It appears that the European identity of young generations has evolved, in recent decades, in such a way that a contraposition can be detected: on the one hand, those who have had first-hand experience of the EU, for example thanks to the Erasmus programme; on the other hand those who have not had that opportunity and still see the EU as a distant, opaque, irrelevant institutional body. The project "Young European Citizens" was born against this background and responded to the aim of stimulating a sense of civic European belonging in young European citizens by raising awareness about the functioning of EU institutions and their tangible influence on everyday life. The YEC project was a pilot project funded by Fondazione CR Firenze in collaboration with EUI, Scuola di Giurisprudenza dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze, Ufficio Scolastico Regionale. The project involved 6 classes from two Florentine high schools, Istituto Superiore Leonardo Da Vinci and Istituto Alberghiero Aurelio Saffi. The project was developed over several phases: a first collaborative, co-designing phase among partners; a series of training sessions for teachers and educators; workshop sessions held at schools and at the HAEU; an exhibition realised by students to share the results of the project with their schools; a three-day summer workshop with a selection of students from the participating classes.
The overarching objective of the project was kindling the sense of common belonging to the EU in young generations and high school students in the framework of EU civic education. More specifically, the project aimed at disseminating knowledge about European institutions, their functioning, and EU policies that have an impact on young students’ education and access to the job market. The learning objectives of the project were organised along three axes: a horizontal one, dealing with general knowledge on the functioning of EU institutions; a vertical one, dealing with specific policy areas close to young student’s experiences and education; a transversal one, dedicated to broader competences and skills in research and communication activities.
The whole methodology of the project was inspired by active, participatory learning. It involved holistic training for teachers, aimed at the further dissemination of the contents of the project. Regarding activities with students, various learning methods were deployed: some traditional lectures, laboratories, role playing, project work, guided tours of the Archives with archivists, testimonies.
A series of teaching materials have been used in the course of the project. Namely: boxes containing various objects and information sheets to represent and explain each of the EU institutions; factsheets about the EU institutions; forms to fill out to catalogue objects chosen by participants to tell something about their family’s history in connection to EU history; educational files composed, according to specific topics (such as peace, European citizenship, women’s participation in the EU integration process, European education schemes, and the common agricultural policy), of sources stored at the HAEU.

The didactical materials were formed using sources stored in the following HAEU fonds: ETUC-52, NDG-131. ME-2563, PE2-13988, PE5-19781, CES-11853, NDG-468, PE2-17965, INT631, JD-72, AEDE-295, CIFE/IT-519, CIFE/IT-367, JD-1346, ACA-50-I.2, PE2-36640, CM2/1972-118, CEAB 2-25, JPG-24, SP-106, INT954-A.1, AS-293, NDG-481, NDG-332, NDG-489, YFEC-8, BABE-36, BEUC-883, NDG-377, BEUC-415, NDG-163, BEUC-449, GA-8, NDG-316-I.10, GR-35, NDG-484-l.10, NDG-201-l.1, NDG-236-l.1, NDG-46, CRNO-80, NDG-084-l.1, NDG-48-l.1, JP-312- I.12, CJUE-2871, CJUE-3423, NDG-138, NDG-131