Month: January 2019

A new social media craze, the so-called #10yearchallenge, has taken the Internet by storm, with millions of people posting photos of themselves from 10 years ago to show the world how much they have changed.

The trend initially aimed to foster positivity about ageing and physical appearance. And while showing how much we have “glowed up” over the years is clearly fun, there are more fruitful ways to use the viral hashtag: politicians, EU institutions and charities quickly recognised that the #10yearchallenge is a great opportunity to raise awareness of global issues and convey meaningful messages to the public.

So, here it is, the real #10yearchallenge – straight from Brussels!

What happened in Brussels?

The next European elections will take place in May 2019. Ten years ago, the European Parliament was also preparing for the same elections. A lot has changed since then: over the past 10 years, they have been working on their social presence by growing a supportive and engaging community of more than 2.5 million people on their Facebook page.

Therefore, the institution decided to use the popular challenge to promote their #thistimeimvoting information campaign to raise awareness of the importance of voting.

The European Commission, on the other hand, used the hashtag to look back at important achievements over the past decade. Amongst other things, they highlighted the fact that roaming charges for all EU travellers ended in 2017.

Climate change in focus

A large number of celebrities, charities and institutions stepped up to the challenge to show how much the Earth has changed over the past 10 years.

“Do you know what the real 10-year-challenge is? It is climate change” – tweeted SDG Academy, a UN initiative. They also added that we have just over 10 years to act on the climate before we cause irreparable damage to our planet, encouraging Twitter users to take their free course on #ClimateAction.

The striking images of dying forests, starving animals and shrinking glaciers speak for themselves. Greenpeace used the publicity surrounding the challenge to promote clean energy over fossil fuels, while WWF raised awareness of the fact that the plastic we throw away now will remain almost exactly the same for the next 10 years.

The #10yearchallenge for humanity

There is no doubt that we have come a long way in the past few years. Despite tragic events and the political turmoil of the past decade, it seems that the world is slowly getting better and better.

In fact, the #10yearchallenge post of the Swedish author of several books about economics and globalisation, Johan Norberg, shows that extreme poverty, child mortality and youth literacy dropped significantly, while life expectancy has increased since 2008.

But as we all know, the fight for humanity should never cease. And as Amnesty International’s powerful #10yearchallenge message about the decriminalisation of abortion demonstrates, there is still a long way to go.

We are delighted to see that so many people and organisations found a creative way to convey important messages by using the #10yearchallenge hashtag. Don’t forget, looking back at important achievements is just as important as tackling global challenges – that is why the #10yearchallenge is so popular.

Written by Dóra Rapcsák

The New Year began with important news: 1 January 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of perhaps one of the most monumental decisions the EU has ever made – the adoption of the euro.

Although the euro is a relatively new currency, it has become the second most traded currency, behind only the US dollar.

On its 20th birthday, we collected some interesting facts about the euro. Read on and find out what you didn’t know about Europe’s single currency!

Interesting facts about the euro

The Economic and Monetary Union – also known as the eurozone – came into effect on 1 January 1999 with 11 countries who decided to stop using their national currency in favour of a single currency, the euro. For ordinary citizens, however, little changed until euro banknotes and coins were introduced in 2002.

As of 2019, the euro is the currency of 340 million Europeans in 19 Member States. It is also used by four non-EU countries, including Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City.

The symbol of the euro is €, based on the Greek epsilon (ε) character, representing “E” for Europe. The two parallel lines across the centre symbolise stability.

There are seven different banknotes, each one with a different colour, size and face value, while coins are of eight different amounts. The euro notes represent both the EU and the countries: each banknote and coin has a standard EU design on one side and a country-specific design on the other side.

The symbol of the European family

Those who live at the heart of Europe quickly embraced the idea of a single currency. Austria, for example, is only 250 km from Slovenia. Exchanging currencies is expensive, and you can lose even more by changing back what is left at the end of the trip. Thanks to the euro, however, for the last 20 years citizens can travel in the eurozone without having to exchange their currencies.

The euro has also made it easier for Europeans to compare prices across borders, encouraging tourism and international trade among Member States.

Altogether 20 currencies were replaced by the euro, including the German mark, the French franc, the Italian lira and the Austrian schilling. And although adapting to a new currency always raises challenges, the euro is widely recognised as an important element of European integration, and there is little support for abandoning it.

