Jason flies the flag at European Green Week

Learning from past successes and failures to ensure that current and future environmental challenges are addressed effectively was the goal of this year's Green Week, which ran in Brussels in June. Run by the European Commission, the annual conference and exhibition event is totally dedicated to the environment and welcomed a range of speakers from politics, science and business.

As part of the week a small delegation of Youth Eco-Parliament (YEP) participated in the environmental policy discussions and presented their ideas and recommendations for stopping the planet's environmental deterioration. Representing 3600 young people from 14 countries YEP's proposals for action were outlined in their ‘7 Open Letters’ which were distributed to the 4000 environmental opinion leaders and decision-makers participating in the Green Week.

Ireland was chosen as one of the delegations to take part and Repak chose Jason O’Connor who had previously represented Ireland at the Pro Europe Conference in Paris last October where YEP initially distributed their Open Letters to a public forum.

Jason was also chosen to front the YEP delegation in Brussels and to make a speech at the event’s closing ceremony. As part of his speech Jason highlighted that where they may not know everything about the environment today’s youth sector had the educational opportunities not open to many and therefore feel sufficiently qualified to form an opinion. Their opinion was that there was too much talk and not enough action with regards to environmental concerns. They therefore recommended that more co-operation and communication is needed and that young people can also play a proactive and vital role in ensuring the sustainability of the environment, not just for their generation but for those generations to come.

On his return, Jason called in to the Repak offices for a special presentation by Repak CEO Dr. Andrew Hetherington and Chairman, Mr. Adrian Goodrich. They presented Jason with the eco friendly Imax self sufficient radio which can run off solar and wind up energy.

Speaking of his time in Brussels, Jason thanked Repak for affording him the opportunity to attend and that he was now looking forward to pursuing a career in science after his leaving cert next year.