Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy held in the European Economic and Social Committee on 20th February 2001
Pre-Edition produced for the Seminar on Conditions for Young People in Europe Umeå (Sweden), 16-17 March 2001 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy
This report is published with the support of the members of the European Youth Forum and the Commission of the European Communities.
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Foreword
This report presents the proceedings of the Hearing of Civil Society Organisations organised by the Economic and Social Committee and the European Commission in co-operation with the European Youth Forum, in light of the European Commission White Paper on Youth Policy.
The Hearing was held in the premises of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels on the 20th of February 2001 and was attended by over 200 representatives from a wide range of organisations from throughout Europe. The European Youth Forum has been entrusted with the task of acting as General Rapporteur for the Hearing in order to make the results accessible to the consultation process for the White Paper on Youth Policy and to the interested public.
The speakers and participants at the Hearing were crucial to the success of the event. Many of the participants from civil society organisation submitted contributions to the European Youth Forum on the proposed White Paper before the Hearing. These contributions were compiled into a single volume which was presented to all those attending the Hearing and is now available on the web site of the European Youth Forum.
At the Hearing itself, the speakers and participants gave valuable comments and recommendations on youth policy, demonstrating their expertise in the area, and providing rich inspiration for the European Commission's proposed White Paper on Youth Policy. This report presents these comments and recommendations in written form, and will provide a valuable resource, I believe, in the final development of the White Paper.
A great debt of thanks is due to those who were involved in organising the Hearing, notably Stefania Barbesta and Pilar de la Riva Fernandez from the Secretariat of the Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship Section of the European Economic and Social Committee; Bénédicte Caremier, Rosanna Restivo and Sylvie Vlandas from the Youth Policy and Programme Unit of the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission; Fidelma Joyce and Anne Debrabandere from the European Youth Forum Secretariat. I am particularly grateful to Anne Debrabandere, Anne Deneyer and Katy Orr in the European Youth Forum Secretariat who made it possible to produce this report within two weeks of the Hearing itself.
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Tobias FLESSENKEMPER Secretary General of the European Youth Forum Brussels, 8th of March 2001
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Table of Contents
Opening and Introduction to the Hearing ...... 7
Mr Göke Frerichs, President of the Economic and Social Committee ...... 7 Mr Henrik Söderman, President of the European Youth Forum ... 9 Mr Joao Vale de Almeida, Director of the Directorate General for Education and Culture, European Commisison ...... 10
White Paper: Youth Policy - Own Initiative Opinion of the ESC...... 13
Ms Jillian Hassett, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee, Rapporteur on the White Paper...... 13
Employment and Social Integration ...... 18 Including young people’s well being and personal independence18
Initial Statements...... 18 Ms Sinead Tiernan, ETUC Youth ...... 18 Mr Torres Couto - YES - The European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs...... 21 Mr Thomas Croft - ATD Quart Monde - Fourth World Youth Movement ...... 26 Open debate ...... 30
Education and Mobility...... 40
Initial statements...... 40 Mr Arnold Puech d'Allissac- European Council of young Farmers (CEJA) ...... 40 Ms Ana Mohedano, Organising Bureau of Europen School Student Unions (OBESSU) ...... 41 Ms Heather Roy - World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) ...... 44
Open debate ...... 48
Participation and Civil Society...... 62
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Initial Statements...... 62 Ms Denise Fuchs, European Women’s Lobby (EWL) ...... 62 Ms Ana Santacana-Guëll, International Movement of Catholic Rural and Agricultural Youth (MIJARC)...... 64 Mr Renaldas Vaisbrodas, National Youth Council of Lituania (LiJOT)...... 65
Open debate ...... 66
Conclusions ...... 80
Satement of Ms Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture ...... 88
List of participants...... 95
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Opening and Introduction to the Hearing
Mr Göke Frerichs, President of the European Economic and Social Committee
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, young friends, chairman, Mr Vale de Almeida, colleagues from the Economic and Social Committee, representatives of the Commission, observers from the European Parliament, and we also have a few representative observers from European embassies.
I would like to welcome all of you very warmly with great pleasure. You are here from all fifteen Member States of the European Union. You are here in Brussels participating in this great Youth Hearing today. For us, indeed for me personally, it is a great honour and a great joy. The representatives of our European youth organisations are being welcomed here today at the heart of the capital of Europe. As you know, we have invited you to the Hearing on Youth Policy. This hearing has been organised by the European Commission and the Economic and Social Committee, in co- operation with the European Youth Forum. The representatives of organised civil society which co-operate in our committee, the federation groups and networks active in the area of youth, education and social work will all be given the opportunity today of expressing their opinions, their proposals and their hopes with respect to the White Paper on Youth Policy that the Commission is currently preparing. As you know, today's meeting is part of a series of consultations being carried out by the Commission and today the main idea is to consult organised civil society as represented by the Economic and Social Committee at the European level.
So, what is the Economic and Social Committee exactly? What is its role within the European Institutions? Our Committee, as you know, was founded by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 as an advisory body. It is a body which represents various groups of economic and social life and allows them to represent people and to be involved in decision-making at the European level. The Treaty was signed in the summer of 1957 and the European Community as you know was created on the January 1st 1958 and it was made up of six countries at that time. The Committee, which is a sort of Parliament, is made up of 222 members representing various interests. For example, the social partners, that is workers and employers and organisations, the trade unions, farmers are represented, small businessmen, salesmen, craftsmen, representatives of guilds and co-operatives, the professions, environmentalists, consumers - we're all consumers -, women's
7 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy organisations, organisations representing the family, and of course all organisations active in social work and charity work, organisations providing assistance. It is a very big organisation. It is a very diverse mix of European society and its organisations. The role of the Economic and Social Committee is as a sounding board for European society.
And it is now being recognised once again in the Treaty of Nice, which was adopted last December and which now has to be ratified. With a view to the enlargement of the EU, this committee has been increased from 222 to 350 members in the same way that the Committee of the Regions has. In the new article, 257, it says, that the Committee is comprised of representatives of the different economic and social areas of organised civil society.
Given its tasks and its composition, it is evident that our committee deals with youth issues too and youth are not just an important component of our society, youth are the future of our European society. Youth are the reflection of the destiny of our society, our political order and - not to be forgotten - our European culture. Various opinions that our committee has dealt concern the problems of young people. Opinions are used for the Committee to express its views, for example, the committee has tackled ways to fight against youth unemployment, problems of gender education and vocational training. It has also discussed the programmes which particularly involve young people and it is equally self-evident that our committee should be involved in the current work that the Commission is involved in on the White Paper on Youth Policy.
Our European committee has decided to use its right of initiative because alongside the duty to listen to the opinions of the committee, the committee can also take the initiative and adopt an opinion on issues that they feel have a particular importance. The opinion of this committee on the Youth Policy White Paper will be presented to you by the Rapporteur, Ms Jillian Hassett.
I would like to add a personal note. At the moment, in the European Union, we find ourselves in a situation which is going to be of great significance for the future. We are now only ten months away from the introduction of the European common currency in twelve Member States. It is a currency which will be new blood in the body of Europe and which will strengthen Europe's body and help us to face the future. A second main issue that we are facing is the big question of the enlargement of the European Union towards the area of Eastern and Central Europe and this is an issue which will change the significance of Europe, the face of Europe, Europe's economy, Europe's social life. It will affect all these areas
8 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy very greatly. It will change all these areas. And finally, Europe is working on a new reform on how Europe will look in the future. You will have noticed the work on what the form of Europe will be in the future, will it be just a loose grouping of countries or will it be a true federation? How the various cultures and people will behave within this grouping is a big question. How should they behave? I think it is up to you, ladies and gentlemen, young friends to realise what your responsibility is, your values, your cultural forms, your languages. Some countries have more than one language, it is up to you to protect and care for all these things. European values which are based on Christianity, Christian values must be preserved. You will be one day fathers and mothers, just like I am. I started my work in the European Movement fifty years ago, just after the war and I'll continue to do so. Take this duty seriously and go home with confidence that we can continue to build Europe in freedom and in peace. In a climate of economic strength, of solidarity with a social spirit and on the basis of your cultural values so that we can preserve it for the future, for our children and for your children and for the future which will be worth living in Europe.
Mr Henrik Söderman, President of the European Youth Forum
As a President of a civil society organisation myself, I am very delighted to be here today at a Hearing devoted to Civil Society organisations which either work with young people or on youth issues. First of all, I think we all have a debt of gratitude to the European Economic and Social Committee for hosting this Hearing and in that way again showing the commitment that you have to allow youth organisations and young people to express their opinions on a European level. An increased commitment to involving civil society in decision-making has been made at the highest level in the European Union. By inviting you here, the organisers have given civil society and their organisations the opportunity to be heard. We hope that what is heard today will be taken into account when the Commission develops the European Youth Policy.
This Hearing is an opportunity for all of us to get involved or continue the discussion on youth policy in the form of the European Commission's proposed White Paper. The consultation that has already been carried out so far by the European Commission is also a signal that the European Commission is committed to listening to young people and their organisations, but also to youth researchers and those involved in implementing youth policies today. The Hearing today, and in addition the compilation of the contributions that the European Youth Forum has committed itself to do will add, in my opinion, one of the most
9 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy important elements in the development of the White Paper. Your presence is particularly important because of your expertise and because of your experience. You work daily with young people or on issues that effect young people. I believe that this knowledge and this experience will provide a very, very valuable contribution to the debate.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Civil Society organisations represented at this Hearing come from all over Europe, not only form the Europe of the fifteen but for the 'large' Europe which represents the vision that the youth organisations have of Europe. You work at the local, the regional, the national, the European and the international level, on diverse issues and in different ways, but we are united by the common goal of wanting to improve the situation and living conditions of young people. The Civil Society organisations such as ours, we also encourage people to participate actively in society in which they live. For the Youth Forum of course it's a great pleasure that youth organisations are so well represented here today. Youth organisations play a crucial role in encouraging active participation of people in society from an early age and in this way contributing to successful youth policies in Europe.
With this Hearing now, we are coming closer to the end of the consultation process which the European Commission has initiated. Many young people, many youth organisations have been mobilised and have been contacted to give their contribution on what the content of the White Paper should be. I think I am not alone in saying that the results of all these consultations are now eagerly anticipated and we are all looking forward with great interest to seeing the White Paper in the second half of this year, and then more importantly to see the subsequent implementation of the White Paper and a European Youth Policy.
The European Youth Forum has been proud to have been involved in the preparation of this Hearing together with the Economic and Social Committee and the European Commission. As a result of this co-operation you now have the opportunity to speak on a range of issues that should be included in the youth policy and that are important to the young people. So please, use this opportunity today, express your opinions and let us make full use of this event today. Thank you.
Mr Joao Vale de Almeida, Director Youth and Citizenship, Directorate General Education and Culture of the European Commisison
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This is a hearing and the point of a hearing is to listen to people, not for you to listen to us. I am responsible, under the authority of Ms Reding, for the production of the White Paper, so I think I owe you some words of explanation and some words of thanks and indeed encouragement and perhaps I need to appeal to everyone's sense of responsibility. First of all thanks. I would like to thank the President of the Economic and Social Committee, for coming here and I would like to thank his institution.
When we decided to extend the White Paper consultation to sections of civil society, we obviously thought of the Economic and Social Committee because this is of course your home, and this is the place where European civil society is represented. I would like to thank the social section, the President, the Secretariat for everything that you have contributed to in organising this hearing. I would like to thank the European Youth Forum. When we thought of organising the Hearing, obviously we came up with the European Youth Forum right away because that is the umbrella organisation of European youth organisations. It is an inevitable partner in dialogue so I would like to thank the European Youth Forum too. Thank you to the European Parliament also represented here today. We know how committed this institution is to youth issues and we are counting very much on the European Parliament for its assistance. I would also like to thank the various presidencies, the Portuguese, the French and the Swedish presidency, as well as the Belgian presidency, which is the next one. I am sure that we can count on them to complete the exercise on the White Paper.
And I would like to thank you, your organisations and your representatives. Ms Reding will perhaps tell you a little bit more this afternoon about what she expects from you. I would like to welcome the eighteen young people who were appointed to monitor this process after the youth meeting in Paris. The White Paper has set a process in motion in Brussels, in the institutions, the groups and representative organisations but it is also present in the Member States (we are currently going round the various capitals and there has been a new dynamism created), civil society, young people and their organisations. It also concerns the scientific and research world. This process is essential to the success of the White Paper, it is essential to its quality, and its content. It is also essential - and this has already been said today - to the implementation of the recommendations contained in the White Paper. In both phases your role is essential and we're counting on you. And I can see here today, but also as we're going round the capital we are seeing a great level of commitment on the ground. Just a final word a call to our sense of responsibility, not just you, not just the institutions, but all of us. I think the White
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Paper exercise is not, as I often said, an academic exercise, it is a political exercise and like any political exercise it needs to be carried out with commitment, determination but also a sense of responsibility. We are in a field that you know probably better than me but there's one which at the Community level is not very well developed. We all have competencies which were attributed to us by the Treaty. The strengthening of co-operation between Member States is an area where there is still a lot to be done. But we need to do it with determination and a sense of responsibility. I think that this responsibility is that of all of us involved in this process, you, and us. I'd like to share this with you so that we make sure that we concentrate on the essential aspects, on those which can actually achieve something in the area of youth policy.
