Workshops with the European Parliament and the Department of Foreign Action and the European Union
Learn to Check is working on a new educational and empowering project about disinformation aimed at young people. The initiative is titled “Don’t Let Them Fool You! We Defend Democracy from Disinformation. European Elections 2024 Edition” and is supported by the European Parliament Office in Barcelona and the Department of Foreign Action and European Union. The project targets nearly 700 students from the third year of secondary school to the first year of baccalaureate, with the goal of enhancing young people’s understanding of European institutions and current affairs, and raising awareness about disinformation and digital fact-checking in the context of the upcoming European Parliament elections this June.
The association “Learn to Check” is responsible for delivering these workshops to 16 schools across Catalonia that are part of the European Parliament Ambassador Schools Programme. In these sessions, participants learn what disinformation is, the different forms it takes, and how it impacts the democratic process. The workshops also introduce existing digital fact-checking tools that help counter disinformation, with the aim of promoting free and uninfluenced participation in the European project. At the same time, the initiative seeks to reverse young people’s disaffection with the European Union.
The project was launched on Monday, April 8, at the Institut Salvador Espriu in Salt, during an event attended by the Minister of Foreign Action and the European Union, Meritxell Serret, and the Director of the European Parliament Office in Barcelona, Sergi Barrera. Both took part in the workshop.“We are preparing young people to stand up to disinformation and to make the European project their own,” Serret emphasized during her speech. Barrera, for his part, pointed out that “although young people are the true natives of the digital age we live in, they are the segment of society most exposed to disinformation, as their main source of information is social media. The workshops will continue through May and have already been held in schools in Lleida, Celrà, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Igualada, and Tarragona, among others.
