Ask Mariya Gabriel – Commissioner for Youth and Education

The European Youth Week will open its doors in a few days.

In the run-up to all upcoming events, we invite you to address your questions to Mariya Gabriel - Commissioner for Youth and Education. Your questions are welcome to one of the topics below:

The new Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes 2021-2027: are there opportunities for everyone?
Strengthening young citizens’ engagement in decision-making, especially during Covid pandemic and how new programmes will contribute to enhance participatory culture.
Do our new programmes embrace sustainability and how they encourage organisations and individuals to step up green practices?
Is Europe ready for digital age and how new Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes will drive digital transformation?
How the new programmes will contribute to post Covid recovery and building resilience?
Test your ideas for increased democratic participation.

Anything else that comes to your mind, related to Europe’s youth, their opportunities and participation in democratic life

Who can take part?

If you are aged 18-30, living in Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes countries and acting in your own personal capacity you can submit your question(s) to the Commissioner. Any entries submitted by journalists and media representatives will not be considered.

How to take part

Please submit your question in a video format, ask your question right into the camera and send it to us:

Either via a post on social media: Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #EUYouthWeek
or by email to EAC-SOCIAL-MEDIA@ec.europa.eu

Limit your videos to 30 seconds. In exceptional cases, we accept entries in the format of a photo with a written question or an audio file. These formats can be submitted in the same way as described above. You can ask as many questions as you want.

Deadline for submissions is 30 May 2021 00:00 (Brussels time).

Selection procedure

European Commission staff will review submitted questions and draw up a shortlist of entries that will feature in final video(s) with the Commissioner. The selection will be based on the quality of the submitted videos and the relevance of the questions to the overall scope of the European Youth Week. The final video(s) will be posted on European Youth social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Shortlisted participants must accept the Terms and Conditions and complete the consent form to be eligible.

Conditions

The European Commission accepts no responsibility for videos that are lost, corrupted, or incorrectly submitted, howsoever that occurs.
The European Commission will under no circumstance be liable for any loss, harm, damage or personal injury to the participants or third parties, nor to property, caused or suffered in connection with recording and submitting the video question.
The Commission cannot be held responsible for any costs incurred by participants in taking part in this exercise.

Timeline

A specific duration to submit video questions will be defined on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts and shortlisted participants will be contacted shortly after the deadline for submissions.

Selection criteria

The selection criteria will be: adherence to Terms and Conditions, quality of the video and relevance of the question.
The selection will be conducted by a panel composed of European Commission staff on the basis of eligibility and entry criteria.

Fees

At no point will the European Commission or any other organisation operating on its behalf request any form of payment or purchase for participation in this exercise.
All participants are responsible for any costs or expenses they may incur as a result of participation by recording and submitting a video (including any and all costs for accessing the Internet).

Acceptance of rules

Submitting an entry constitutes acceptance of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter Terms of Use.
By submitting an entry, participants agree to be contacted by the European Commission via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or by email.
The European Commission reserves the right to amend or alter these Terms and Conditions at any time, without notice and undertakes to update them on the dedicated webpage. It is the participant’s responsibility to consult the Terms and Conditions regularly at the aforementioned address in order to be aware of any changes.

Disqualification

Entries which fail to comply with the Terms and Conditions listed above may be disqualified without prior notification.
Participants who do not agree with the Terms and Conditions or with processing of their personal data or withdraw approval of the Terms and Conditions will automatically be disqualified.

Copyright

Participants represent and warrant that they are the sole author and right holder of their content/work included in their entry (if any), and that they have not violated and will not violate any copyright, right of privacy, image right, or any other right of any third party. Any evidence of plagiarism, which includes the unauthorised use of the language and thoughts of another author, and the representation of them as one's own, will result in disqualification.
Participants also confirm that all content is completely model released, meaning that all third parties that created or participated, in any way, to content creation have previously consented to the above use.
In addition to owning the copyright and related rights, participants declare that they have complied with all relevant laws (copyright, privacy rights etc.) in producing their video and that they have acquired all necessary rights and obtained all necessary permissions. Participants must take into account that this might include third party works (such as architectural designs, sculptures, photographs or trademarks) or image rights (if a photo depicts identifiable persons).
Participants must not take footage of private persons without their consent. Children need a parental authorisation to be featured in the video. By submitting an entry, participants irrevocably transfer onto the European Union worldwide ownership of the entry and of all intellectual property rights related to the entry. The European Union acquires the exclusive rights to use the entry, where “use” means in particular storing, archiving, reproducing, editing, modifying, distributing, performing, publishing, printing, displaying, broadcasting, making available, communicating to the public, including on social media, creating derivative works, synchronizing, translating or otherwise making use of the entry, in both digital and material formats.
The European Union also acquires the right to authorise the reuse of the entry in conformity with the Commission Decision of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (2011/833/EU).
The participant must also waive their right to be identified as the author of the entry for the purposes of the above-mentioned use By delivering the entry, the participant warrants that on the basis of their moral right under copyright they will not object that their names be mentioned or not mentioned when the entry is presented to the public (for example when published on social media).

Applicable law

Any controversy concerning these Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the law of the European Union, complemented where necessary by the substantive laws of Belgium. In case any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or relating to the subject matter hereof cannot be settled amicably between the Participant and the European Union, it shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Brussels.

Data protection

This activity is being organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Unit 01 (the Data Controller).
All personal information gathered, if any, (name, nationality, birthdate, postal address, email address, phone number, social media accounts etc.) will be held by the Data Controller, the Data Processor or their trusted representatives and will only be used for the purpose of this communication activity. Such data will not by shared with third parties. The data will be held until 1 year after the end of the submission period and will then automatically be deleted.
The European Commission is committed to personal data protection. Any personal data is processed in line with the Regulation(EU)2018/1725. All personal information processed by the Directorate-General for Education and Culture or its contractors is treated accordingly.
If participants wish to verify which items of personal data are stored, have them modified, corrected or deleted, or have questions regarding the information processed in the context of this activity, or on their rights, they should contact the support team of the Data Controller at the following address: EAC-SOCIAL-MEDIA@ec.europa.eu .
If this is insufficient to resolve their concerns, they should contact the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). The contact details, and details of data subject rights, are available on the EDPS website at: https://edps.europa.eu/ .

Contact

In the event that a participant wishes to withdraw approval of the Terms and Conditions, they may contact EAC-SOCIAL-MEDIA@ec.europa.eu .
In the event that a participant wishes to ask questions before or after sending its video, they may contact the organising Unit at the following address: EAC-SOCIAL-MEDIA@ec.europa.eu.