My colleagues and I are going to follow the debate with a lot of interest and collect as much information as possible. Through the consultation process we have already got dozens and dozens of pages of contributions so this is already increasing the weight on my shoulders and the shoulders of the Commission and I hope that we are going to be up to the task and up to your ambitions. I wish you all the best for the day's work and thank you once again.
Mr Göke Frerichs, President of the European Economic and Social Committee
Thank you for those words which have been very interesting for us, and thank you for your words of gratitude for our White Paper. I have to say that you've awakened a lot of interest among us. We all want a White Paper in the end which will reflect reality as well as the hopes and expectations and aspirations that we all have. And we hope that these will be implemented and actually come to something. This is a great mission to which you have been very committed, not only with your mind but with your heart and I would like to thank you very warmly for this on behalf of all of those present. I would also like to welcome the representatives of the Council. Under the Swedish presidency, the Council will continue to play a very important role for all of us.
On the agenda, you will now find that we have the point about the White Paper on Youth Policy and I'm very happy to introduce now my colleague Ms Jillian Hassett, member of the Economic and Social Committee.
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White Paper: Youth Policy - Own Initiative Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee
Ms Jillian Hassett, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee, Rapporteur on the White Paper
Good Morning,
It is with great honour and pleasure that I present the work of the European Economic and Social Committee in the area of the White Paper: Youth Policy. As I am sure you know, in November 1999 Commissioner Reding proposed that the European Commission develop a White Paper on Youth Policy. We in the Committee observed the process that was subsequently launched which involved a consultation process including young people themselves, youth organisations, Member State governments, experts and other players involved with young people. Last July we decided that we should ensure that the organisations that we represent the Employers, the Workers, and the wide diversity of Various Interests, are involved in this process.
As a first step we decided to put our thoughts on paper in an own initiative Opinion, thereby clearly communicating and stating our initial thoughts and proposals. We are very proud to be the first European Institution to clearly outline its views. Many of you may know me from my involvement in youth work, both at a national and European level. So you may feel it quite natural that I was the rapporteur for this Opinion. However I must take this opportunity to compliment my colleagues who have a wealth of knowledge in this area. To develop an Opinion of the ESC involves going through numerous levels of debate, discussion, consultation and then we have to vote on it. At all stages I was greatly impressed by the commitment of the members of the Committee.
As a fundamental principle, the Committee believes that young people and youth organisations should be involved in the formulation of and decision making on youth policy at local, regional, national and Community level. Parallel to this, we feel that for a youth policy in the European Union to be effective a link needs to be established between youth policy as such and sectoral policies of the European Union, and by this I don't just mean mainstreaming youth aspects into employment, social integration and other policies.
The Committee's opinion addresses three fundamental aspects of youth policy:
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• Youth Employment and Social Integration • Education and Mobility • Participation and Civil Society
In our discussions we also highlighted the particular situation of young people living in the rural and peripheral areas.
Youth Employment and Social Integration. Over the last two decades we have seen a decline in youth unemployment, however like any statistics this doesn't always reflect the reality, the unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds is double that of those aged 25-65, and this hides the very significant variations between countries and between young men and women.
Under the employment guidelines the Member States are to ensure that by 2002 that all young people are offered a new start in the form of "training, retraining, work practice, a job or other employability measures with a view to effect integration in the labour market"
The Committee recommends that in any strategy greater support and emphasis must be given to those groups who suffer discrimination in the employment market. We also highlighted the need to initiate measures to tackle the status zero. The Committee's stresses the importance not only of youth employment but also of social integration, while the unemployment problem is not the only reason for exclusion it continues to be the key element in combating exclusion. Inertia and a lack of concern with regard to socially excluded young people should no longer be tolerated. Indeed, all those concerned should assume responsibility and take measures to resolve the problem.
Education and mobility was the second aspect highlighted in our Opinion. Education represents an increasingly important part of the lives of young people as they now spend longer in education. The Committee believes that lifelong learning measures must be expanded to ensure that they are available from a young age, that there are improved opportunities, and that the value of non- formal education is recognised as an important aspect of lifelong learning. These should include measures to promote learning for active European citizenship.
The Committee believes that governments, the business community and the third sector should together develop methods of official recognition of the value of non-formal education, and the importance it can play in individual development. The
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Committee believes that Member States should commit to fighting discrimination in education and reducing school dropout rates.
Similarly, the mobility of young people helps them to understand different cultures and the added value this brings is of growing importance in the labour market. Support should be given to all measures to increase mobility among young people by developing opportunities for mobility in secondary school, university, as a trainee, as a volunteer and in employment. One measure, which could remove obstacles, is to improve the mutual recognition of qualifications.
Regarding Participation and Civil Society. The Committee reaffirms the basic principle of youth participation in the drafting, implementation and evaluation of youth policy, which applies just as much to young people in the applicant countries. The European institutions and national governments must actively facilitate youth information policies to provide young people with as accurate information as possible on the issues affecting them as well as the possibilities for participation.
National and European youth organisations should be consulted on policies and programmes affecting young people, including for example, the YOUTH Community Action Programme and the European Social Fund.
We believe that representative structures of young people and youth organisations are a key constituent of youth policy and a unique instrument for fostering youth participation at all levels, and should receive support and recognition as an integral and vital part of civil society.
The Committee believes that Member States and the Community should firmly commit to supporting equal opportunities and combating the multiple discrimination experienced by many young people in accordance with Article 13 of the Treaty, and to promoting tolerance.
On a further note, the ESC is particularly concerned about the problems faced by young people in rural areas, who should be able to benefit from investment and strategies to promote sustainable economic activity in these areas.
Additionally the Committee feels that although young people from the candidate and pre-accession countries are increasingly integrated in Community action in the field of youth and education, they are not participating on equal footing. For the development of youth policy in the European Union it is important
15 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy to take the experiences from those countries into account. Over the last few years we have seen an increase in co-operation with regions bordering the European Union and beyond, however the youth dimension in the regional co-operation initiatives of the Union is rather weak. We need to further develop this co- operation.
To end, I would like to say that we are not finished our work yet on this topic but we feel that when you have something written down it is a firmer ground to base your work. We look forward to continuing our involvement in this process and responding to the White Paper when it has been produced. Can I encourage the organisations here today to take the opportunity to build up their contacts with my colleagues in the ESC, who I know are always ready to facilitate and provide a conduit for civil society organisations?
Finally I would like to thank our partners in this tripartite co- operation in the preparation, running and follow up of this Hearing. The ESC worked hand in hand with the European Youth Forum and the European Commission, which underlines the importance of co-operation and involvement at all levels.
Let our work begin. Thank you.
Mr Göke Frerichs, President of the Economic and Social Committee
Thank you very much Ms Hassett for your report, for talking to us about your work on the White Paper on Youth Policy . I am particularly grateful to you for your work as a Rapporteur, you were instrumental in making the study group a very worthwhile place to be and you took it forward into the section. We virtually unanimously approved your report with one abstention. On the 29 and 30 of November we took this to the 377th plenary of this institution; the Economic and Social Committee, 113 votes were in favour, one abstention only. It does not happen very often that you get such an overwhelming majority. So for this it is quite sensational Ms Hassett. It shows what excellent work Ms Hassett did, but other people as well. Ladies and gentlemen this also shows that this institution is wedded to the issues of youth and the future of Europe. We are very interested in incorporating youth work into the whole structure of the European Union. Now, I would like to move on and offer the floor to my esteemed colleague, Irini Pari, who is a member of the Economic and Social Committee as
16 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy well. She will be addressing the theme from the point of view of employment and social integration, including the well-being and personal independence of young people. She will be talking to us about this aspect of youth policy. Ms Pari might I offer you the floor now?
Ladies and gentlemen, you see that we are working on issues which affect you very closely. I am just going to say something about the languages today. You can speak and listen in French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Greek, Danish, Finnish and Swedish - all the official languages of the European Union. You can speak them and you can listen to them through the headphones if you want to. Although we have got eleven languages there, eleven official working languages, think of the enlargement ladies and gentlemen, we have got eleven now and we are going to have many more.
I've got 5 sons and 5 grand children and I know what issues affect young people today. I have got hands-on experiences to speak of from people in Kindergarten and others who are at university. I look forward to hearing about all these issues which are close to your heart and mine. Ms Pari the floor is yours.
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Employment and Social Integration Including young people’s well-being and personal independence
Chair: Ms Irini Pari, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee
Thank you chairman. I would also like to thank all of you for coming along here. I would like to welcome you to this forum talking about a subject as important as youth. I shall be dealing with youth employment and social integration. As the previous speakers have already said, it's not so much up to us to speak, it's up to you to speak. We are here to listen to you and we want to listen to your proposals and how you feel there could be a smooth move from education to the labour market for young people, what kind of working conditions should prevail for young people in a working environment, and thirdly, let's not forget integration of young people who may be going through some difficulties. Young people who may be marginalised, on the edge of society perhaps, or they may be living in remote areas. So these are the three issues that I'd like us to concentrate on today and we're here to listen to your proposals as I said. As Ms Hassett said, we're talking about 47 million young citizens of the European Union. Let us not forget that among those there are five million unemployed. I don't want to hog the floor, but I would like to give the floor right away to three speakers who are going to make an initial introduction to these issues. After that we will give the floor to you.
Now, I give the floor first of all to Ms Sinead Tiernan, who represents European Trade Unions. She's going to tell us about young people and jobs. Ms Tiernan.
Initial Statements
Ms Sinead Tiernan, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC Youth)
Thank you very much chair, good morning colleagues, my name is Sinead Tiernan, and I'm representing the European Trade Union Confederation, the ETUC, which has about 16 million members across Europe and roughly 20% of those are young people. It's a great honour for us to have been asked to speak here and to share a few thoughts with you on the subject of employment from a youth perspective, taking into account the trade union background that we have.
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As already has been said, the employment situation in Europe is improving but we can't loose sight of the fact that we have about seventeen percent of young people who are unemployed so this is still a serious issue, and on top of that we have a number of young people who are lucky enough to have a job but for whom the working conditions and the type of job is a cause for serious concern. So what I'll do here is outline a couple of areas which we feel should be taken up in the White Paper, they shouldn't be forgotten when we looking at the issue of employment. They are not listed in any order of importance for us, all of them are equally important.
The first point is that a common trend in youth employment is that it tends to be largely precarious and unprotected, and this is true for a lot of types of young people's work; be it student work, seasonal jobs, traineeships, short term, fixed term contracts. In addition to that, many young people are not aware of their rights at work, and for those who are there's sometimes a fear of enforcing them because of what may happen. Furthermore, there are cases where young people are excluded from collective agreements so they're not covered within the work place. So we feel that student and seasonal work should be regulated and agreements must include clauses to this respect. There are a number of EU directives, like the directive on part-time work and fixed time work, which should be implemented and enforced, which will guarantee a better level of protection for young workers who are coming in these categories. We also feel there is a need for better information and awareness-campaigns, teaching young people about their rights and about the need to enforce them when you see abuses happening.
A second area is related to the changing type of work and the changing way in which we have to work. A lot of young people experience stress and pressure and this is particularly true for young couples with small children or for single parent families and here we feel a lot more work needs to be done focusing on reconciling work and family life. The EU directive on parental leave must be implemented fully, but with provisions for payment during leave. We also feel that governments have a role to play to ensure that childcare facilities are available and affordable and that they are of high quality. Again legislation such as the directive on parental leave must be implemented but if it's not paid, which is the case in number of countries, it's not useful because very few young people can actually afford to take unpaid leave.
A third area of concern for us is the fact that a large number of young people are becoming victims of accidents at work and some
19 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy of these are resulting in very serious injuries and even death. And there is a very strong link between the length of time a person is working and the rate of accidents. The newer a person is to an organisation, the greater the risk. But despite that, if you have somebody employed on a seasonal or summer job contract, quite often employers don't deem that it's worthwhile taking time to train them in accident prevention and this obviously is a key concern for us. Again there is legislation at the national and the European level but it needs to be implemented and monitored. We think that there is a strong role for labour inspectors to analyse and to ensure that this legislation is in place and campaigns on accident prevention are very essential.