By and large, the adoption of the euro is a success story. Despite its imperfections, it has survived and helped to bring European people and countries closer together. What will the future bring for Europe’s single currency? Only time will tell…

Written by Dóra Rapcsák

Electric vehicles (EV) have been around since the mid-19^th century and, at one point, they seemed to be the future of transportation. However, with the advent of mass production, the affordable price of petroleum, and the technical limitations of the electric motor, internal combustion engines (ICE) gained many advantages over EVs, and they became the standard for car manufacturing, reducing EVs to public transportation (trams, trains etc.), and experimental vehicles. In recent decades, prompted by an environmentally-friendly attitude and a series of oil crises, vehicle manufacturers have been aiming for a more sustainable form of transportation. In this article, we will look at the challenges EV manufacturers have to face in order to become a common sight on our roads.

Unsurprisingly, the most obvious hindrances are cost-related. On the one hand, producing an electric motor is indeed an international venture as the materials needed for the lithium battery are delivered from all over the world. While nickel and aluminium are easily available, the price of lithium is going up due to demand, while cobalt is supplied from the politically-unstable Democratic Republic of Congo, and the majority of the production is used for personal electronic devices, which means that it is not sufficient to satisfy the needs of the EV industry. In addition to that, while in many cases ICEs can be repaired or fixed using DIY methods or at any workshop, EVs are way more complex machines, thus in many cases repairing can be quite an expensive and complicated ordeal; and, on a similar note, the issue of battery recycling is still to be solved.

In the long run, however, electricity is a cheaper fuel and with the adoption of time-of-use pricing by utilities, the recharging costs can also be controlled. Furthermore, new formulae and synthetic materials are being tested and used for the sustainable production of batteries. Finally, the price of EVs has been nosediving since the last decade, while vehicles have become able to travel further on just one charge.

Nevertheless, electricity is still a problematic point. First and foremost, it should be noted that a significant proportion of electricity production is not eco-friendly at all and, as such, it undermines the ecological objectives of EVs. Furthermore, the grid system in its present state will not be able to sustain the capacity required for charging EVs. This is not the only infrastructure obstacle at the moment: the lack of charging stations also hinders the prevalence of EVs.

Still, it should be noted that the transformation to EVs is and continues to be gradual, therefore there will be enough time for utilities to adapt to changing energy consumption habits, which will provide them with new income possibilities. At the same time, EV manufacturers are also experimenting with more effective energy consumption solutions, converting the vehicles from a mode of transportation to mobile energy storage.

Electric vehicles are in constant transformation and car manufacturers are coming up with new solutions to make EVs more and more sustainable and available, with experts expecting that the adoption of EVs will go past the tipping point sometime in the 2020s.

Written by Zsolt Beke

It is a common perception that breaking habits is difficult. In January, this problem is even more accentuated when people are making resolutions in order to change their lives. While most common promises aim to enhance the quality of life (to improve health/self-care/social relations), most of them do not last until the end of January. In this article, we will list a few tips on how to make a better commitment to your resolutions.

From a psychological point of view, habits are automatic behaviours triggered by the environment, therefore a new habit needs a new environmental trigger. The difficulty here is that it needs to be continuously repeated so that the new behaviour should become automatic, otherwise, the change will wear thin soon. Repetition can be achieved by writing a journal about your resolution, or just leaving a memo somewhere visible; but an accountability partner or a group can also help with reaching the set target – this way you do not just keep each other in line but can share your experiences as well.

One of the most important elements of staying committed to your resolution is if you aim for small changes. When setting a goal, you should not aim high but still be as specific as you can, since the clearer the objective, the easier it is to commit yourself to it. Small changes can be cost-effective as well, for example, you do not have to get a gym subscription to exercise more, you can find a lot of useful videos and guides online to keep your workout varied and still productive. If you decide to develop yourself in smaller steps, it is also easier to adjust your intentions in case you face some difficulties.

Self-motivation is just as important. Resolutions require less effort if they are inspired by a proper reason and not just some general sentiment; also, a resolution with emotional attachment provides some “added value” to your commitment. You should, however, keep in mind that there will always be tough moments or situations; you can easily overcome these if you prepare yourself for such instances. It is also worth mentioning that an occasional relapse is a normal part of habit formation, so do not be hard on yourself if there are days when you simply give in to your old self.

Still, resolutions are long-term commitments, and their objectives are reached gradually, step by step. Therefore – and it is crucial – do not regard it as a failure if you fail one or two steps or even your whole resolution falls through; consider it as part of the learning curve and, if possible, re-evaluate and adjust your goals. All in all, the main reason behind your resolutions is to enhance your life, and while they do indeed require patience and perseverance they should, in the first place, make yourself feel better about yourself, and once this is achieved, you will be unstoppable.

Written by Zsolt Beke