‘Be leaders in the fight for Europe!’ Zelenskyy urges students at Natolin College of Europe 

The College of Europe in Natolin, Poland, has hosted a special event to mark Ukrainian and Lithuanian National Day, during which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a live online address and took questions from students. The event on 30 January was organised by Ukrainian students benefiting from scholarships granted by the EU-funded ‘EU4Youth: Employment and Entrepreneurship’ programme, together with their Lithuanian peers at the College.

Speaking by live video link, President Zelenskyy stressed the importance of values in the European project: “I urge you to study here at the College of Europe, not how to be part of the European bureaucracy, not just how to be experts in European affairs. But how to be defenders of European values. How to be leaders in the fight for Europe. How to actually be commanders who can lead others in the battle for Europe.”

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda also addressed the audience with a video message in which he urged students: “When you graduate and you go back to your capitals or Brussels, always stand in defence of what is right: freedom and democracy.”

The EU4Youth: Employment and Entrepreneurship programme aims to increase entrepreneurial skills and invest in initiatives to promote (social) entrepreneurship education, including on green and digital innovation as well as promote more quality jobs, especially for disadvantaged youth across the Eastern Partnership region. The programme also offers scholarships for students from Eastern partner countries to study at the College of Europe in Natolin.