Euroblog

NO, mobility is not a luxury. That is what a hundred young people, youth workers, national agencies and institutional representatives have demonstrated during the last event under the Belgian Presidency Youth. This seminar aimed at exchanging good practices and reflecting on the positive role of different kinds of mobility projects for young people, and especially for young people in precarious situations or from difficult social and cultural backgrounds.

What do youngsters with fewer opportunities gain through mobility projects? What are the barriers to their mobility? How can we better support their participation in mobility programmes?

Mobility is a right for all young people, including those with fewer opportunities or living in disadvantaged situations. But mobility projects are often not very well suited to those youngsters. This seminar on youth mobility tried to bring change in this situation.

During this seminar, mobility was considered in all its diversity: from local to international mobility and from geographical to social and cultural mobility. Divided into five thematic workshops, young people and youth workers have drafted recommendations for different stakeholders on how to remove obstacles to mobility, on the role of youth workers in encouraging young people to “make the move” and on the relevance of building collective projects with young people based on peer-level education. They also stressed the need to reinforce practices helping to encourage personal development and active involvement in local community projects and the importance of facilitating access to international mobility programmes for youngsters with fewer opportunities.

On their side, institutional representatives have focused on the advantages of mobility experiences in terms of enhancing autonomy and employability of young people and on the importance of building bridges between public bodies in order to ease access to mobility for young people in difficulty.

As the Hungarian Presidency is knocking on the door, this last event of the Belgian EU Presidency Youth closes this period on a positive note, reflecting the success and dynamism of the past six months of active presidency in the field of youth.

Growing up in a metropolitan context is a challenge, not just for young people themselves, but also for their social network and living environment. For various groups of young people living in a metropolitan city offers them numerous opportunities and chances to develop. Unfortunately, too many young people in European metropolitan cities still seem unable to grasp these opportunities.

0n 27 November, the Belgian Presidency Youth, focused on these challenges during the event Urban Youth and Europe. In the first part the participants could have a closer look on a specific topic in one of the five workshops. The 180 young people and representatives of youth organisations from Brussels, as well as other cities, could choose between recognition of non-formal learning in youth work, participation of young people in urban public spaces, leadership training, Brussels youth organisations and the African community in Brussels.

One urban youth policy for Brussels

During the second part of the day a panel of politicians and experts, including Pascal Smet, Flemish Minister of Youth and Evelyne Huytebroeck, Minister of Youth from the French Community discussed the needs, wishes and aspirations of these young people. The first debate focused on the future policy for Brussels youth. They stressed the need for taking into account the needs of young people when designing future urban policies. Further there was a call for an urban youth policy for Brussels, with a strong cooperation between the different communities in Brussels.

Similar challenges in all European metropolitan cities

During the second debate the panel discussed Europe’s role in tackling and solving the urban issues and challenges young people are facing. The European Union can not only increase the research on these challenges but should further stimulate the dissemination of good practices in tackling them. Finally the EU can play a role in strengthening further the dialogue between these young people and policy makers on all levels.

European Youth Capital

The European Youth Forum stressed the importance of structural support with a minimum of bureaucracy for the organisations who are working on the ground with these young people. Via the initiative of European Youth Capitals, they also try to enforce the dissemination of good practices on how to involve young people in the policies of the cities. Antwerp will be the next European Youth Capital in 2011.

The 27 ministers responsible for Youth Affairs and the European Commissioner met on Friday 19 November during the formal EU Youth Council. At this meeting the Belgian EU Presidency had the ambition to turn its priorities into political reality. Minister Pascal Smet, President of the Council, exceptionally invited the European Youth Forum and the Belgian Youth Councils to deliver a speech based on the policy recommendations on youth employment from the EU Youth Conference in Leuven.