The fourth area of concern for us is with temporary and interim agencies. For many young people this is the first point of contact with the labour market and for some they choose it because of the flexibility that is offered. But for others it's not so much a choice, it's a necessity. They have to go through this way to get on to the labour market. And issues here like working conditions, like social security provisions are issues that concern us. There are negotiations going on at the European level with the social partners to draw up a framework agreement on temporary agency work and we fully support this and hope that the agreement will be realised, stressing that it will include seasonal workers, people on summer jobs, and people replacing people out on maternity leave or sick leave, for example. We also feel that the activities of the temporary agencies should be monitored and regulated and they should not be allowed to recruit in high risk sectors. We also think there should be much greater transparency in the actions of the temporary agency workers because there is evidence to show that certain categories of people are not being taken on board by the temporary agencies and there is no explanation given for this. And we also think that efforts should be made to enhance and strengthen the role of the public employment services.
Fifthly there is a growing problem of exploitation of young people at work and this is seen in the growth of child labour that happens in Europe. When people hear child labour, they often think of Africa or of Asia but there is child labour here, there is a problem in Europe and it is a problem that is probably growing. But because of its nature, it's very clandestine and it's very difficult to track, but that is not an excuse to do nothing so again there needs to be a better implementation of legislation. There is European and there is international legislation protecting young people at work, setting up minimum ages but this is being broken on a regular basis so we need to act to monitor this and to stop this. This calls for actions between the social partners, the national governments
20 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy and the European institutions to try to monitor and prevent this kind of abuse happening.
A sixth point is that we are seeing a growth in what is called the working poor and this is particularly the case for young people; where young people are working but they are not earning enough to be financially independent. And we can see proof of this in a number of young people who are actually living at home until they are in their late twenties or early thirties because they can't afford to move away from home. We feel that actions need to be taken to ensure that young people earn enough money when they work. A decent income to guarantee a quality of life and for those who are outside the labour market that they are also looked after, that they are enabled to earn a standard of living and to maintain a certain quality of life.
The final area we have is with regard to the European Employment Strategy, which has made significant improvements in tackling youth unemployment but it needs to go further because a lot of the actions being indicated in the national action plans focus on the supply side. Thus they are tackling the problem in terms of a lack of something on the part of young people: a lack of skills, a lack of motivation. They are not tackling the demand side which is a lack of jobs so they're focusing on training and training which in itself is not a problem. But if it's not coupled with other measures, you're going round in circles, you're being trained to come back out to no job, and to go back into training and then it's a revolving door where you're going round in circles. There is also a problem with evaluating the policies in the NAP and we also feel that this needs to be tackled.
Thank you very much.
Ms Irini Pari
Thank you Ms Tiernan, I think they were very interesting proposals for young people and the work place. Now I'd like to give the floor to Mr Torres Couto.
Mr Torres Couto - YES - The European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs
The European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, Yes for Europe, is an organisation on the top of several national member organisations, representing more than 30,000 young
21 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy entrepreneurs. We feel gratified to contribute to the discussion of the “white paper” on Youth Policy, to the European Economic and Social Committee and the Commission.
Youth Policy in its total extent and specially the items related to entrepreneurship are appealing matters for the basis of internal YES group discussions. The group, in its Statues, gives primary importance to political discussion and the Executive Committee often meets to have political debates on entrepreneurship matters, as well as its annual forum, gathering together hundreds of European Young Entrepreneurs.
The White Paper on Youth Policy, as a document produced at a specific moment in time, must be considered always as an open document which can be revised. For that reason, the Youth Policy White Paper, will be probably as dynamic document as its subject matter: youth.
Young Entrepreneur policies, in almost all the European Countries, are related to a more extended age group than that covered by the general Youth Policy inside the Commission. The participants in several initiatives for Young Entrepreneurs usually extend up to 35 or 40 years of age. This is obvious sustained by the specific matters of entrepreneurship that are usually undertaken after graduation and/or after an initial work experience.
Contemporary society leads to some dominant ideas, where social and political concepts such as “democracy”, “freedom” or “world peace”, go hand in had with concepts such as “liberalization” or the “global market”. This must encourage political leaders to face the challenge of education to leadership, as the main task is to encourage responsible and conscientious attitudes towards the community.
Entrepreneurs have an important role to play in modern society. Young entrepreneurs must be lead to create a far better social and economical environment for future generations. Going through a continuous process of modernisation, the global economy needs strong and well-educated leaders, as well as an established modern administration.
Entrepreneurship is an attitude, which is desirable in every man and women, not only in an Entrepreneur. We need entrepreneurial people everywhere, in every task. Being an entrepreneur means that someone is able to make improvements, to change what is wrong or can be done better. Someone that is creative, that dreams but also foresees reality. Someone that spreads energy and strengths to move forward. Being an entrepreneur is assuming
22 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy an attitude to make life better every day, at work, at school, at home, in the neighbourhood, in the world. Everyone must be an entrepreneur and fight to improve every day. The telephone receptionist should not hang-up before he or she makes an effort to establish the connection and ensures success as that may be the cause of a major and successful business to the company, that is why we all need very entrepreneurial phone operators. Maybe with this small task the telephone receptionist made a more important contribution on that day than the commercial director did during the whole week. This is why entrepreneurship is a horizontal matter and must be spread, like a new culture, to all the society. We also need a very entrepreneurial public administration: entrepreneurial teachers, entrepreneurial politicians, doctors, judges, scientists - everyone, everywhere.
Entrepreneurship might be a cultural movement that can horizontally spread a new attitude in European society, making it more aggressive, more productive, but also with more solidarity. Education and training on Entrepreneurship may be the key to inspiring all of society to this purpose. From early school to university, entrepreneurship, the ability to solve, to change, to make better, to defeat barriers everyday is a fundamental attitude for the modern citizen.
Young Entrepreneurs play an important role in society and must also be a key player in the European Community construction process. Building a more comprehensive society, whilst respecting European inheritance and culture, young entrepreneurs are an active link in the relations between countries. They easily speaking different languages, they travel around the world, they communicate and using information society tools, and they are keen on innovation and technology, with a profound ecological conscience. Young Entrepreneurs must play an important role in this Community.
Young entrepreneurs are not only related with the new technologies or biotechnology, traditional business also encourages new people with new ideas to drive their business.
Europe needs this new generation to rejuvenate its economy, to make it more international, more ecological, more innovative, and with more solidarity.
Creating companies means more economy and more jobs. Young people are easily encouraged to make their career more flexible, to question business opportunities, to create small companies, as they can observe the promising economical environment. This means a promising environment also in social sustainability,
23 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy credibility in politics, justice, education, administration, among other matters, that must integrate a better society.
By encouraging young people, as it may be through education, training initiatives, capital funds, start up schemes, or other mechanisms, several European countries have proven the ability of young people to create business, more employment, develop the economy, export goods, and so on. Usually the results of this kind of schemes to help young people prove to be successful.
Young people usually do not have experience, do not inspire confidence in financial systems, often do not have enough money to start their business. But at the same time these young entrepreneur candidates have lots of courage, lots of energy to work, they speak languages, they like to travel, they are creative and innovative. So young entrepreneur candidates are a very important resource to make entrepreneurship richer in Europe. So they must be helped to start their business by the provision of training, the promotion of entrepreneurship, help in funding their companies and by allowing access to capital, persuading innovation, quality and ecology. Countries that have invested in these kinds of schemes, have found that years later, the investment made was reimbursed by all the taxes and social contributions the company has made after. At the European level, the kind of instruments which may be implemented to help young people to start their business should be considered in global terms, also to create a fair environment to all the young entrepreneurs in Europe. More companies means more jobs, more jobs means social cohesion, this means a step towards Peace.
A young child must be helped by its mother until the baby gains the ability to progressively leave the care of its family. As with young children, positive discrimination helps young companies to develop creative ideas into profitable business.
Innovation is a dynamic process to renew the old economy, the old companies, the old business, the old products, etc. Innovation and knowledge are increasingly becoming the decisive source of wealth and also the main source of difference between nations, business and people.
In the last few decades, the European Community has stimulated innovation actions in all the EU countries. The positive results are well known. But it is now necessary to reform institutions and policies in order to develop a quicker ability to disseminate knowledge and best practices to all potential users. New forms of social exclusion must be avoided in the rapid process of innovation and the introduction of new technologies.
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Young people are open to innovative procedures and must be stimulated to create a more innovative social and economical environment as this will lead the European Union to a higher level of competitiveness and welfare.
The existing but fragile links between the European Science & Technology system and the real economy must interface to match supply and demand and also to promote a horizontal innovation culture.
Making young people better prepared for life, and specially for entrepreneurship, is a process that starts in the education process of the individual. Preparing people to integrate into society, allowing free choice in the social and educational process, will lead to successful opportunities in the employment market.
Intercultural understanding and skills, will be developed as young people experience life in different countries and different styles of community. Mobility projects also allow multilanguage learning and training, contributing to better opportunities in the employment market and to better opportunities in the entrepreneurial environment. The Council and the Commission also express the recognition of the skills acquired in the context of non-formal education activities and must encourage those involved in the non-formal education of young people to promote their good practice. Education and Training must also be a continuous attitude in a fast changing society, lifelong learning, is the only way to keep away from exclusion. Providing continuous training, individually or in the organisation, is a strong way to promote the dissemination of the most recent knowledge and keep citizens permanently updated, and able to revise and improve their skills.
Instruments like the Economic and Monetary Union policy and the European Central Bank role on the national economies, makes the EU economy a more confident environment for investors. This was a very important step towards a real European market, especially for those who felt weaker, such as young entrepreneurs and young companies, which usually have fewer defences. Economical stability inside Europe is a fundamental platform to ensure the strength of the Euro and promote sustainable growth in the real economy.
Enlargement, the entry of the central and eastern countries to the European Community economy, will give young entrepreneurs more challenges and more opportunities. Co-operation and networking between young entrepreneurs and SMEs, may be the
25 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy only way to compete with the big multinational companies, and so turn threats into business opportunities.
Young entrepreneurs are attracted to run businesses with each other. They speak foreign languages, like to travel and use e-mail. This will facilitate the communication process, and will promote economical exchanges in the European market. Also a “not so formal climate” in business may lead to a better business culture based more on personal trust instead of layers written agreements. Stimulating co-operation between young entrepreneurs will lead to a stronger European market, more employment, with results and benefits in the future.
European NGOs, and especially the youth organisations, are recognised as having played an important role in youth policy debates and programmes. To encourage this, organisations will contribute to increase civil society participation in the Community construction. Although the associative movement is independent, it is important to create structural mechanisms of participation, as well as define the criteria for credible representativity of organisations towards the Commission and the Council.
Democracy means that society is involved in the process of construction of the Community, through its non-governmental organisations it is possible and expected to open this participation process. Yes for Europe, is committed to and is counting on the participation and commitment of all the actors in order to give a new long-term impetus to the construction of Europe. Young Entrepreneurs of Europe are ready to participate in the construction of European Society and in the World peace process, where every citizen is free and has a dignified life.
Ms Irini PARI
Thank you Mr Torres Couto for that presentation. Thank you very much for this final words talking about world peace. Now I would like to invite Mr Thomas Croft from ATD Fourth World to speak.
Mr Thomas Croft - ATD Quart Monde - Fourth World Youth Movement
"Work for all young people will give every young person the opportunity to participate in and contribute to society."
The experiences and opinions of the poorest and most disadvantaged young people are the starting point for this policy statement. It is the experience of ATD Fourth World that
26 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy throughout Europe many young people's lives of poverty lead too often to situations, which exclude them from employment. And through being cut off from the work place these young people are also losing a vital chance to integrate into a wider society. As one young person explained during a workshop on this theme:
"I had a job for four months. It gave me hope and everyone I know was proud of me. It felt good. I knew what the words 'to live' meant. Now I'm unemployed again and it's the same old nightmare. I see unemployment as an injustice against us. When you have an interview with the boss, straight away from your appearance he has the impression that you're incapable of doing a good job. The moment you say your name and address, that's the end, there's nothing for you anymore. It's as if your past is constantly following you and, in the end, that's how young people are drawn into violence."
All young people, deep down want to be regarded in a positive light and not as troublemakers. By reflecting with young people, one discovers that they want to have real pathways, which lead them to find their place in the world of work in the long term. For the poorest young people entering the world of work is of tremendous importance, principally because of what it means to have a job in itself; adult status, self-respect, money and independence. But also, because of the opportunity the work place offers to broaden one's social contact, particularly with adults, to meet new people from different backgrounds and to appreciate new perspectives and aspirations. In short, young people are very sensitive to the fact that pathways to employment are also pathways out of social exclusion. Such pathways are anticipated in the European Union Employment Guidelines since 2001. The way in which these guidelines are implemented will condition the future of young people. Which young people will benefit from them? How will those who have the fewest qualifications and social skills, the least capacity to integrate into a working group have their opportunities as well?
It is our experience that even successful initiatives by Member States to create pathways to employment for young people, pathways like Britain's New Deal for Young People and France's Credit Formation and TRACE, often fail to reach the poorest and most excluded; the young people who need these pathways the most. The reasons for this failure are complex but depend in one way or another on a lack of sensitivity to what it means in practise to reach those young people who are the most disadvantaged by poverty. For example, a big challenge is to avoid marginalising
27 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy the most disadvantaged young people from the very processes set up to support them. As one young person explained:
"A written invitation to come to an information meeting on employment isn't enough, because a lot of people don't believe that what is put into place won't end up humiliating them even more. The means must be found to reach them in their situations."
