Renowned film producer and activist Flore Vasseur and her team travelled the world meeting the young people at the forefront of change. The documentary film “Bigger than Us” is an inspiring encounter with those changemakers, revealing their courage, joy and commitment.

We will (re-)discover the moving and stunning screening at TheMerode followed by a conversation with M Gabriel and Flore Vasseur about the drive, passion and innovation they share with young people.

Together with a panel of young change makers, they will explore how we can each find our “bigger than us” to start acting upon current Societal challenges.

2022 is the European Youth Year. The Commissionner will address questions from the youth panel such as: How does EU listen, involve and support innovation among the youth? What is done and what can be done to support youth initiatives? How can we support one another?

Together, we can ensure that any small action will have a ripple effect.

As Greta Thunberg put it after the Global Climate Strike. “No one is too small to make a difference.”

Timings: 

Welcome: 6.30pm

Film Screening: 7.00pm

Panel & Q&A: 8.30pm

Conversation continues at TheMerode bar: 9.00pm

Flore Vasseur

An entrepreneur in New York at the age of 24, Flore Vasseur lived through the Internet bubble, September 11 and a capitalist system that was cracking on all sides.

Since then, she has written books, articles and television documentaries to understand the end of one world and the emergence of another. With her four frighteningly lucid novels, she attacks the grip of finance and the madness of a world based on technology.

In Moscow, she directed Meeting Snowden about the former NSA contractor. Her latest book, What Remains of Our Dreams, is an investigative novel about the little-known real-life story of Aaron Swartz, the child prodigy of code who wanted us to be free, persecuted by the Obama administration.

Mariya Gabriel

Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, Youth and Sport. Under her leadership, the new Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, and the cultural strand of Creative Europe programmes (2021-2027) will be defined and implemented.

Her main priorities are excellence in research, innovation and education with a particular attention for young people and regions. “No one left behind” and “Think out of the box” are her mottos.

Between 2017 and 2019, Mariya Gabriel was European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society.
She was elected as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Mariya Gabriel is First Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP), and, since 2012, Vice-President of EPP Women. Commissioner Gabriel is a board member of the United Nations youth programme Generation Unlimited (GenU).

Mariya Gabriel is also known for her involvement in the fight for gender equality. Among others, she received the prestigious Italian prize “Golden Apple” for highest achievements for women. At the European Parliament, she was awarded twice “MEP of the year” – in 2016 for the Development category, and in 2013 for the Gender Equality category.

In November 2020, Commissioner Gabriel received the Annual Award of the Vienna Economic Forum “Partner of the Year 2020” for contribution to the economic development, rewarding Ms Gabriel’s vision of a European knowledge strategy comprising the European Education Area, the European Research Area and the new Digital Education Action Plan.

Basma Abajadi

Basma is a young activist for inequalities and discrimination. At the age of 20, she has already submitted an action plan to the Brussels Parliament to fight against insecurity on our street, promoting education as the central solution.

Basma is one of the proud talents of the Boost Programme powered by the King Baudouin Foundation. She is studying modern languages in Brussels.

Antoine Wirtz

Antoine is a young professional concerned by the models of sustainable development, such as circular economy and waste management in his community.

After he graduated from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, he joined an organic canning factory working with disabled people, where he is in charge of innovation and greening the production and distribution processes in the food sector.

He is questioning about Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility in business and advocates for a change in the way economical sciences are taught.

Open minded, he benefited from the Erasmus Mundus exchange programme in Thailand, to learn and get the best from other cultures.

Silja Markkula

Silja is a passionate advocate for youth rights and supporting youth civil society to thrive across Europe, and has for the past decade engaged in various youth organisations to advance the rights of young people both in the EU, Council of Europe as well as the UN. She has a background in the Finnish National Youth Council Allianssi and the World Organization of the Scout Movement. She has a master’s degree in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Helsinki.