Request for concrete improvements in youth employment

During its speech the European Youth Forum stressed the relevance of the contributions gathered through the participatory process in the light of current institutional developments such as the “Youth On The Move” and the upcoming “New Skills for New Jobs” initiative. The Belgian Youth Councils highlighted especially the participation dimension and the recognition of competences gained through non-formal education. Both speeches called on the Ministers attending the Council meeting to use the recommendations when designing future policy on youth employment, and to work on them with other policy sectors in order to reach the best implementation possible. The Belgian Youth Councils invited the Ministers to get in touch with the youth representatives of their country to further discuss these recommendations with them. After this exceptional intervention of young people the Council followed the normal agenda.

Resolution on Youth Work

The 27 Member States adopted a resolution recognizing the crucial role of youth work and its role as provider of non-formal learning. The resolution encourages member states to support youth work and create better conditions and more opportunities for it at all levels. Next the text invited the Commission to carry out a study to map the diversity, coverage and impact of youth work in the EU. In this context, the Commissioner announced her intention to propose during 2011 a Council recommendation on the recognition of non-formal and informal learning outcomes.

Access of young people to culture

The Council further adopted conclusions inviting member states and the Commission to facilitate access of all young people to culture and develop coordinated long-term policies to this effect.

International policies on children, youth and children’s rights

Next the Presidency briefed the Council on the policy agendas of the EU, the Council of Europe en the United Nations on children, youth and children’s rights. It also adopted conclusions encouraging member states to take an active role in the ongoing intergovernmental activity in the field of children, youth and children’s rights. The conclusions also welcome the Commission’s intention to propose an EU strategy on the rights of the child.

Social inclusion of inner-city youth

Finally the Council held a public debate on the social inclusion of youth from deprived urban areas.  Ministers highlighted that urban youth was particularly hard hit by the economic crisis, with high levels of youth unemployment. To help them, measures must be taken to combat early school leaving and to facilitate the transition between education and the workplace. In addition, ministers reported positive results from projects offering leisure and sporting activities to urban youth. In this respect, EU funding programmes such as the lifelong learning and Youth in action programmes were cited as contributing positively to national initiatives.

The formal EU Youth Council of 19 November was preceded by an Informal Forum gathering Youth Ministers and  youth representatives from the Trio Presidency (Spain-Belgium-Hungary) and Poland, Commissioner Vassiliou and a representative of the European Youth Forum. Such an Informal Forum is part of the structured dialogue and is one of the moments where young participants discuss topics related to EU youth policy with politicians and officials of the EU institutions and member states.

Stijn Jacobs represented the three Belgian Youth Councils and Kris Snick, Presidency Project Officer for the Belgian EU Presidency, spoke in the name of the European Youth Forum. During an excellent lunch all participants debated together the way to obtain a strong outcome for the current Structured Dialogue process and realise concrete improvements regarding youth employment in the EU. Further they discussed the way to ensure its continuity within the next Trio Presidency in 2011.

More visibility and bigger outreach of the structured dialogue

In an relaxed atmosphere every participant made at his turn some short reflections on the structured dialogue and expressed his appreciation for the current process. On the other hand most of them pointed out a need for more publicity and visibility of this process in the future. Moreover we should even try to increase the participation and outreach of the structured dialogue. The role National Youth Councils can play in involving national and local youth organizations and young people was especially highlighted.

Further all actors stressed the need for involving a wider range of stakeholders in the implementation of the joint recommendations. Communication and cooperation with the fields of Employment and Education are essential in these. But there was also the request to the Hungarian EU Presidency to come up with a Council document, containing concrete policy measures on youth employment, as the end of this cycle.

This is only the start of a strong dialogue

Both the Hungarian Presidency and EU Commissioner for Youth Vassiliou welcomed these proposals. Vassiliou even added the concrete proposal to intensify informal debates between youth representatives, the European Youth Forum, the Trio Presidency and the Commission. This shows that we are only at the beginning of developing a strong dialogue between the EU and its young citizens.

On Tuesday 16 November Brussels Youth Centre Aximax was the scene for a debate on youth employment between enthusiastic young people, politicians and some important actors of civil society in Flanders.