Young people living in poverty are continually challenging us to understand their situation more comprehensively. The interdependence of this hearing's three thematics comes sharply into focus when we consider the dreams and the realities of the poorest young people. To give an example, in France we know a young woman with a history of long-term poverty and educational underachievement. At crisis point and encouraged by her social worker and other professionals, she accepted to be officially recognised as having learning difficulties in order to be registered 'unable to work' and receive some extra money. But in fact she wanted employment and without access to the support and training that she needed, she ended up in a succession of illegal, unregulated and low paid temporary jobs. Yet, despite the exploitative nature of these jobs she had proved that she was willing and able to work. For this young woman poverty, education, employment opportunities, and the chance to participate more broadly in society are all wrapped up together. It is important that this fact, the fact that poverty and exclusion need to be understood holistically, is acknowledged by policy makers, especially in key areas such as employment policy.
In terms of measures to reflect the need of work for all young people, we propose that the following two propositions be considered for implementation by the European Union with regard to employment and social integration: • In the national plans for employment, the Member States must provide pathways towards employment that actively target young people who have the most difficulty to access employment and which are of a sufficient duration so as to lead towards a quality job. • In the national plans for employment, the Member States must assure guidance for young people involved in the pathways towards employment in such a way that: - the staff who guide young people are trained to take into account the circumstances and life experiences of young people in their entirety. - the staff who guide young people rely on a partnership with the poorest in order to actively find and reach the
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young people who are the most excluded from the world of work.
The human and material resources that need to be developed to realise these aims are, of course, varied. However, the fight against social exclusion is broader than employment issues. Something that we have learned from young people at ATD Fourth World is the importance of enabling young people from different backgrounds to come together. ATD Fourth World asks that the European Union also:
• encourages Member States to incorporate and resource opportunities for co-operation and meeting between the most disadvantaged young people and young people from different backgrounds into the national action plans against poverty and social exclusion (which will be drawn up by the Member States by June 2001, as part of the Objectives in the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the European Union, approved at the Nice Summit in December 2000).
For the poorest young people, the opportunity to associate freely with other people from different, as well as similar, backgrounds, and to be able to work together, share experiences and build positive relationships, is an invaluable resource. Living in long- term poverty destroys self-esteem and confidence. Continual setbacks and failures, especially from the perspective of the education system, make it extremely difficult for young people in poverty to believe that they can succeed, even when they passionately believe in their right to be trained and qualified. Social mobility is a chance to rebuild confidence and self worth and can be a vital prerequisite, as well as an ongoing support, for more formal training. The International Centre for our Youth Movement at Champeaux, France offers some of the most excluded and disadvantaged young people in Europe exactly this type of experience. Through one day and residential stays, our team at Champeaux facilitates creative workshops, meetings and seminars, manual work projects and social time with young people from different backgrounds, but always with a focus on reaching the most excluded. In these ways, our centre at Champeaux supports similar work with young people in their own communities by giving them a unique chance to broaden their social horizons.
I hope these statements and examples serve to clarify the need to emphasis within the European White Paper on Youth Policy the importance of reaching the poorest and most excluded young people. Such an emphasis will, we believe, make it a better White Paper for all young people.
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Ms Irini Pari
Thank you Mr Croft for telling us this story of various experiences of young people with difficulties, people you represent. We've now heard the three initial presentations from the three speakers and I'd like to thank the three of them because they've given us an initial taste with a very detailed overall description of the needs of young workers, young businessmen and the young person who is marginalised and who is facing great difficulties. Thank you very much for that.
We have a few requests for the floor.
Open debate
Ms Karin Heisecke, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
I asked to speak in this section of the hearing because it includes young people’s well-being and personal independence. My organisation is concerned with the issue of young people's health, which is of course essential for their well-being and a basis for all other aspects of young people's life such as the success in their later life and unemployment which was very well addressed now. I've got a few remarks. First of all, I'd like to thank the Economic and Social Committee’s position presented by Jillian Hassett who mentioned that the youth policy has to be linked to other sectorial policies such as the policy on health, on education and on enlargement. Since access to health services for young people is crucial and especially access to sexual and reproductive health services in the context of young people's well-being, we would see the need to have that included in the policy on youth. Another issue is that young people need access to information and education related to their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Within the context of education, this needs to be addressed. If the concept of sexual and reproductive health and rights seems a bit abstract for some people, it concerns issues like preventing unwanted pregnancies which is a reality, especially for young women and infections sexually transmitted and infections including HIV-AIDS which is a big threat to young people's health. Given the fact that this issue seems is not addressed very often, I think that this is an outcome of the problem that in general the reality or the identity of young people as sexual beings in many countries in Europe is still a bit taboo as it is in many countries of the rest of the world. So this is something that needs to be addressed, and young women's reproductive role in the context of
30 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy employment as so nicely expressed by Ms Tiernan earlier on is something that needs to be taken in to account.
Mr Levent Eypisiren Minorities of Europe (MoE)
I'm the chairman of Minorities of Europe, which is an international youth organisation registered and centred in the United Kingdom and I'm very happy to be here and share my ideas and learn about different realities of interest groups, the European Union and about the youth sector. I think you must be careful about the concept of social integration. Even though it's very openly and briefly explained in European documents we may face unwanted applications in some countries. Sometimes social integration causes pressure on people's values identities and communities. There are the dominant characteristics of the European Union. Of course these characteristics must be improved, but not by paying the price of oppressing minority identities. Special attention and support must be given to minorities, not only to make a real multicultural European Union, but also to keep peace stable in European geography. Also regardless of the country in the European Union, geography or say the enlargement on the countries in the enlargement process, the least and poorest employed people are those belonging to any kind of minorities: ethnic, religious or sexual minorities. Even though there are laws to correct this ongoing mistake, we always hear of Hindu Moluccan Sami Sariac or homosexuals having problems in the community they are living, because they can’t gain work or because of his or her identity. We cannot integrate a person socially unless we let him or her gain his or her own life, which means to get work or have enough education and training to get a job. The reason why minorities are always living in closed circles is not by chance, it is the result of being excluded from society since they don't have the chances, opportunities or access to resources, education and training. This causes an ongoing cycle. I must also tell my opinion about the statement in the opening speech where Mr Frerichs said that European values and Christianity must be preserved. I think that this is something which is in opposition to European identity and European values. If we define European values and any kind of identity, it's not important, whether it's Christianity, Hinduism or homosexuality, it doesn't matter. We cannot base any definition of European values on a single kind of identity. I think we must fight and live in a multicultural Europe and if you define something dominant and if you also say something needs to be preserved, what will be Christianity be preserved against? It means we have some different powers in the European Union. European identity is something I think you must spend some time on. According to my opinion, according to my knowledge based on the last six years
31 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy that I have been spending in international youth organisations or considering European ideals, European values are diversity, respect for differences, democracy, solidarity, participation, equality, human rights, economic rights. We cannot base it on any kind of identity or characteristic like religion which makes people only divided and not united. Thank you very much! Mr James Doorley, National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI)
I'd like to welcome the Hearing and thank the Economic and Social Committee for organising a hearing in relation to the white paper on youth policy. I just want to preface my remarks on employment issues for young people with just one small comment. I suppose Henrik Söderman, the President of the European Youth Forum mentioned the participation of young people in civil society and decision-making and I suppose in that context, we the National Youth Council of Ireland are very proud that Jillian Hassett, our former president, has made a huge contribution in her work, not only on this white paper but also in relation to other work the Economic and Social Committee is doing. We certainly found it very useful and we think that it will be very important that more young people and more people from youth organisations are in this forum because as we can see today, there is huge interest and huge commitment and huge ideas coming from young people. So we would certainly encourage more young people in youth organisations be represented in this body. My main point is in relation to employment and the issue I would like to raise is the issue of employment of young people in part- time work, young people under 18, particularly those under 16 who are still in education. I suppose as a result of European Union policy, European Union social policy directive, have brought in very strict guidelines relating to the employment of young people while still in school and that directive was brought into Irish law. However, unlike the rest of continental Europe, where in the past we had very high unemployment rates among young people, we now have very low unemployment rates among young people, which is good, and we welcome that. But now many young people, especially those between 14 and 18 still in school, are being used to fill the labour shortage. Many of them are being paid very poorly and they are being forced to work long hours in very poor conditions. Our recent research in NYCI has found that half our young people in schools between 14 and 18 have part time job and half of those young people are spending more time in part- time work than they are on study. Now, it's not uncommon for young people to fall asleep in school because they are too tired of working very long hours. We in NYCI certainly welcome and we believe it's of tremendous benefit to young people to get some work experience, but it should not be at the expense of their education and their long term qualifications.
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Also we're finding many young people are leaving school early to take up temporary jobs and part-time jobs, particularly those from poor backgrounds and they are the first people to become unemployed when there is an economic downturn. We understand that the primary responsibility for this legislation the enforcement of the law protecting young people under 18 engaging in part- time work is that of the Irish government. However, we at the NYCI have consistently called on the Irish government and we feel very little has actually happened There are very few inspectors in the employment area, there are only 17 to cover the whole of Ireland and the fines imposed on employers for actually breaking the law are derisory. Because this legislation came from European Union social policy, we believe that the Commission, the Council of Ministers and in particular this body could highlight this issue and we believe very strongly that it should be highlighted in the White Paper. It may not be a problem for other countries at the moment, it certainly wasn't a problem for Ireland five years ago, because of demographics and economic downturn, young people will be used, I believe in the future, to fill the labour gaps that will be there. So we believe that it is important that young people are protected and that part-time work is not used to fill the labour shortage.
Mr Babis Papaioannou, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
I'm representing the ETUC, I'm a member of the Greek youth trade union and also member of the European Youth Forum. I'd like to speak about the priorities that you mentioned. The question that you raised about the smooth transition from education to the labour market is surely one of the most serious issues that we need to discuss. It's certainly a problem that we have to find a solution to. It's a very real problem. It's a problem which is going to get worse. We have an antiquated education system in Europe and it is not well adapted to the changes in society. We have an educational system which unfortunately provides old education which is alienated from the needs of our society and our labour market. Can I remind you of the Irish example - the interview given by the Irish minister of the Economy last week? What he said was that the Irish miracle of the last few years, the economic miracle, was due to the serious investment that Ireland has made in education for the last 30 years. That is an excellent example of what a country can do when it takes the decision to invest in education. I know that the results are postponed but they will come. A second factor is of course new technologies. The educational system just can't keep pace with the developments in new technologies. We've got people from 10-20 years old who
33 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy have access to the Internet; they get the most recent information from the Internet. They can get information about anything they want, they are informed by big networks, by huge libraries, and they use an enormous database which exists around the world. The school that they go to, and the educational systems seem to be boring compared to that, school doesn't give them a proper system for learning and we get the gradual devaluation of the school educational system as a result. What are we, the trade unions, interested in then? We're interested in professional guidance, career guidance, we want the education system to guide a young person to what is available on the labour market, what exists today, what could a young person do when they finish secondary school, or university, how can this young person take serious decisions with respect to his or her future, not just to get a diploma or a degree and end up being unemployed and drift from one training seminar to another for years. So we really have to find a way of finding solutions to this today. The labour market is completely different to the labour market five years ago, and certainly to that of ten years ago. In five years time it will again be very different from the one today. The educational system therefore has to use career guidance to provide opportunities for young people so that they can understand what people are asking for. What could they do and not using the idea of: ‘What did my dad do? Well I'll do that as well’ or: ‘I don't care about my future, it doesn't matter, it's not the end of the world if I don't get a job right away’. So there are various questions here that we need to look at, the needs of the labour market, co-operation between the education system and the social partners and the employers, the trade unions, the governments, so that the young person can really be properly guided in his or her career. Thank you.
Ms Carole Saleres, Comité pour les Relations Nationales et internationales des Associations de Jeunesse et d'Education Populaire (CNAJEP)
I am from CNAJEP. I have more general contributions to make and I would like to comment on the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on two points. The first is related to the European model of society which is represented in this opinion. When we are talking about employment and social integration we should also refer to the way social integration and employment are organised in European society. We find that this model of society isn't really described in the opinion. Perhaps we can read it between the lines. We really see Europe as a huge liberal market with workers and consumers - you have to develop certain competencies so as to fit in with the needs of the European means of production. We think that in the opinion this model of social integration is not
34 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy questioned in any way. We think that this model of social integration should be questioned, at least in terms of the way it redistributes the wealth which is created. So we'd like to question the logic of this model that you propose in the opinion. A second point I think that this needs to be a preamble to our discussion, when we talk about youth, we perhaps need to be a little bit more careful in our analysis about what is covered by youth. There again we feel that the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee proposes a sectoral analysis, considering youth as a separate group and refers essentially to an age group, that is to be young you need to be between 15 and 25 years old. We feel that this sociological analysis is the traditional one but I think it is a little bit out of date because youth is a concept which covers a range of factors so we would prefer to see youth as a reality, as a transitional phase between childhood and adulthood. A state of transition which reveals a whole range of questions which affect all European society in terms of the way work is organised, changes in the family, and so on. We're rather suspicious of any attempt to institutionalise young people and limit the definition. So in terms of public policy, we don't think that necessarily we should favour categorial policies, but rather we should favour relationships with other generations and other age groups. We need to work towards a new type of social contract, between all of those involved, including young people. Thank you.
