Should Russia evetually leave the CoE, in fact, this last one could be discontinued after 2020. The alternative would be a partial agreement on voluntary basis according to the will of the member states (with extra funding needed). The formal committee will meet on 23 May, after some informal consultations. In the meantime, the affected stakeholders did not stay quiet.

The reactions

The European Youth Forum, together with representatives from the major Political Party Youth Organisations active in Europe and beyond, released a public statement denouncing the cut:

The news is spreading across Europe and the Youth organisations are already clustering to prevent the cuts that are going to affect the Youth sector. The Youth department of the Council of Europe, that works closely to the European Commission in many co-operation projects, is as much pivotal as the European Union for the education of the new generations of Europeans. The fact that political matters, as the ones behind the decision from Russia and Turkey are, can affect the core of European values, is what is being contested.

The Youth department of the CoE

The international organisation of the Council of Europe was founded in 1949 by 47 countries. It aims at fostering human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Since 1972, the works within the Youth Department are managend in co-operation with the Advisory Council. This is made up of 30 representatives from youth NGOs and networks who provide opinions and input on all youth sector activities, together with setting the priorities and suggestions.

It also ensures that young people are involved in other activities of the Council of Europe. Here, representatives of the governements of the member states work closely with young people, who are then in the position of being able to influence important decisions on the functioning of the Youth Department. That is why it is so important to push for a better understanding of the issue: the more we know, the more we can make an impact.

L'articolo The youth department of Council of Europe is in danger due to financial cuts proviene da Youth Networks.

Around 120 young people coming from all over Europe will meet to discuss about political participation among youngsters. They will discuss the current trends in which youngsters are being involved in political life and analyze the tools to overcome the limit of democratic participation, in order to make it wider, more accessible and to make the people more aware of what happens around them.

The goal

The symposium aims at defining what politics mean to youngsters. The starting point is the nature of interaction between them and the political sphere: why some take an active part, and why some don’t? Why non-traditional ways of participation (not always positive, indeed) are being sometimes preferred? What can stakeholders and youth organisations do to make the young people feeling closer and more committed?

The event

The sessions will be designed in a participatory way. In the application form, participants will have the chance to indicate what issues or questions are most pressing for them in their work as it relates to the main theme of political participation. The answers will define the topics of the discussions. They may range from the level of engagement in political participation nowadays (characterised by economic tensions, crisis of democratic institutions, digitalisation, social media, fake news and other manipulations of the public opinion etc.) to the reasons that drive youngsters to commit to politics, from the european values to the role of civil society and citizen movements, and much more.

Further information, also about the requirements for the participants are provided at the following link. The deadline is 22 April 2019, 23.59 CET. People wishing to apply must fill the following application form. The result of the selection will be published on 15 May 2019.

L'articolo Call for participants: political commitment among young Europeans proviene da Youth Networks.

The call is open for non-governmental youth organisations, networks and other non-governmental structures involved in areas of youth work relevant to the Council of Europe’s youth policy. 

The activities will be held in co-operation with the European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest. They will be embedded in the study session for the first semester, starting on 1st October. 

Study sessions are international youth events lasting between 4 and 8 days which bring together members of youth organisations or networks and experts for discussions on a specific subject relevant to the priorities 2020-2021 of the Council of Europe Youth sector.

The deadline for applications (1^st semester 2020) is 1st April 2019.

L'articolo Call for co-operation study sessions between Council of Europe and youth organisations proviene da Youth Networks.

The budget will increase from approximately €89,6 billion to approximately €106,8 billion – around 19% more than the amount proposed by the Commission.

The proposal of the Employment Committee

At the beginning of last December the Employment Committee voted a proposal to increase the budget in order to strengthen the ESF+. It passed with 38 vote to 3 and the Parliament voted exactly the evisaged measures.

The main issue to tackle regards the young people currently not in employment, education or training (NEET). It was decided that at least 15% of the ESF+ shall go to the countries with a percentage of NEET above the european average or at least of 15% – the European Commission set the bar at 10% of the Fund. Moreover, at least 5% of the available budget shall go to the implementation of the European Child Guarantee (for which it has been also introduced a specific allocation of EUR 5.9 billion).

The management of the budget is partly shared between the European Commission and the member states. The Commission proposed that this should be 25% out of the total, while the Committee made it increase up to 27%. What is left to the Commission to manage (for EUR 1,1 mio, out of a total of EUR 106, 781) are the two strands of employment and social innovaton, on one side, and health, on the other.

For more details, check the Multiannual Finance Framework 2021-27.

L'articolo More investments for young people: MEPs voted for strengthening of EU Social Fund proviene da Youth Networks.

The project

“Youth for Europe” is a long-term project funded by the EU Commission in the framework of the call European Youth Together (KA3 Erasmus+). It will involve more than 200 young people coming from Italy, Spain, Romania, Hungary, Germany and the United Kingdom. During six international Youth Exchanges, the youngsters will be asked to develop proposals to modify the current EU policies on three main topics (media, environment, youth and education). Through meetings with experts and several thematic workshops, the young participants could decide how to create and promote their proposals, which will be then collected on the online platform youthforeurope.eu and voted by the users at European level.

The young people who will have created the most voted proposals will take part in the Large Scale Youth Exchange (May 2020) to present their ideas to EU policy makers and institutions. Each group shall try to get the support for their proposals by members of EU Parliament, having the opportunity to meet them in person during the last meeting in Bruxelles.

The main goal

“Youth for Europe” offers the young participants the chance to play a central role in the European decision-making process and to get a deeper knowledge of the EU policies through intercultural learning, non-formal education and peer-to-peer activities.

The main objective of the project is to stimulate a bottom-up process. It will promote a more inclusive European society and establish dialogue and cooperation among young people, policy makers and organisations by fostering debates on EU policies at local, national and European level.

The partners

Here the organisations involved in the project: Associazione di Promozione Sociale Joint and Kora from Italy, DGT from Romania, Vilagjaro from Hungary, Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. from Germany, Momentum World from the UK, Brujula Intercultural from Spain and, as advocacy expert, ECEPAA from Belgium.

Activities and events

• 25/11-02/12, Italy: kick off Meeting
• 6-14/02/19, Spain: seminar on Methodologies
• 11-21/03/19, Spain: 1^st  YE for EU Elections – topic: Media (application closing date: 11/01/2019)
• 9-19/04/19, Italy: 2^nd YE for EU Elections – topic: Youth and Education (application closing date: 8/02/2019)
• 9/05/19, all countries: local events on EU elections
• 10-17/06/19, Hungary: mid term evaluation
• 5-12/07/19, Romania: 1^st TC for Youth Leaders
• 7-17/09/19, Hungary: 1^st Topic related YE: Youth and Education
• 1-14/10/19, Romania: 2^nd Topic related YE: Environment
• 18-25/10/19, Germany: 2^nd TC for Youth Leaders
• 4-14/12/19, Spain: 3^rd Topic related YE : Environment
• 20-30/01/20, Italy: 4^th Topic related YE: Media and data protection
• 10-13/04/20, Italy: APV large scale YE
• 2-10/05/20, Italy: Large Scale YE
• 21-25/09/20, Belgium: final evaluation.

L'articolo Youth for Europe: the chance for youngsters to make an impact proviene da Youth Networks.