EUnexus, Tallinn (2026)

12/05/2026

What a tour de force!✨🏆 Our project “ATHENA - Advancing Women’s Leadership in Inclusive Democracy” has won the 1st Prize at the European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2026🇪🇺🙏🏻

What began as a commitment to strengthening women’s leadership and democratic participation has now been elevated to the highest European stage by the European Parliament ( ) and the Charlemagne Foundation - and we are still trying to process the scale of this moment.

ATHENA was built around a reality that still shapes Europe: too many young women continue to face structural barriers in political, civic, and institutional spaces, while also carrying limiting beliefs shaped by systems that have long made leadership feel distant, difficult, or inaccessible. Through the project, we worked to strengthen leadership, confidence, advocacy, democratic participation, and institutional engagement, so that more young women can shape public life with legitimacy, visibility, and power.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who was a rock-solid part of this journey - our participants, decision-makers, diplomats, industry experts, and every person who believed in the vision behind ATHENA.

We also warmly congratulate all the inspiring national winners from across Europe🌟. Standing alongside so many powerful youth-led initiatives has been an honour in itself.🫂

Thank you , and for this recognition. We carry it with immense gratitude, humility, and responsibility.💙🇪🇺

07/05/2026

📢 Calling Swedish🇸🇪, Croatian🇭🇷 and Estonian🇪🇪 Participants for a Training Course in Italy 🇮🇹

🔖 Name: Non Formal Lab 3.0– Crossroads
🔢 Age: 18+
📅 Date: 21–27 May, 2026
🌍 Location: Presenzano, Italy🇮🇹

What’s Covered:
🏡 Accommodation during the project
✈️ Travel costs (according to Erasmus+ distance band)
🥗 All meals throughout the project

📝 Application Form (Link in Bio): https://forms.gle/f9c1oRE3oXBBDCd99
📌 Infopack (Link in Bio): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ivwIeVfU_pR6CGHBXU_1KHydeyb0g3Ub/view?usp=drive_link

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Non Formal Lab 3.0 - Crossroads is an Erasmus+ mobility of youth workers that aims to strengthen the competences of youth workers, leaders, and volunteers in designing and delivering more effective educational activities by bridging formal and non-formal education. The project creates a practical space for experimentation, peer learning, and professional growth, supporting participants to compare different approaches, test new methods, and develop more engaging learning paths for young people. Through non-formal education principles and hands-on practices, participants will explore how to build inclusive learning environments, improve the quality of youth work, and strengthen the capacity of NGOs to evaluate and improve the impact of their educational initiatives.
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Thank you for your participation!
CET Platform Italy: [email protected]
EUnexus: [email protected]

03/04/2026

📢 Calling Estonian 🇪🇪 Participants for a Youth Exchange in Italy 🇮🇹

🔖 Name: Recreating Beauty
🔢 Age: 18–30 years (group leader can be 30+)
📅 Date: 12–19 June, 2026
🌍 Location: Palermo, Italy

What’s Covered:
🏡 Accommodation during the project
✈️ Travel costs (according to Erasmus+ distance band)
🥗 All meals throughout the project

📝 Application Form (Link in Bio): https://forms.gle/mVBPUCSJrme5YrnX9

📌 Infopack (Link in Bio): https://www.canva.com/design/DAG-8rMgQms/AlsqlRJVFjva2NJG4DNJiA/view?utm_content=DAG-8rMgQms&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=viewer
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🟢The project aims to explore and critically reflect on culturally constructed ideals of beauty, and interdependence, boundaries, fostering awareness, empathy, and inclusive practices in both personal and social contexts.

Through non-formal education, group processes, and reflective activities, participants will examine dominant beauty norms and social expectations, understand consent as an ongoing and relational process, strengthen awareness of personal boundaries, and develop the ability to communicate and respect them.

The project also focuses on cultivating empathy, solidarity, and interdependence, while co-creating shared principles for safer, more inclusive, and supportive social spaces.
⸻
Thank you for your participation!
EUnexus
📩 [email protected]

17/03/2026

We are incredibly honoured and proud to share that our project “ATHENA— Advancing Women’s Leadership in Inclusive Democracy” has won the national title for the European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2026, awarded by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen.🇪🇺

This year’s winners were selected from an exceptional pool of 531 projects across Europe — and with ATHENA, EUnexus now carries Estonia forward to the European stage.🇪🇪🤍

It is also a remarkable milestone that EUnexus has now been recognised with the European Charlemagne Youth Prize for two consecutive years (2025 & 2026) — a distinction that underscores both the consistency and the growing depth of our work in strengthening youth participation across Europe. It reflects a sustained commitment to building structured and accessible pathways through which European youth can engage meaningfully with policy-making processes, institutional actors, and public life, contributing to more representative, inclusive, and participatory democratic systems.

We dearly thank our participants for their tremendous work, and (the European Parliament Office in Estonian for their continued collaboration and support.

Thanks to Lakshya Raj ( - President, EUnexus) and Hanah Lahe ( - Member of the Estonian Parliament, for their role in leading ATHENA and helping strengthen youth representation in institutional spaces.

We also extend our sincere appreciation to our project panelists and speakers — Kadri Tali (, Member of the Estonian Parliament), Karin Öövel (, Coordinator of Youth Programs, Harno), Simon Usifo (, CEO, BBDO Germany), Emma Neugebauer (.neugebauer, The European Correspondent), Merle Saviauk (, President, BPW Estonia), and the representatives (.rn & .vnry) for being part of ATHENA’s meaningful journey.