Mr Juan Martinez Garcia, Comisiones Obreros, Spain
I'd like to join the thanks expressed by other delegates. I represent Comisiones Obreros, my trade union. Despite of progress which has been made in terms of youth employment, I think I can say that precariousness is the main characteristic of youth employment, both in terms of unemployment and in terms of instability and also accidents at work. Speaking from my national context, which I know best, that is the situation in Spain. I think it's the same in all the Southern countries, youth unemployment is higher than the European average. The situation in terms of stability is really very serious and in terms of accidents at work the situation is really tragic because out every 1000 young people in Spain 40 suffer an accident, not necessarily a fatal one but an accident at work. So work is actually endangering the health of young people.
Training is obviously important and we support this type of continuous training. The situation is today that we have generally very qualified young people but it remains true that stability in the workplace can not be achieved so we do need a policy of job creation related to production. In terms of training this is
35 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy beginning to be done, but not as much as it should be. From a very young age we should be educated in terms of our rights as citizens, our rights as workers, we need to be aware of this from a very young age. Also, we need to think about political measures to be taken by the national government. In terms of what the agencies can do, well, Member States need to help them to reform their functions adequately. There is a need to match supply and demand in the labour market and we need to support the creation of jobs, both in the private sector but we also need to make sure the conditions are right. States need to encourage social measures and ensure a minimum standard for workers in social protection. In many cases, legislation which is passed is not actually respected. Often young people will start working and a blank sheet will be their contract. So in other words they don't have a proper contract. It's often the case for young people so we need to make sure that the problem doesn't continue to occur. Real instability, short term contracts are a major problem for young people. It might be shocking to approach this here in Brussels, but we are talking about participation of young people in the white paper process.
I believe that another aspect to participation of young people is being active in some organisations, in trade unions for example. While business people organise themselves in employers’ organisations, young workers can be dismissed if they join a union or demand their rights. So this adds to the problem of the precarious nature of employment. In almost all Member States, the right to participate in trade unions is a constitutional right and the more people do participate in unions, in youth councils and so on, the better. Finally, I'd like to ask for as much support as possible from the European Union to put an end to this excessive casualisation of labour. We need to have more binding legislation to help us achieve this.
Ms Aysu SHAKIR, European Union Organisation of Socialist Youth (ECOSY)
I come from ECOSY, an umbrella organisation for social democratic youth and students in Europe. ECOSY believes that the ambition of the European Union must be full employment, also for young people. For the moment, as already said here many times, the employment rate is very low, especially for people with fewer qualifications, women, young people and ethnic minorities. ECOSY wants a model for the of full employment in favour of everyone. This means a job for everyone, a job allowing social emancipation, a job allowing a decent life. We are concerned that more and more people, particularly women and young people, are forced to take
36 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy part-time and precarious jobs without any social security. Unemployment and underemployment of young people are a terrible human waste and a threat to the economic and social cohesion of Europe, as well as a potential threat to democracy. The national governments, but mainly the European Union is, in our eyes, the main framework where this crisis can be solved. Within this framework, national and local initiatives should be encouraged but also better co-ordinated. More than ever, we need a permanent political and social dialogue to achieve the goal of full employment of young people. Special attention should be paid to the employment of immigrants - especially young immigrants - and their right to equal treatment. We must reaffirm that surely everyone is entitled to a stable job but also that the role of employment in everyone's life must be relativised. We believe in every person's right to work, that good and creative work makes people feel satisfied with themselves. Therefore, creating good jobs for everybody must continue to be the main priority of the European Union and nations. The European Union must support job creations for sectors, serving the people and satisfying social needs. With less unemployment and a guarantee of continuous quality training, young people would be less scared of the labour market and would be more able to choose their education. Basic education must be provided when one is young but it should also be possible for young people when they reach a certain age to start working while going on with training and education. This would give them greater independence and a better grasp of reality.
ECOSY also wants to point out the unequal treatment of young men and women on the labour market. For example, the lower participation of young women in the labour market and the unequal payment of young men and women. ECOSY proposes that the following measures be undertaken: the European Union should establish a directive with a right to paid care leave and a directive with the right to free childcare, to promote positive actions and positive discrimination in boards of directors, politics and science. Thank you.
Mr Sander Kesseler, MIZW
I'm from the National Youth Debate in the Netherlands. I come into contact with all sorts of young people in different layers of the community. On employment I have an example in the Netherlands. I have talked to young people, particularly one young person. He said he worked and he was also involved in a youth movement. His boss told him that he had to work twenty Sundays a year. His colleagues could refuse ten, he refused ten as well. The boss said
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OK but we'll ring you up if we need you. This is two years ago and he hasn't been contacted yet, he looked for sort of protection because should the boss be able to do this, he'd been waiting on the phone for jobs at the week-end which never came. Now can I turn to you in the Commission when you use these employment agencies, how can you protect young people against being exploited by their bosses? I'm speaking also on behalf of a lot of young people from the Netherlands. There are lots of youth organisations which are active in politics. We need to pay them if their members are travelling but we have to wait a long time for reimbursement. A lot of our young people can't be independent, they can't live independently. If they want to work in youth politics, they've got to borrow money from the banks. It's very difficult to be active in youth politics. It costs a lot, it's very difficult to contact other people if they want to work, for example, in a political youth organisation and they are in unemployment; they need to ask for release for their employers and very often that's an excuse to sack them.
I have another point. We received your opinion. It says young people should have the right to good accommodation for studies. Most young people if they're in training, they have to come to towns from the countryside and the Dutch authorities don't give accommodation to secondary school pupils, they only give accommodation to people in tertiary education. A lot of people do have to get a flat if they want to continue in a grammar school or something in town. I know the Commission is looking at the Netherlands. In March in the area of the white paper and youth participation in The Hague, they organised a show to demonstrate how good the Netherlands is in youth participation, although the most successful went along, you know young people with a lot of ambitions, young people who are going to go far anyway. They are the only people who will be seen. Now, before my visit to Brussels, I talked to people in various youth organisations about the white paper and about other things. It's very interesting for me to hear people in different walks of life, what they think about the white paper. I talked to one person in an umbrella organisation. These people said that the white paper is not going to do anything in practice, it will take ten years to come on to the scene and then it will be thrown into the bin. We've got to see whether we can actually make a bit of noise by sending people to Brussels. I think the Commission has to be careful, you have to be careful that other people are not going to do what the Dutch are going to do and put on a show and say everything is fine and dandy in the Netherlands. You shouldn't just visit the capital, not just the big towns, you should go to other places as well. Please, really get to know the country, find out what's happening, I mean there are happy young people, successful young people, but they are the
38 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy ones who are going to be shown. Be careful to go and have a look at other places with other people in them who are less fortunate.
Ms Yvonne O'Callaghan, Irish Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU)
I just want to come in and reinforce some of the comments that my trade union colleague had expressed, especially in relation to the whole idea of the skills gaps, particularly in relation to education and training courses being offered to young people and are they being matched with the labour market demands? I think we have to take in to account here that not everybody goes on from second level education to third level education and we have to look at those young people also who go from second level education straight to job training in the sense of vocational training. One thing that needs to be done, especially, may be in relation to national action plans and is the evaluation of these courses which is not being done at present. So at the moment we don't know how beneficial these programmes are for job training. We don't know how many people are benefiting from them, we also don't know what type of job young people are getting from these programmes, whether they get jobs that are matching the skills that they've learned within the programme or whether it is totally different job. Also, we don't know how long is the duration of the job they receive following the programme and whether they receive a job that will give them work for six months. If so then they are back on the employment market again or back into another job training programme if they are lucky. All these things need to be evaluated.
Going back to education, we need to start looking at putting into place national action plans with formulated key labour market indicators. This is being done at present on international level but I think through the national action plans that we can say to national member states that you have to start looking where your gaps are, where you need people for the labour market and then matching your education with that in your job programmes. I think my colleagues have expressed that quite clearly and I think that we need to do that. Thank you.
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Education and Mobility
Chair: Mr Luis Pinto, Jeunesse étudiante catholique internationale - Mouvement international des Etudiants catholiques (JECI-MIEC)
This is the second session. I'd like to take this opportunity again of thanking the Economic and Social Committee, the European Youth Forum and the Commission for this wonderful opportunity for all of us to come along here from various parts of Europe and various organisations. We represent many organisations in civil society. My aim is to give you the floor. We've all got things to say, stories to tell about youth policy. We've all got views on what should be in the White Paper on youth policy. In this session we'll focus on education and mobility. I imagine we all have a lot to say today as we had in the previous session on social integration. We've already said things about education or relevant to education. I believe that education is not just about learning in a school type of setting but I view education as a broad thing. Education is something you absorb formally and informally for a long period in your life. It's to do with personal development, social development. It's bearing this gloss in mind that I want to launch this second session. I wanted to say more myself. Usually I'm on your side of the bench. It's not so often that I'm up here on the stage. I'm going to endeavour to co-ordinate the work this time. It's a tricky job to give everybody a fair opportunity of saying his or her bit so I look forward to your co-operation. We've got three keynote speakers and three initial statements.
Initial statements
Mr Arnold Puech d'Allissac - European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA)
In earlier times the farmers' role was mainly to produce food, feed and fibres in high quantity. Over the last two decades the farmer’s role has changed.
Today's farmers must provide consumers with safe and healthy food, must satisfy the consumers’ request for high standards of environmental measures and animal welfare, quality products with traditional production methods and designated origins, offer agricultural education to the public and ensure the maintenance of the agricultural landscape, the viability of rural areas, biological diversity, and the preservation of traditions.
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Young farm leaders starting their own farm or taking over from their parents are able to adapt their agricultural activities, production methods to the new quality, social and environmental requirements. Thanks to their professional training and education and to their young age and enthusiasm they are able to face the new challenges and best fulfil the aim of agriculture. Young farm leaders from the European Union and the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) are the future of agriculture. Therefore, developing a mobility programme for young farmers could ensure the creation of networks between young people with a relation to agriculture. Exchange of experiences and sharing knowledge is fundamental in order to address the challenges of a new agriculture environment. This is true for European Union young farm leaders, and also for Central and Eastern European Countries young farm leaders, who often have to face a less developed and organised reality.
Funding should be reserved within the European Community budget and should be available to European projects, offering young farm leaders from European Union and Central and Eastern European Countries the possibility to experience agriculture in another European country by living on a farm for a period of up to six months and for young farmers who discover European agriculture as part of a group visit for a period of up to 7-10 days.
Some examples of good practice include:
• Getting practical farming experience by living and working on a farm in another country • Participating as part of a group visit to meet young farmers from another country to exchange views on experiences with organic farming, integrated production, preserving natural wildlife, environmental measures, communication with consumers (through agri-tourism and open/educational farms), alternative sale management (direct sale, production using traditional methods, guaranteeing designation of origin), non- food production, optimisation of farm management.
Ms Ana Mohedano, Organising Bureau of Europen School Student Unions (OBESSU)
Education plays an important role in the development of any kind of society and its citizens, and when it comes to European Society its relevance is even more evident. Europe is still a concept under a process of development, and only through education, understanding it as a lifelong learning issue, can we awaken a sense of belonging to Europe in tomorrow’s citizens: young
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Europeans. They spend the most important period for their personal development in schools, and it is in school where they learn to socialise and to be citizens, through participation in youth organisations, school councils and other decision making bodies in the educational field and by sharing with teachers the responsibility of education, as a step to participation in society. By guaranteeing this participation, even through financial resources, we would ensure a future community taking an active role in democracy. But this democracy in school systems is not always respected. Often, we cannot find enough ways to get involved in the design of our own education, either at school level or at national or European level, leading to a young population which is not motivated to take part in a society which does not provide a solution to their problems (and where they do not feel represented) and indirectly leads to the increasing drop out rates as well.
Democracy should be based on a School for All, irrespective of a student’s social, cultural and economical background, where students can develop their personality, their sexuality, and their own critical senses in a multicultural atmosphere that enriches the whole school community and provides equal opportunities to access Higher Education. Schools should not separate school students because of their origin, they should be adapted to disabled student’s needs and be respectful to ethnic culture teaching through intercultural education and ensure mother tongue learning. Human Rights Education should be a transversal issue present in all subjects, as a way to ensure respect towards multiculturalism and in order to increase the awareness among pupils of their rights.