The Youth Ambassadors, a project organised by the Flemish Youth Council in the framework of the structured dialogue, are debating and consulting young people on youth employment since the beginning of 2010. During this debate, organised by the Flemish Youth Council, they wanted to debate on the joint recommendations, resulting from the EU Youth conference in Leuven, with some youth (policy) actors. This Flemish debate was the last chance for input before the Hungarian EU Presidency will hopefully reach a final agreement on these joint recommendations in the spring of 2011.

Round tables

After a short introduction on the structured dialogue and the role of the youth ambassadors, there was an animated debate, consisting of four thematic round tables: information and guidance, participation of young people on the labour market and discrimination, transition education-labour maket and competences.

Important people, such as the Flemish Minister of Youth and current President of the Council Pascal Smet and some Members of Parliament listened to the European recommendations. Next they gave their feedback and suggested some concretisations or even improvements. Finally their remarks were supplemented or even contradicted by the present experts from civil society, such as people from the trade unions, the Flemish public employment service and employer organisations.

And now?

Unfortunately, time was short and after two hours of debating it was time for conclusions. As the youth ambassadors were very curious about the experiences of the special invitees, every invitee of politics or civil society gave a short personal reflection and review on the discussions. Most of them were very positive or at least constructive in their feedback on the recommendations. Some suggested even that they would implement some of the ideas and turn them into reality. So the debate proofed that even politicians and experts from civil society can learn a lot from the inventive ideas and contributions of young people!

Alexandra Gjurova is a youth ambassador of the Flemish Youth Council. She also was a Flemish Youth Representative during the EU Youth Conference in Leuven.

The EU Youth Conference in Leuven resulted in 40 joint recommendations to improve the situation of young people on the labour market. They were the result of a broad consultation in the EU Member States and discussion between 200 youth representatives and policy makers in Leuven. Because they hope that these European recommendations will be implemented, the Belgian youth representatives presented the recommendations on 11 November to 5 Members of European Parliament (MEP’s): Bart Staes, Dirk Sterckx, Frieda Brepoels, Ivo Belet Marc Tarabella and an assistant of Kathleen Van Brempt.

They stressed the important role the European Parliament can play in the realisation of some of the 40 recommendations, such as a quality framework for internships, the ‘youth guarantee’ which provides all unemployed young people with opportunities to be employed, to have an internship or to pursue further qualifications and a further recognition of skills and competences acquired outside formal education. The European Youth Forum enforced this plea by stressing the contribution of the European Parliament in approving sufficient budget for the next budgetary cycle of the EU. And of course they can also convince their colleague MEP’s.

The MEP’s praised the work of the youth representatives. Each of them recalled some challenges within their domain of working. But all stressed the importance of European mobility programs as Erasmus and Youth in Action for young people and youth organizations in the EU. We can certainly count on them to keep a large budget for these mobility programs.

For the 18th year running, the 17th October 2010 saw the global community stand together for the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Importantly, participation of the poor themselves has been at the center of the day’s celebration since its very beginning, in order to reflect the willingness of people living in poverty to use their expertise to contribute to the eradication of poverty. With 2010 being the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty saw a greatly in increased focus on the topic.

The European focus on poverty is the reason why the Belgian EU Presidency organises a lot of conferences linked to the theme of the eradication of poverty. Since youth participation of young also is key to combating poverty, the European Youth Forum and the three Belgian Youth Councils participated over the past weeks in a range of activities that address varying elements of poverty and social exclusion.

On 28 and 29 September a social inclusion and education conference highlighted that education and training is key to tackling poverty. Education is key to tackling poverty, but it should not be forgotten that, without better support mechanisms for the transition of young people from education to the labour market there are still real dangers of many young people being socially excluded.

On 14 October the Youth Forum organised a workshop in the European Parliament on Youth Health Inequalities. State Secretary Courard introduced the perspective of the Belgian Presidency on the matter.

On 18 and 19 October a representative of the European Youth Forum participated to the Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion. In this Round Table there was specific attention for the target approved in the “Europe 2020″ programme to reduce the number of poor people by 20 million by the year 2020.

