In April-May 2025, as part of the European Studies for Technical Specialities project at Lviv Polytechnic National University (EUSTS), a series of media literacy trainings ‘The Truth about the EU’ was held with the support of the EU Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Programme.
During the event, the participants learned about the main ways of spreading disinformation, how to counteract it, and analysed current examples of fake news that are spread to discredit the European Union and Ukraine's European integration progress in order to block its accession to the EU and weaken stability and security in Europe. The participants of the training shared their own experience in identifying fake information and discussed a number of issues, including why it is important to be media literate and why most people fall for manipulations.
The practical part of the training included teamwork to refute false information about the EU and Ukraine's European integration. The young people debunked the most common fakes, such as: 1. ‘EU candidacy for Ukraine is a formality that actually does nothing for the development of the state’; 2. "Why does Ukraine need the candidate status, they would have included it in the EU immediately. How much longer can we wait?‘; 3. ’Albania, Turkey and many other countries have been candidates for EU membership for 10-30 years. Ukraine will also have to wait that long". Participants analysed the myths offered to them, identified ways to refute them and identified sources and resources where they could find true information related to their case.
The event was attended by 108 participants - students of the Cyber Security and International Relations study programmes at Lviv Polytechnic National University.