Education is nowadays changing its aims. The aim of Education is not only a preparation for labour market, but a lifelong concept that provides the individual with skills and knowledge needed for daily life, self-development and the labour market, too. And that aim lasts not only during a pupil’s time at school, but for the whole life of the individual, as a second chance to re-take studies, and as a possibility to learn at any time or circumstances though non-formal education.
The concept of learning and teaching is changing too. Schools were the place where teachers shared their knowledge with pupils, and now, pupils are taking part of that responsibility. School students should participate in designing their education. The main task of schools and teachers should be to seek to facilitate the learning process and stimulate learning and curiosity, changing the role of the teacher into the one of a guide and giving freedom, individual choice and increasing the school students’ access to
42 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy information. Using diversified and innovative teaching and learning methods and considering learning as an ongoing interdisciplinary process. And, as a result of that process, based on the individual needs, the importance of formal, non formal and informal education become more equal, and make it more possible to adapt learning methods to the individual capacities and preferences.
All school students should have the right to participate in mobility programmes, irrespective of their grades at school or of their socio-economic background. Mobility should, in particular, be promoted among school students, who traditionally have fewer chances to experience international contacts. It is fundamental to provide sufficient funding for mobility, so that this is not a privileged activity for those who can afford it. In order to make mobility a real option it is imperative that the education received abroad is recognised. Virtual mobility can be used as a supplement to physical mobility, thus creating mobility opportunities for a broader public, but never as a replacement. A European dimension should be given to all education policies, both at the European and at the national level. This issue should be taken as a horizontal topic in all subjects taught at schools. To make this European Educational Dimension real, a quality language education must be ensured, renewing teaching methods and material used, and including aspects of the culture belonging to the language.
To fight the difference in status between general secondary education and vocational education and training, European Institutions should encourage primary schools to provide school students with experience and knowledge from both practical and theoretical learning. Primary schools must provide quality guidance and counselling to secure a responsible choice. This support to the equality of both types of education should be also done economically, providing vocational education with the materials needed.
As quality education is one of the key tools to reach a fair and democratic European society, more emphasis should be put on the school students' active participation in shaping their education. The process of continuous evaluation of the quality of education is indispensable when it comes to ensuring high quality education, and should thus be guaranteed by education authorities. It should be accompanied by clear and binding guidelines concerning the involvement of social actors in schools when the initiation, execution, interpretation of results and the follow-up of an evaluation are concerned. The results of the evaluation must be followed up and used as a part of further development of school and education. As school students are the main actors in
43 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy education, their experience should be regarded as valuable when assessing the quality of the education.
Ms Heather Roy - World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS)
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts1 looks to enable girls and young women to reach their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world. In achieving this mission we use non-formal education methods that allow an ordinary young person to recognise their extraordinary potential. But, like any youth organisation, we exist and work in the climate of the country or region in which our members live. Therefore the development of Youth Policy is a concern and opportunity for us to feed into the debate with our experience of working with young people.
The need for a comprehensive Youth Policy stems from the need to address all issues that directly and indirectly affect young people and allows them to realise their fullest potential as responsible and active citizens. Therefore the main concern should be what do we need to do in order to develop the men and women we need for tomorrow. Each society and country is different but we should be able to agree on the qualities needed by the individuals that will create it. The document2 produced by the Big 7 on National Youth Policies calls for our young people to be autonomous, supportive, responsible and committed. We cannot be complacent and believe that our young people are this already. Young people face many challenges in the course of their development that means that this is not achieved.
Young people grow up in a current social context of increasing uncertainty – a youth policy should address this uncertainty and provide points of reference to allow young people to develop and cope with the challenges they face.
We should also be prepared to look to link these needs widely and not just within an insular youth sector. Cohesiveness with other
1 The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is the largest voluntary organisation for Girls and Young Women in the world with nearly 10 million members. Through its national member organisations WAGGGS provides a dynamic, flexible, values-based non-formal educational programme which is relevant to girls’ needs. 2 National Youth Policies – Towards an autonomous, supportive, responsible and committed youth. The chief Executive Officers of YMCA, YWCA, WOSM, WAGGGS, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Award Association.
44 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy policies and initiatives are essential to ensure implementation and utilisation.
We should also pay particular attention to the situation of girls and young women. Girls still face barriers to participation in many sections of society. They still face stereotypical expectations of their gender and face difficulty in achieving equality with males.
WAGGGS uses the method of non-formal education to address the needs of girls and young women. Through education we can address the needs of young people and the desire to develop autonomous, supportive, responsible and committed youth. However is all of this already taking place in the traditional educational sectors? Formal educational policy exists but centres on transfer of knowledge rather than on the construction of personality and acquiring of values. Informal education, the process of acquiring a number of skills, both personal and social from family, friends, media and other influences is an important aspect of a young person’s education. However informal education can suffer from the emphasis on independence rather than autonomy and the increasing consumer society where cost is greater than value.
But the development of autonomy and the development of attitudes based on an integrated value system are made possible though non-formal education. It should be recognised as doing so.
All three types of education can deliver the comprehensive and cohesive educational experience needed by a young person to develop into the active and participatory citizen of today and tomorrow.
Any youth policy should recognise the contribution of non-formal education to many of the other concerns of youth policy. The transferable skills gained should be welcomed by the employment sector; the values based system should be recognised as contributing to the social construction of better communities and societies. The global nature of many non-formal educational organisations should be welcomed as increasing the appreciation of differing cultures, environments and fostering tolerance. Skills of leadership and responsibility should be valued as encouraging young people to participate in decision-making processes in an active and productive manner.
Youth policy must also ensure that from an early age the inequality between male and female are addressed to ensure that our communities of tomorrow ensure equal participation by both
45 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy sexes and ensure that discrimination and inequality for all reasons is eradicated. Special attention must be given to the development needs of girls and young women, which should be thought through at every stage of policy development and implementation as a general overriding concern
Youth organisations need support and a youth policy should provide an avenue by which the resources needed to implement it are provided. This is particularly the case in non-formal education. In addition, leaders and volunteers for such activities need to be recognised, embraced and supported.
Youth polices must be monitored and reviewed regularly to ensure they are truly responding to the needs of young people in our ever changing societies. It must not be the preserve of one political party or movement but of all stakeholders in society who have an interest in creating an environment of tolerance, respect, supportiveness and responsibility – that means employers, decision makers, educationalists, social representatives, NGOs and most importantly, young people themselves. Only consensus on the future of our youth can guarantee that policies will be long term and will survive changes in government.
Cohesiveness, flexibility, complementarity and youth involvement are the key terms for all those concerned with creating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating youth policy. If we can keep our focus on how we want young people to contribute to our societies and we can support the non-formal organisations in contributing to this development then we will have made substantial progress in creating communities and societies where young people are full participants and their needs are integrated.
Chair: Luis PINTO, Jeunesse étudiante catholique internationale - Mouvement international des Etudiants catholiques (JECI-MIEC)
Thank you Heather. I'd like to thank the three keynote speakers very much for their statements. I won't sum up what the speakers have said. There was a tremendous richness of content, there are challenges for the young farmers, we heard about the need for exchanges of experiences, and to share knowledge. In education we see there are new challenges as well for secondary schools. There should be more participation and more real education for young people to make them young democrats and to allow them to flourish in a democratic society. Mobility is very important as well and attached to this and we need an all-encompassing education for the development of the whole person. There needs to be full participation, social integration and we've now heard an
46 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy appeal for non-formal education and getting that to dovetail well with informal education and formal education. So in closing I would like to thank the three keynote speakers again and move straight on to input from the floor of the house.
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Open debate
Ms Eme Van der Schaaf, European Youth Card Association (EYCA)
I represent the EYCA. Youth cards are currently issued in 35 European countries to about 4 million young people per year. Among those 35 countries are 16 countries in Eastern and South Eastern Europe and I want to contribute a bit to the thinking about mobility because these formal youth cards are valid in all these 35 countries so one of our aims is to promote youth mobility inside Europe. It was a bit shocking to read in the ESC Opinion that the number of young people really participating in cross border exchanges and cross border volunteerships is called marginal. Maybe I can give one example. Currently the European Voluntary Service is serving 5,000 young people per year, which is 1 in 12,000 young people belonging to the 16 million of the paper. This means that in an average city of 70,000 inhabitants only 1 young person is participating this year in the European Voluntary Service programme. Or to consider Brussels as a city, 15 young people in Brussels will take part in this voluntary service. So, my appeal to the White Paper would be to significantly improve and enlarge the current programmes and focus less on taking up totally new tasks and provide much better information on current activities in the youth programme to young people, using new technologies of course but also using the youth media of the youth organisations themselves. Those youth media are sometimes very well established. It's a means of communicating to young people quite directly and it's also a means of support to the youth organisations that publish those media and build those web sites. We, especially, try to co-operate with youth organisations in Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe because in their society they represent pretty much the future we would like them to have. Because the official youth work in Central and Eastern and South- eastern Europe has been very much damaged by the changes in the last ten years, so this is a totally new area and youth organisations really contribute to the building of their civil society and stimulate Member States and also other countries where there is not a youth card yet to establish one. In many countries this is now welcomed as a practical tool for youth policy and also because these cards are valid throughout Europe. It also gives a sense of ownership of Europe if you have such a card and have access to advantages and services in other countries. It is important not to rely only on current media, to try to build with the help of new technologies a kind of pan-European youth portal, which is a means, a platform to attractively present that information - not just cold information but attractively present it.
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Ms Clare CAROLL, member of the European Economic and Social Committee
I'm a member of the Economic and Social Committee, of Group 1, which is Employers and Industry and I wanted to just stress that in the implementation of an education policy for the future I think it is very important to structure into the policy the need for support for young people in education. Particularly for all the young people coming from many kinds of disadvantaged backgrounds. We're all aware that middle-class students have a better chance of succeeding in education because they have a family support background, they have access to facilities and family support which perhaps parents in poorer backgrounds cannot, and maybe sometimes will not give. And we can all realise that a family living in totally inadequate accommodation can not be hushed into silence because there is a student studying for an important examination. So we must build in structures into education policy which allow for the support of students in achieving success in their educational standards and for getting to parents as well to ensure that they give as much support as possible to students. Thank you.
Mr Paulo AFONSO, National Youth Council of Portugal (CNJ)
Colleagues and friends, mobility is part of education. There should be a real European area for training now transnational passes will play an important role. People should be able to move and learn in other countries at secondary and tertiary level and for education and for research. It's very important for educators to be mobile as well. This will help them pass on a more international and tolerant culture to other young people. We could think about new forms of mobility such as training courses for example, summer courses. We need more scholarships, more fellowships that allow people to be mobile. Member States have a role to play. They need to make the finance available and create synergies at local and regional levels. Local governments should be involved as well. There should be new bonds created between the public and private sectors, we should try and move away from social security and other bureaucratic barriers which impede movement. We want a real new movement to help people think about learning as a transnational business, it's not just about learning new languages it's about learning how other people live and think. We must view mobility as inclusive, bringing everybody in society together so that we can forge a new Union. Thank you.
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Mr Torsten Moritz, Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe (EYCE)
My organisation is an umbrella organisation of Christian youth organisations all over Europe. We've been talking a lot about the importance and the recognition of non-formal education and the voluntary involvement of young persons. I think we can affirm that this is very essential for a value-oriented approach to education but also for a feeling of citizenship so to speak, for the basis of a participative society. However I think it's an experience we now share with a lot of other organisations that getting people involved on a longer term is more and more difficult and that there are a lot of reasons for that. Some of them being the enormous pressures young people nowadays are under, due to curricula in schools, in universities, but also due to pressures in their job place and their vocational training. I think any government or any transnational organisation recognising the value of non-formal education and voluntary work must also think about the means to implement this and translate that into curricula and also vocational training curricula. There needs to be some space and some time for young people to take voluntary activities, and as we see nowadays in a lot of training and curricula there is an ideology of study fast up to one point and finish as soon as possible and orient towards the market and I think that we should be aware that this is jeopardising any involvement in voluntary work because people simply don't have the time. I think it's very unhelpful in this context that those people who are already involved in youth organisations and youth councils and other things are often labelled out nowadays by institutions such as government or European institutions as you're only representing 50% of the young population. I think you don't encourage participation if you tell people: ‘well you're not 100% so we don't take you seriously’. This is one aspect and the last aspect I would like to mention is that in lot of the papers we see the idea of formal and non-formal education and it's a laboratory and I think it's important also that if you have a laboratory, you allow space for errors. There can be failures, that people can be reintegrated into non-formal as well as formal education processes even if they have failed at some point. Thank you.
