The third full consortium meeting of ARENAS partners took place in Jūrmala and Riga, Latvia, in May. The three-day meeting featured presentations, workshops and the fifth General Assembly Meeting and was hosted by the Latvian Partner, Creative Ideas. Led by Sanita Putniņa, Creative Ideas is a non-governmental organisation from Riga, Latvia, and provides informal youth and adult education. It specialises in education, culture, society integration, rural development, and EU priorities. Rasma Pīpiķeis is the Creative Ideas representative of the ARENAS project. She is an RTU doctoral student, project content coordinator, and researcher whose preparation and planning led to a very successful meeting.
Partners arrived in a sunny, but cold Jūrmala on May 12th, with time to take a walk on the exceptional beach and meet for dinner. The next morning, the meeting was opened with a welcome address from Rasma Pīpiķeis and by Julien Longhi, of CY Cergy Paris University, ARENAS project leader. Next followed a most interesting series of presentations from guest speakers Signe Grūbe, the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Culture, who explained Latvia’s contribution to promoting dialogue, inclusion, and social cohesion.
Further guest speakers included Varis Teivāns (CERT.LV), who outlined the cybersecurity challenges faced not just in Latvia but across the EU and the measures being taken to address these challenges. Next, Ilze Bērziņa (Riga Stradiņš University), gave a most interesting presentation analysing the interplay between digitalisation and human rights while focusing on youth online safety. Finally, Ieva Raubiško, a lecturer at the University of Potsdam and a representative of “I want to help refugees,” provided insights into migration narratives and issues in terms of civil rights.
The presentations were followed by an engaging and informative question-and-answer session between the guest speakers and the ARENAS consortium, before breaking for lunch, where Partners continued lively discussions on the topics raised in the morning session.
