By CREAS Board
Dear friends and members of CREAS,
As 2025 comes to an end, CREAS, as an organization, can look back on an exciting andeventful year. We are proud of what we have achieved and grateful to everyone who hascontributed their time, energy, and ideas to CREAS. Therefore, we would like to look back onsome of our highlights from 2025.
Our in-person events started in March with a productive Council Meeting in Vienna, wherewe not only adopted and discussed multiple policy proposals, but also gained valuableinsights into Austrian politics at the European, national, and student levels. Shortly thereafter, we represented CREAS at the EPP Congress in Valencia. These were inspiring days, filledwith engaging discussions, new connections, and a strong sense of shared purpose.
In June, we met again for our next Council Meeting in Brussels. This, however, was noordinary meeting, as we elected a new Chairman, Thomas Rasmussen, as well as two new Deputy Chairmen, Frederik von Maldeghem and Sami Matikainen. Over the past two years,our now former Chairman, Arvid Bertilsson, played a major role in building up CREAS andcarried out outstanding work for the organization. We would also like to thank Nico Göricke,who fulfilled his role as Deputy Chairman and Political Coordinator with exceptional passionand likewise played a key part in making the organization what it is today.
In Brussels, we were also pleased to welcome two new members to CREAS: the Polish youthorganization Nowa Generacja and the Latvian youth organization Vienotības Jaunatnesorganizācija. We are delighted to have these new and strong partners and are therefore able to strengthen our network across Europe. Furthermore, we elected two new Vice-Chairmen,Jakob Galka from Poland and Marius Andersen from Norway. In October, we gathered in Copenhagen for our very first CREAS conference, dedicated tothe free trade of ideas. Finally, we concluded the year with our last Council Meeting in November, held in Zagreb. This meeting again was full of interesting policy discussions andinsights into Croatian politics.But our year was not all about the meetings we had. We were also able to gather attention fortopics that truly matter for future generations. We took strong stances on Ukraine andGreenland, while also advocating for better student housing, defending academic freedom in Europe, a fair deal for the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework, and addressing manyother issues that matter to students. Furthermore, we also laid the groundwork for even more policy development in CREAS bycreating working groups for the most pressing issues at the European level, which willsupport our future work on topics like academic freedom or the future of Europe. We areexcited about this new opportunity and look forward to working together with all newlyappointed working group members in the new year.
During the year, the CREAS Board also took many opportunities to visit the national memberorganizations and to represent CREAS at events and conferences. In September, we visited the National Assembly of Nowa Generacja in Szczecin, Poland, and in October, the National Delegates Conference of RCDS in Berlin, Germany. In addition to that, the CREAS Board was also present at CDA’s assembly in Rotterdam, the Deutschlandtag of the Junge Union in Germany, and an IYDU meeting in Brussels.
We want to sincerely thank all our member organizations, their representatives, and our partners and friends who have supported CREAS throughout the year. Your commitment, engagement, and trust are what make our work possible. Every discussion, contribution, and shared idea has helped shape CREAS into a stronger and more relevant platform. We want to continue this path in 2026 by gathering more attention for our topics, continuing fruitful partnerships, and forming new ones along the way.
Sincerely,
Thomas Rasmussen, Chairman
Frederik Maldeghem, Deputy-Chairman
Sami Matikainen, Deputy-Chairman