The actiVests/You Rule

Ambassador: Ioanna Fotopoulou , Greece

In 2013 Ioanna was working as an intern at the European Parliament – at a time when her home country Greece was in political and economic turmoil. At that time it was estimated that tax evasion accounted for one fifth of the country’s debt. She formed The ActiVests, an action group with the vision to reform society and redefine democracy.

The first important fight was against corruption. They started to advocate for an online database of all income earnt by every Greek, whether a pensioner or the Prime Minister, and as an easier way for Greeks to declare and pay their taxes to enable the repayment of Greece’s debt and the future growth of the Greek economy and society. A series of round table talks, and social media campaigning educated over 5,000 people about the corruption in Greece and protests with over 3,000 people were organised. Other groups also campaigned and lobbied parliament. After a year, Greece introduced its first online tax database.

Eventually ActiVests evolved into YouRule which was sold as a company last year for an undisclosed amount. Ioanna is setting up a new organisation called Simplerocks to help young people become action-oriented.