On the same days both the Youth Forum and the three Belgian Youth Councils were present at the Participatory Forum ‘Building together a Europe for all, Circus against exclusion’. This was the place for meetings, information and exchange on initiatives about social integration developed throughout the EU.

Finally a representative of the Belgian Youth Councils participated in the colloquim “The contribution of culture to the fight against poverty and social exclusion”. Although culture is not located “in the front line” in the fight against poverty, it nonetheless contributes significantly to strengthening social inclusion.

Source: http://intranet.youthforum.org/newsletters/node/2482

On 10 September, the Belgian Anti-Poverty Network organised a round table on the subject of work and no work, which will focus on the problems in the major cities of Belgium: Liège, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Charleroi. This round table presented and discussed recommendations for the EU in relation to employment in major cities. These recommendations were produced by focus groups of people in poverty and concerned people.

During the round table about 40 experts, under which a representative of the Flemish Youth Council, reflected on the material of the focus groups and formulated in their recommendations a clear demand for quality work instead of creating a working force of poor people. Further they asked for decent wages and a better guidance to work of people in poverty.

Lieve Achten is project officer with the Flemish Youth Council

More and more attention is paid to the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and social software, for improving the social inclusion of Youth at Risk. E-Inclusion aims to achieve that “no one is left behind” in enjoying the benefits of ICT.

On 13 and 14 September 2010, INCLUSO organised in Leuven an international conference on this theme gathering international specialists in the field of social software use and improvement of social inclusion for disadvantaged youngsters. Delegates from decision making groups such as governments and the European Commission were present and discussed research and policy options for the future.

In the first place it is important to understand that the ‘rules of the real life’ don’t differ from the ‘online rules’. Forgetting this makes that policy makers are less proactive in finding solutions for exclusion in this ‘e-field’. And we must neither forget that young people have a lot to say about ICT, social media and gaming as this is for many of them an essential part of their living environment.

Therefore we need more relevant research on e-inclusion starting from the experience of users and non-users of ICT. Furthermore we don’t only need to support young people with fewer ICT skills but also their peers and people who can guide them in using ICT and social media.

Most importantly we have to develop new ICT-tools together with young people. ICT has the same characteristics of building a house. If we want the house to be inhabited as efficiently and effectively as possible, it is necessary that the future residents help building it. As ICT plays a growing importance in our societies, we must stress the need of inclusion of those excluded nowadays in the use of ICT.

Lieve Achten is project officer for the Flemish Youth Council

“Antwerp is a small, provincial city.” You would never expect to hear this words from the mouth of an inhabitant of Antwerp, and definitely not from the mayor of this proud city. But these were the words that Patrick Janssens, mayor of Antwerp, used to welcome the participants to the ‘Youth on the move’ conference on 5 and 6 October.

Those participants, representatives from the education, youth and employment sector from all over Europe, of course don’t know that Antwerp profiles itself in Belgium as ‘the city’ (and the rest is parking). Where they did know something about is international exchanges in (superior) education, on the work floor and in leisure time. But remarkably most of the participants were representing superior education institutions and universities.

The Minister of Education was the host and this was clear in the discussions. Erasmus is for most people still the most evident way of having a learning experience abroad. Young people who study in a foreign institution for a couple of months during their superior studies keeps the be the norm.

At the same time ‘Youth on the move’ is a strategy that wants to stimulate learning experiences of young people in other countries. Young people cannot only go abroad for a longer period in superior education but also on the work floor, in vocational education and in leisure time. I tried to focus my own contribution during this conference especially  from this broader perspective on mobility.

Another remarkable fact is that youth was the focus of discussion during this conference, but especially as a subject of conversation. There was very little space for including the opinions of young people in the debate. I missed especially the voice of the European student movements and European Youth Forum in the opening and closing session.

But, I have to admit, the conclusions of the conference mention that all sectors have to be involved in improving all kind of mobility experiences for young people. Especially informal learning must not be forgotten.

Pieter Lietaer is staff member international youth policy in the Flemish Youth Council