

2015 – Evgenija Lopata, born 1994, was politically and socially engaged in her home town Czernowitz during her high school years. At the age of 18 she became the director of the renowned International Poetry Festival Meridian Czernowitz. This voluntary job made her the youngest cultural manager of the Ukraine.

2014 – Luis Alvarado Martinez, born 1989 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, studied Translation & Interpreting for Spanish, English, French and Italian. Luis held several positions in the student network AEGEE, lastly also as its president. Currently he is the President of the European Youth Forum.

2013 – Lukas David Meyer, born in Göttingen in 1989 started his social engagement for Europe in 2008, when he spent a voluntary year working for the F.O.P. programme at the Sarajevo office of Schüler Helfen Leben. From 2009 – 2010, he was a board member of this organisation and later coordinator for European understanding and youth participation.

2012 – Robin May was born in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in 1988. He has been politically active as a school student and working to sharpen the political consciousness of his peers. He has later continued this work on a European level.

2011 – Stefan Ivanovic, born in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1988, experienced a childhood overshadowed by war and with the breakdown of society in his home country. In an often unfriendly and hostile surrounding he was working for these values, for example as a voluntary EP Manager for AIESEC International Bulgaria and as a trainer for Humanity in Action in Amsterdam.

2010 – Maria Tandeck, born in Poland in 1989, showed an extraordinary interest in social, political and intercultural issues in European society. While at school she was involved with the Scouting movement and through this later become a mentor to children with problems with aggressions. She is a member of the social-democratic youth in Poland, has been voted student representative of the law department at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder).

2009 – Sandra Orlovic has worked as a volunteer for the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republika Srpska and in Serbia. For many years she she has worked on documenting war crimes committed during the war in former Yugoslavia.

2008 – Tamuna Kekenadze, born in Georgia in 1982, realised through several projects which contribute to the understanding among young Europeans and Georgians that she is passionate about enthusing youngsters about Europe. Since 2004 she has taken almost every possible opportunity to promote exchange among young Europeans, especially in her engagement with AEGEE Tbilisi and in the “National Council of Youth Organizations of Georgia“, the umbrella group of 45 Georgian youth organisations.