Finally, we extend our deepest gratitude to for standing with us throughout- your trust and continued support truly mean a lot to us.🇪🇪🙏🏻

Onwards and upwards!✨🇪🇺

29/01/2026

📢 Calling Estonian 🇪🇪 Participants for a Youth Exchange in Greece 🇬🇷 🔖 Topic: Eco Film Lab in the Wild 🔢 Age: 18–30 years 📅 Date: 19–29 May (including travel days) 🌍 Location: Elafonisos Island (Greece)

What’s Covered: 🏡 Accommodation during the project ✈️ Travel costs (up to €395) 🥗 All meals during the project

📝 Application Form (Link also in Bio): https://forms.gle/PfinJdGUQNAmDsDG6 
📌 Infopack (Link also in Bio): https://www.canva.com/design/DAG1Y7x4EPw/vzBifCcesvZoW9pwehqxQw/edit
 🟢About the Project: Eco Film Lab in the Wild is an Erasmus+ youth exchange that equips young people to become confident creators through videography, digital storytelling, and nature-based experiential learning. The exchange strengthens practical skills in filming, editing, and sharing content, while building teamwork, intercultural understanding, and inclusion. It also supports environmental awareness and a mindful, grounded connection to nature through hands-on creative practice. Over ten activity days in Elafonisos, Greece, participants will complete outdoor “cine challenges,” create eco-diary vlogs, produce short video CVs, and craft silent nature stories using imagery and natural sound. The programme includes a full-day technology-free challenge, a two-day collaborative stay in a mountain refuge, sessions on night shooting and star-trail techniques, open-air screenings among the trees, mindful filmmaking practice, and cultural exchange through shared cooking evenings.

Thank you for your participation! EUnexus 📩 [email protected]

28/01/2026

🇪🇺Day 2 | EUnexus Delegation at the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU

Today, our Project ATHENA delegation was hosted by the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU, giving participants the opportunity to learn first-hand what diplomacy looks like in practice - beyond titles and protocol - and how Estonia’s interests and policy positions are represented and advanced within EU processes.

We were warmly received by Triin, the spokesperson at the Permanent Representation, who delivered a clear and grounded overview of their work, including how Estonia’s diplomats operate here in Brussels and represent Estonia within the EU. She explained how positions are prepared, how coordination happens across institutions, how negotiations are carried forward, and how national priorities are translated into consistent, day-to-day engagement at European level.

What made the session stand out was the human side of it - what it actually feels like to work as a diplomat, the responsibility that comes with it, and the discipline and calm it demands. The message to participants landed strongly: these roles are not for “someone else”. They are for people who prepare, show up, and choose to take themselves seriously. She also spoke directly about letting go of limiting beliefs, staying curious, and building the confidence to step into spaces that can feel intimidating at first.

For Project ATHENA, this is exactly the kind of institutional engagement we aim for - not only seeing institutions, but meeting the people who keep them running, and leaving with a clearer sense of what leadership looks like in practice.
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27/01/2026

Recap of Day 1: Project ATHENA | EUnexus Delegation at the European Parliament, Brussels🇪🇺

27/01/2026

🇪🇺3/3: In the afternoon, the delegation visited the House of European History and Info Hub: the visit traced europe’s political and social transformation across different eras, showing how the continent’s present-day debates did not appear overnight, but emerged through long periods of change, rupture, and rebuilding. it offered participants a wider frame for today’s union - how ideas of rights, identity, borders, solidarity, and citizenship have been contested, reshaped, and reaffirmed over time.
this dimension matters because institutions do not operate in isolation. they are products of history and memory, and they carry the consequences of past decisions into the present. for participants, the museum visit made a simple point more visible: european democracy is not only a system of procedures - it is also a shared commitment that has been tested repeatedly, and therefore needs to be understood with seriousness.
for project athena, this is central. leadership is not only about knowing how processes work. it is also about understanding what those processes are meant to safeguard - dignity, rights, accountability, and the ability of societies to disagree without breaking the democratic frame. that understanding is what turns institutional access into leadership maturity.
Our brussels programme now continues over the coming two days with bilateral meetings with MEPs, a visit to the permanent representation of estonia to the eu, and exchanges with civil society organisations in brussels.

27/01/2026

🇪🇺EP Brussels: The day began with a guided visit followed by a structured briefing delivered by a Parliament representative. the session offered a clear, practical overview of how the EU institutions relate to one another, what the day-to-day work of Members of the European Parliament looks like beyond plenary speeches, and how the EU legislative process moves from an initial proposal through negotiation, amendment, and adoption.
what stood out for participants was the emphasis on how much of european decision-making is built through preparation and coordination - committee work, political groups, stakeholder input, and constant drafting - long before a final vote is taken. it helped frame legislation not as a “moment”, but as a process where credibility is built through detail, persistence, and the ability to negotiate without losing principle.
the programme then continued with a visit to the hemicycle, offering a direct view into the chamber where debates are held and votes are taken. seeing the space in person puts responsibility into perspective: this is where different interests and political positions meet under public scrutiny, and where outcomes become binding decisions. for the delegation, it was a strong reminder that democratic leadership is not performance - it is accountability, discipline, and the ability to speak and act with substance.

27/01/2026

EUnexus Delegation for Project ATHENA - European Parliament, Brussels🇪🇺
We are in Brussels for a three-day study visit under Project ATHENA - a programme implemented by EUnexus to strengthen young women’s leadership, civic confidence, and institutional engagement through direct exposure to European decision-making spaces. This visit is designed to give participants a practical reference point for european democracy - understanding how it works, where decisions are shaped, and how young leaders can engage with it responsibly.
Over the next days, we will hold bilateral meetings with MEPs, visit the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU, and meet with civil society organisations in Brussels as part of Project ATHENA’s learning pathway.

Project ATHENA is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union🇪🇺💙

EUnexus

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