Transition Times: The first time young people get the opportunity to vote is a rite of passage, writes Louise Holden

Everyone remembers their first vote. The first time you are asked to exercise your democratic entitlement is a rite of passage. For most of us it involved choosing a councillor or altering a detail of the Constitution. For many transition-year students there's a good chance it could be when they are asked to vote on one of the most momentous political developments in living memory: the establishment of a constitution for Europe.

The referendum on the EU constitution will be held within the next two years. That gives everyone plenty of time to read the document, but how many will? Will we be faced with another Nice Treaty, when many Irish voters initially rejected the proposal to allow the EU to accept new members because they didn't understand it?

Young people who vote for the first time in 2006 will live with this constitution for longer than most. For that reason it is more important for students than almost anyone else to understand the implications of the EU constitution.

The National Forum on Europe is holding a film-based competition for transition-year students to help this important group get to grips with the European Constitution. Every post-primary school in the country will this week receive details of the forum's 2005 competition.

Previous competitions - this is the third - featuring Hector Ó hEochagáin, have drawn healthy responses. Last year's essay-competition winner, Jean Acheson of the King's Hospital, in Palmerstown, encapsulated what Europe should mean to Irish teenagers. Caroline Erskine, the contest co-ordinator, is confident that this year's competiton will be equally engaging.

"For the 2005 competition the forum has produced a new film, this time about the constitution, which was finally agreed by EU leaders at their summit last June. The film's presenters, Danann Breathnach and Sinéad ní Loideáin, were there to see how the Irish presidency brokered the deal, against the odds, and to ask 'Why a constitution for Europe?' and 'What's in it?' They also bring a fresh, youthful perspective to the corridors of power in Brussels," she says.

The competition is divided into two sections: a newsletter and a public-speaking award. After watching the video, student teams will be asked to produce a transition-year newsletter with news reports, features, an editorial and a letters page, reflecting their views on the constitution. The quality of the written work will be carefully judged, but panellists are also on the lookout for creative artwork and design ideas. "Teams need not feel that they are required to take a particular line," says Erskine. "What the forum is interested in reading is the views of the students themselves."

The closing date for newsletter entries is January 14th. Schools shortlisted in this part of the competition will then be asked to enter a team for a public-speaking contest on the European constitution. Regional heats will be held at the end of February, with the four regional winning teams competing in the national finals, at Dublin Castle on March 31st.

The prize for the winners is a trip to Strasbourg, accompanied by their classmates and three teachers, to take part in Euroscola, a Europe-wide youth forum organised by the European Parliament. Schools must post entries to the National Forum on Europe, State Apartments, Government Buildings, Dublin 2, to arrive no later than Friday, January 14th, 2005.

• For more details about the Forum on Europe competition, visit www.forumoneurope.ie. For a copy of the EU constitution visit www.euabc.com/upload/rfConstitution_en.pdf

Dear Hector . . . An extract from last year's winning essay

Dear Hector,

25 countries, represented by 105 members, are working together to produce a "constitutional treaty" for Europe. That's 25 different countries with 25 different visions and plans for the future of Europe, working together.

I find it amazing that this fact only came to my attention through the Forum on Europe competition, which means that there must be hundreds of thousands of ordinary people out there with no clue about where the EU is going and Ireland's role in its future.

My age group is probably the most vulnerable to this ignorance, yet we will be the first ones to vote on this constitution. It will have a huge impact on us. A constitution, by definition, is the fundamental principles by which a state is governed. It offers protection. It offers justice.

This constitution will offer clarification for the EU's citizens of its role in their lives and will make the institution itself more manageable and better organised.

What is this union of European countries? It is a concept that draws together peoples who feel historically and geographically close and therefore want to create co-operative political structures within an uncertain world, who recognise that wealth and resources should be shared in order to be increased.

This may sound like idealistic nonsense, but perhaps it's worth mentioning that this union, unlike all previous continental or national unifications, has been achieved through peaceful and voluntary negotiations and has succeeded in raising the living standards and improving the economies of all involved.

Of course Ireland's cultural differences, our language and our political differences (such as neutrality) should never be overridden by any political system. But with the EU none of this is sacrificed at all. With the upcoming expanding membership, Ireland's dependence on the EU will be reduced. We will be forced to rely on our own resources to a great degree and stand on our own two feet. But in order to do this we should have a constant and balanced flow of ideas from our fellow union states.

In Ireland we can get very lazy - sometimes it seems that the only exercise we get is jumping to conclusions. But, thankfully, we are fast becoming a multicultural society. As we are an island we don't have the social diversity of a country like France, but this will change - and to a certain degree already has, with the increase in immigrants since the early 1990s.

Expansion of the EU and the free movement of its peoples mean that soon your local shop could be Estonian run, your neighbour Lithuanian. Right now the average Irish person - OK, me - couldn't tell you what the capital of Lithuania is, let alone where it is on the map.

We have a lot to learn. Our borders are expanding, and so must our minds. People may worry about racism, which I know has become more prevalent in Irish society over the past decade. Yet I believe that citizens of all EU countries, including Ireland, can recognise the qualities, positives and improvements that the Hungarians, the Maltese, the Slovenians, the Cypriots and so on can bring to the EU. Our differences breed creativity.

The Europe we are part of is an exciting, innovative, diverse and fascinating union, and it is set to continue in this fashion. Europe came into the last century divided and distrustful, and facing a conflict in the Balkans. But two world wars shocked everybody into action.

Now, for the first time, we have a voluntary union of co-operating states, and for this unique reason there is hope that the man-made disasters of the last and previous centuries can be avoided.

Well, Hector, I think it's time that I signed off. Let me leave you with something to think about. An ancient European philosopher once said: "Nothing endures but change." Let's hope that in Europe's case it will be a change for the better. - Is mise, le meas,

Jean Acheson,
The King's Hospital,
Palmerstown,
Dublin 20