Ms Maria Sticchi-Damiani, L.U.I.S.S
I come from university, my experience is in mobility programmes, in tertiary education. When I talk about mobility and education I mean any experience about learning and working in foreign countries. I'd like to link to this idea of employability. Any mobility experience helps you learn about other cultures, learn languages
50 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy and it makes you more flexible, better able to cope with change. This is very useful actually for the workplace so already it makes you more employable potentially, but there is a lot to be done actually about recognition of the competencies acquired during a period of time spent abroad, whether you're following a formal course or not. How do you get credit for what you've done? This is with a view also to getting access to higher education courses or having your skills recognised for the benefit of getting a job. We've got to work out some kind of instrument I reckon, something which would be a European system allowing you to accumulate a credit across borders. This tool will be a real incentive for young people to have experience of mobility. Some countries have credit systems and some countries only allow you to get credits from other higher education establishments, not anything else, not any other experience so we won't have a proper transparent procedure which will allow you to get real credit for what you've learned in practical terms. It's important to get this to show what skills you've got and what skills will be relevant for a job later. There must be flexibility of systems which will allow you to move with your skills, get recognition for your skills by for example the educational establishment you're going to. Now to achieve this objective we need to work at certain resistances because people are resistant to change. Some educational establishments are worried about falling standards. But we're going to open a broader debate now and we've got to look at what the best countries are doing, where are the best practices, is the Bologna declaration taking us in this direction? This is an intergovernmental initiative. Lisbon, though, has also given us pointers about whether we should be working towards a system where more people are employable in the Union. We need to have a community level initiative but supported by the Member States and the Commission as well, pilot studies, money is important to have a professionally run set of systems which will ultimately mean that you can really get credit for your skills. Thank you.
Ms Karina Häuslmeier, Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe (AEGEE)
I come from the European Students Forum. Our main aim is to foster European integration among students all over Europe. We have around 300 universities all over Europe, not only in the European Union, and for us it is crucial to achieve the feeling of European citizenship in young people to remove the obstacles to mobility. Mobility in our opinion can be divided into two concepts: physical mobility and intellectual mobility. We think that the measures which should be taken regarding physical mobility are that legal and administrative obstacles should be removed and
51 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy long and bureaucratic ways have to be abolished and avoided. We propose for young people who participate in intercultural exchanges that visas are abolished because, for example, last year we organised a project called 'Borderless Europe'. One part of this project was a rally through many European countries with a group of people from all over Europe and young people who wanted to travel and wanted to meet who have to apply for visas are still being humiliated. In this respect we are calling for the abolition of visas to facilitate intercultural exchanges.
In regard to intellectual mobility, the European dimension has to be integrated into education and training. In our opinion the access to programmes should be a fundamental right and information campaigns should be encouraged. For example we were taking part in the ‘Socrates On the Move’ programme last year, promoting the Socrates programme among young people all over Europe and unfortunately this programme which was so valid for young people has been cancelled. Furthermore, we are calling for a co-ordination of education all over Europe, like for example, the transfer of credits and the recognition of diplomas. Another means we consider very important to achieve this European citizenship feeling among young people is the media playing an important role in this respect and that European media should be established. Thank you.
Mr Thomas Mayr, Industriellenevereinigung Österreich
I come from the Austrian industrial organisation. I agree with the previous speakers, education is a very important aspect and that should be reflected in the White Paper. In Europe a lot of work has already been done that can be used as a basis in the follow-up to the Lisbon Summit; for example the information and technology aspect that has to be added to, there is a lack of learning of foreign languages as well. I think that these are aspects that need to be stressed. A second point that I wanted to highlight is what I'd like to see in the White Paper. Mr Conti told us that the entrepreneurial spirit should be an aim of education systems, not just to encourage people to found their own company once they leave school but it should help workers to understand the structure of companies. Company structures require new skills of their workers all the time. During the first session this morning we did touch upon that already. Creativity, innovative teachers to bring out creativity in the students. I'd also like to underline the activities of Young Enterprise Europe. I think that it's an organisation that is really looking to the future. It does indeed try to build up entrepreneurship among young people.
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The second point I wanted to make is on the significance of education in making young people prepared for the labour market, a career guidance role, what kind of job, what kind of profession people want to work towards? That's why it's so important for schools not to see themselves as a separate unit in society but as part and parcel of the economic and working world. It is important that school children are given an idea very early on of what's available to them. One of the weak points in my country, but I'm sure we're not alone, is the fact that structures in schools are relatively rigid. The teachers too often have very little contacts with the external world, so if we could talk about opening schools up to the world of the economy, practical experience, getting teachers to get in touch with other professions, that they all make a very important contribution. Something we could add alongside the objectives of the follow-up to Lisbon.
Mr Rob Tilmans, The National Union of Students in Europe (ESIB)
I'm from the national union of students in Europe. I would like to make one more general remark and two more specific points. The general remark is a comment on some of the statements. We feel that education is not simply a preparation for the labour market but it should be a preparation for life in all its various aspects of which the labour market is one aspect. However there can be links between the corporate world and education, one of these links could be co-operation between experts from the corporate world and higher education institutions concerning education for learners. It should be made possible and even stimulated by the governments, but it must also be controlled. Lecturers from the professional world could add to the quality of the course. The institutions have excessive knowledge of the fundamental and applied aspects of science while the professionals from the corporate world are experts on the practical aspect of science. Responsibility for this education, however, must always be with an accredited higher education institution under the supervision of the government.
A second point I wanted to make, which was already stated by some of the previous speakers, relates to the lack of information and transparency and what consequences it has on mobility. Higher education institutions need to improve their information policies. Both higher education institutions and the States must offer independent information to institutions on the local and national level, which gather all the information about higher education institutions and make it available to all students and people who want to enter higher education. These information institutions should co-operate at an international level according
53 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy to results of the evaluations done in the countries and respect the diversity of the different systems of higher education. This will facilitate the mobility of students from all over the world as well as enhancing mobility. Thank you.
Mr Juha Kirstila, Finnish National Youth Co-operation (Allianssi)
I'm from the Finnish national youth council. Non-formal education has been mentioned on many occasions and the importance of such education has been stressed. I think we can all agree about the experience of non-formal education. It's part of life-long learning but I would like to concentrate on specific examples of good practice; of how non-formal education works in Finland, how you can promote everything that a young person has learned. It is a study book which has to do with hobbies. It's a little pamphlet, a bit like a CV, which very generally explains what the young person has learned. Different types of activities can be carried out in free time. It's a pamphlet for young people over 13. Young people participating in various clubs and societies, in student councils, local authority groups etc. These are examples of the vast variety of activities that can be included in this booklet. This is a pamphlet which is being used a lot and 15,000 young people have it already. The study book is helpful in many different situations in life. When a young person is looking for a job or a course, a lot of the training centres and businessmen want young people to be active and to be able to demonstrate what else they've done, not just school life but have they had any other hobbies? Over 250 training centres are now involved in the system. Now the organisation responsible for the study book is the Young Person's Academy, which co-operates with our organisation which is called Allianssi. This pamphlet has been circulated since 1994 and more and more young people have used it. In the future, we will be trying to involve more and more businessmen in our project, thus facilitating the integration of young people into the labour market. There are other countries where there are similar systems and this is just one example. Thank you.
Ms Elisabeth Hardt, European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL)
I'm here on behalf on the European Federation for Intercultural Learning. We bring together youth exchange organisations across Europe, not only inside the European Union, and my comments are actually very general. First of all, I would like to highlight the work of a European body that has taken continuous interest in youth policy for more than 50 years which is the Council of Europe. In
54 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy many ways I think that if we are able to express ourselves here in a cohesive manner and cite a lot of examples that are happening across Europe, I think it's largely due to the fact that we have been given the opportunity to meet on a European level and outside the national context. I think this also highlights the need to address the need for a European body which takes a continuous interest in the European youth policy and in education policy and not just in an ad-hoc fashion.
The second comment is that the findings, and many of the situations and also the recommendations that have been voiced so far are not new to many of us. Youth organisations have stressed many of the recommendations already for a number of years, so we would hope that this consultation will not fizzle out into yet another paper but that it will also, while being reflective and introspective, highlight many initiatives that are taking place in various countries and which are very encouraging. In that way we hope that the document will create ways and means for a comprehensive approach to youth policy in a cohesive European- wide manner. We're encouraged by the final statement this morning from Mr Frerichs showing his interest, the interest of the Economic and Social Committee in this dossier and we particularly welcome the collaborative way in which Economic and Social Committee, the European Youth Forum and the Commission have enabled this consultation to happen today. Thank you.
Ms Aniko Eipl, National Youth Council of Hungary (NIKI)
I'm from the National Youth Council of Hungary and let me take the opportunity to thank the three partner organisations who gave the possibility to youth organisations from non-European Union countries as well to participate in the consultation process. I just have a very specific comment on mobility within the Youth Programme. It is a significant result that since the launch of the new Youth Programme in 2000 all the pre-accession countries can participate in the programme as programme countries and a lot of European countries as third countries; which was not the case before. But we should never forget that for some of the programme countries themselves, citizens need a visa to enter the European Union and I don't think that it is very fair to live in a programme country and to need a visa to participate in the Youth Programme. I think that specific measures should be taken to establish extraordinary procedures or something like that for these young people who take part in youth exchanges and in the projects of the Youth Programme because, as my friends also mentioned, the visa should not be an obstacle to youth mobility. That's why I think that there should be a decision taken on the
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European level to make the procedure easier to get the visa, especially if you think of the realities in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe where the nations themselves do not live within the borders of a single country and we will face this situation in a couple of years when the European Union extends to the East, that some countries will have to introduce visa requirements for their neighbours, which do not exist now and all the decision-makers will have to be careful not to establish new obstacles to the mobility of European young people. It will cause a lot of social tensions in our countries and these measures can be taken only on the European level and not on the national level. That's why I think that this programme and measures should also be included in the White Paper on Youth Policy.
Mr Taris Ahmad, Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO)
I am glad to represent the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations. School and the labour market are often seen as the reflection of a society, education and professions are the keys to social recognition but I agree with my colleague from the ecumenical movement. The key is building values within the school system. There is another problem that I wanted to mention here, just the lack of information about Islam and the discrimination against Muslim women who would like to teach in schools. A lot of Muslim women want to go into the civil service or the teaching profession and can't do this because of national resentment against the headscarf and Islam in general. The problem isn't so much the law but it's the cultural attitudes and prejudices against Islam. People often say that it's the parents and other obstacles that stop women integrating into society but it's much more a problem of society refusing to accept Muslim women because they wear headscarves. I feel personally that information about Islam must get absolute priority before any other legal channels are used such as changing the law, such as adopting a law against discrimination, etc. European Muslim citizens feel they're discriminated against and demonised because of their religion. What's important is mutual respect between citizens and information about Islam has become more important than ever, they are becoming an increasingly large group within the European Union. Immigration is often used to demonstrate what the links are between Christianity and Islam. We need to build a bridge between Islam and European society such, as the creation of professorship such as that under the Jean Monnet programme, and
56 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy also we need to promote a dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims. We also need to publish adequate information about Islam. One final point and then I'd like to conclude. We need to have Islam included in the school curriculum in the books used by school children. Thank you.
Ms Celia LOPES, CGTP-in
I'm from the Portuguese trade union federation. I represent also the European Youth Committee. I'd like to focus on three questions we need to think about when we are thinking about the White Paper. On these three issues we'll be talking about causes and effects and solutions which will help us I hope to tackle problems of the day. Some children drop out of schools. This to us in the European Movement is a very worrying phenomenon in virtually all the countries of Europe. Why do people drop out? Very often in countries, education isn't completely free, particularly from the age of 16 and the end of compulsory school. Once school is no longer compulsory if you've got to pay partially for it then you may be more likely to drop out. In some countries sometimes there is not a proper account taking of what people's vocations are. Very often the education children, young people get is not relevant, it's not what they want. In Portugal there are very few institutions where people can learn practical things for example in order to become a motor mechanic or a farmer, so children, young people drop out because they feel it's not relevant to them. There has been educational curriculum reform but still I feel in various countries curricula are not relevant to the needs of the country, so people and young people go through the education system, come on to the labour market and they are not prepared, they don't have the necessary skills and this leads to unemployment. Because they don't have the skills, very often they can't get into further education. Unemployment leads to social exclusion and the risk of slipping into poverty and that's bad for the individuals and it's bad for the country.
One more thing perhaps you might think about is the issue of child labour. My trade union colleague has said that child labour doesn't only affect the third world. There is child labour implanted in European countries. This is very often in environments where there is poverty. Very often the countries have a low wage policy and a policy which means there are lots of unemployed people sometimes in families where the income is so low that they encourage their children to go out and work to get some money for their family. So we need to check the illegal situations, we need to police and inspect workplaces, we need to have policies to
57 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy combat and stamp out poverty so that people are not tempted to try and encourage young people to go out to work. Thank you.
Ms Laura Gil, European Youth Forum
I'd like to thank the Economic and Social Committee for its support and its policies which need to be further developed in the European sphere. Particularly I'd like to thank Ms Hassett for her work. We need to have contributions from young people because we can't develop youth policies without that. I hope that it will be contagious and spread to other institutions, this confidence in young people. I'd like to say that youth policies are necessary to allow us to develop various aspects of our lives: personal, professional, educational. All this will depend on the measures that you take, the measures that you take will affect us. People lose hope if they can't go and find a job. The problem of equivalence of qualifications is important for finding jobs in other countries, exchanges are important, as are languages. We need to know about opportunities to find out about other cultures. Some people consider it to be a fault that we say what we think and others consider it to be a virtue. But we want to be heard, we want to be listened to and we want what we say to be taken on board. We don't want it to be just symbolic, not that you just hear us but that you really take on board what we think. The future of our society is in young people. If we want to develop society, we depend on young people to do this, we are the future society. Just to finish, education is a basic pillar. We are constantly learning. The essential link between formal and non-formal education needs to be recognised. Students developing social values while they’re studying as well. They're becoming citizens. Thank you.
Mr Donall Geoghegan, National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI)
I work with the NYCI. I just wanted to address non-formal education and formal education in a few brief comments. First of all we have to recognise that non-formal education, and our side of non-formal education which we call youth work, is really the poor cousin of education and it's poor in two main ways. First of all there is poor recognition of the value of youth work and secondly it's poor in terms of the support that is given to it, particularly financial support. And that's true at the local level, at the national and the European level as well. And the European Union itself, of course, has some limited engagements to youth
58 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy work. We believe there are three things that could make a real difference to what happens in youth work at the local, national and European level. Three things you can do; first of all there could be a European Union year for youth work. The European Youth Year was a great success a number of years ago, a lot happened because of that. If we were to have the next available year as an European Union year of youth work it would help to promote youth work and its value and the infrastructures which make up youth work throughout the Union. Secondly, there should be more support from the European Union for the development of youth work infrastructures at national and European Union levels. We believe that this could best be done by providing resources through the European Youth Forum to encourage greater interaction and learning from youth work policy and legislation and practice throughout the Union. Thirdly, in order to get over the problem of lack of recognition of youth work, there should be a new charter setting out the relationship between non-formal education and formal education. On formal education itself there have been many pieces in the submissions you've seen in our papers here today and comments from the floor here and in terms of the national conferences and the Paris conference in October on some of the problems, the gaps in education. Three main ones I would say: early school leaving has been a particular problem, the gaps in education and training options for young people and the whole range of inequalities which are endemic within the education system at all levels, inequalities in class, race, gender, etc. The European Union already has a role in education and we believe it can play a greater role. It would simply be to make a greater effort to encourage and support Member States in reforming the formal education system, in tackling some of those problems and we believe that European Union could be a catalyst for real change in that. Thank you.
Ms Eija Harjula, Central organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK)
The Austrian industry representative talked of the importance of having contact between industry and young people. I think this has to be mentioned. The problem is if training is lasting longer and longer we are in education for more years, at the same time what's being learnt is more and more theoretical, so quite often when the young person moves into the world of work, he or she doesn't necessarily have the right skills for his or her profession, the practical skills so there needs to be co-operation at this level. We would need both legislative measures and practical ones so that there is co-operation between training centres and firms. So that young people know what they need to know when they begin to
59 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy work. Obviously, training for work is only one part of education, yes it's true but it is an important part, it's a tool which will allow this young person and his or her family to eat later to make a living. So, work is a very important part of daily life, technology is another aspect. We have increasingly more technology, more computers, more community networks in our life, more information networks and we need to be sure that all young people regardless of where they live have the necessary knowledge and skills to use these media. Otherwise there is a great risk of inequality. Another point is language learning, both the mother tongue and other languages. We can never stress this point too much.
Ms Carlotta Besozzi, European Disability Forum (EDF)
The European Disability Forum is an umbrella organisation of national federations across the European Union and the European Economic Area and now also from some of the accession countries and non-governmental organisations including youth disability organisations. Our mission is to ensure that disability issues and also issues concerning young people are taken into account in European policies. Particularly, I'd like to talk about education and mobility, to speak about non-discrimination issues. Non- discrimination is one of the principles of the European Union and it is ensured in the Treaty but this is far from being a reality. Many young disabled people are discriminated against and do not enjoy the same rights as their peers and I'd like to thank the Economic and Social Committee for saying that non-discrimination against disabled people is a big issue in education empowerment and I'd also like to invite the European Commission to take account of that in the White Paper. Particularly, young disabled people face discrimination in education at all levels, also at the second degree education, third degree, at university there is a very low participation of disabled people and this is because a lot of barriers. For example there are physical barriers, accessibility at university or learning material which is non- accessible for example for blind people or deaf students, for exams or structures which are not adapted to their needs. This also makes education very costly. This also creates lots of problems for disabled young people to participate in mobility programmes which are funded by the European Union as not many structures cater for their needs and also they have difficulties in accessing housing for students which are not made for them. Now also the European Union is engaging in an open method of co-ordination for education in particular there is a lot of attention on knowledge based society. There is a target that all schools will be provided with internet facilities, it is also very important that internet facilities provide
60 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy assistive and adaptive technologies for disabled children and students, otherwise the information society which could be an opportunity for all young people would discriminate against young disabled people. I give these examples also to show that it is not only important to talk about the principle of non-discrimination but that measures must be targeted at specific groups in order to make non-discrimination a reality. Thank you.
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Participation and Civil Society
Chair: Ms Tuulikki Kannisto, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee
I'd like to underline what Ms Jillian Hassett said in her opinion on the White Paper on Youth Policy. She said that youth organisations are an essential part of youth policy and that they are a unique tool for encouraging the participation of young people in society in general. All of us here represent different organisations and bodies and this broad range makes clear this wide variety of representatives. We need broad co-operation with young people when we're dealing with subjects of interest to young people, young people have very clear views on various subjects and therefore we need to bring in young people when we prepare, when we're making policy on young people and issues in general. We need to have a dialogue between young people and politicians in general. We need to have a dialogue between politicians and young people and we have lots of possibilities here, youth parliaments, organisations and so on. It's important to be aware of the opinions of young people on everyday topics. European values bring together values from different national cultures, a variety of cultures as I said this morning. There isn't any single truth, we need to stress diversity and tolerance in this global environment, we mustn't forget the essential idea lying behind the European Union, which was peace in Europe. We mustn't forget peace when we talk about current problems. That's all I wanted to say to open this third session.
Initial Statements
Ms Denise Fuchs, European Women’s Lobby (EWL)
Democracy can only exist when all citizens are fully and thoroughly involved in every aspect of public life whatever their age or their gender is. Women's under- representation in decision-making processes and discrimination that has been existing for years in many areas are also so obstacles to democracy.
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, girls and young women have to face new challenges in order to achieve the equality in reality that they have nearly acquired in rights. Indeed, social structures and employment, stereotypes regarding girls' and boys' roles at school, at home, on the labour market, etc. are obstacles to a full and total participation of young women at all levels. A lot
62 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy of questions concern women specifically and moreover, their input and their ideas represent a huge potential in the realisation of solutions. Equality between girls and boys, between women and men is a challenge for the whole of society. If it is taken up, it will prove beneficial for everyone.
We therefore ask for:
- specific discussion and action spaces to be set up at all levels, so that girls and young women get the opportunity and the means to deal with the questions that are of concern to them and to mobilise themselves into defending their rights and ideas
- Equality between sexes to be integrated in the European Youth Policy and to be allocated proper funds.
- All forms of violence perpetrated against girls and young women (incest, genital mutilations, domestic, school or urban violence), which are obstacles to their full participation, to be fought against and be recognised as issues of public interest and social responsibility - the recognition that some groups of young women are confronted with multiple discrimination, and call for measures to be taken accordingly.
- A legislative framework to be set up in order to promote short-term positive actions, such as quotas, at all decision- making levels and in every branch of industry.
- measures to be taken to prevent the media from degrading girls and young women and treating them as sexual objects and to encourage the use of the media as a tool to promote a positive and realistic image of women.
- measures to be taken for the use of non-sexist language in education and in all areas and to raise the awareness of public opinion of the processes that perpetuate sexist stereotypes and vocabulary, consequently reducing women's role in society.
These recommendations come from debates that took place at the national and European level in the framework of the EWL's project entitled “Mobilise young women for equality in Europe”, which among others, contributed to the creation of a unique European network of young women.
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Ms Ana Santacana-Guëll, International Movement of Catholic Rural and Agricultural Youth (MIJARC)
To understand the situation of rural youth regarding participation and democracy, one has to start from the fact that they are conditioned by the lack of opportunities in different fields such as education, work, social protection, and leisure activities. If we add the fact that they are seldom offered a place to express their opinions, thus not having many chances to influence society and change things, it is easy to imagine that many youngsters are quite discouraged by the picture presented to them.
At present, the populations of rural areas are ageing faster and faster and to us it is a priority to engage young people there by making them aware of the possibilities to both develop themselves, that is, make their own choices, and develop their local communities at the same time by making the most of the existing resources and bringing new ones into play. That is why youth participation in civil society has become a key issue. There is a strong need to involve young actors in decision-making from a very early stage. For instance, this is an area where the partnership between formal education and the INGYO sector is central to ensuring that young people become a resource in rural communities and they are fundamental for the development of a democratic and participatory society.
The urgency to empower young people has to be understood in the light of the role of politics as well. Most of the time young people feel strongly against politics, as their opinions are not taken into account. We strongly believe in the role of partnership amongst all the social actors to turn this feeling of exclusion into an opportunity to participate. Here the role of youth organisations becomes a cornerstone in that they can provide young people with the skills necessary to develop projects at the local level and empower them to participate in the decision-making in a democratic way. For us participation and democracy cannot be understood separately.
At the moment, we can't leave aside the creation of local youth councils in many European areas. To us, these councils have to be the tool to promote democratic participation at the local level and that is why we believe in the need to give young organised people the chance to participate there. We understand that once these young people get involved and start developing positive actions, the picture will become a more optimistic one and they will have the possibility to reach other young people and have a multiplying
64 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy effect, thus making the contribution of the councils relevant, developing further actions and making rural areas sustainable.
To reach the needs identified by our organisation:
We ask governments to revise the aim of local and regional youth councils as in small communities they have little impact. They cannot be a means to achieve higher participation due to the fact that their operating area is too narrow and the possibility of setting up an agenda is limited.
Local authorities should offer youth organisations that train young people in a democratic context the means to go on with their task and open the floor to them so that they can participate in autonomous development as actors and avoid the feeling of exclusion that most of them face.
Funds should be allocated to youth organisations supporting the self-organisation of the rural population so that they can build up a functioning structure and organise innovative projects and training activities aimed at rural development, especially to those that try to reinforce co-operation with the accession countries.
The European institutions, in co-operation with national governments, should pay more attention to the development of non-formal education and give it official recognition as long as it contributes to the development of their communities through democratic participation. Those who commit themselves with youth organisations and have the role of developing strategies to motivate and train others to get involved in society should also be taken into consideration.
Mr Renaldas Vaisbrodas, National Youth Council of Lituania (LiJOT)
One of the most important elements of youth policy is the participation of young people. Active participation of young people guarantees the follow-up of ongoing developments and understanding of future vision. Young people should be involved in all levels of decision-making process, it would give them the possibility to realise themselves and motivate them to be come active citizens. Special emphasis must be given to pre-accession and candidate countries. Involvement of young people from these countries is essential, because of the future vision of Europe. Basic understanding of European values and spreading the ideas of unity and equality should be presented for youth in the pre-accession
65 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy and candidate countries. Access to information should be provided for all young people especially for those who are suffering discrimination or/and live in disadvantaged areas. It will help them integrate into the civil society.
Ideas of structural involvement of young people into decision- making should be transparent and promoted on the Community and on the national and regional levels. Structures should involve possibilities to express opinions and speak up on the issues directly related to young people. Pre-accession countries should participate equally in all programmes which are developed by the community and the possibility to co-operate between each other on integration issues should also be provided. Decentralised information centres where information can be found on the issues related to youth participation and mobility should be created, especially important is the possibility to access Internet.
Examples of co-management systems can be found in the Council of Europe as well as in some national youth policy structures. This structure is stable and gives outcome of fluent co-operation between governmental and non-governmental sectors. Activities organised by the initiative of young people in pre-accession countries on the topic of White Paper on European Youth Policy could be an example on how to involve young people, but at the same time as a possibility to learn from the mistakes done, because participation of young people was not based on equality and representative involvement of non-European Union countries. The good practice of creating youth centres for information can include the possible establishment information points in the local level libraries or places where youth can be organised for their interests. Open debate
Mr Kim Svendsen, National Youth Council of Denmark (DUF)
Speaking for the Danish Youth Council, we are very happy that we are currently co-operating with our national authorities about promoting local youth policies, and there are quite many similarities to the European level in that sense. One of the main conclusions from this work is that participation doesn't just happen. It's a question of information, knowledge, recognition and appropriate support structures. On the European level, you also have to recognise the realities. There is actually tremendous diversity within Europe, which requires that we have, compared to our national situation, a very flexible approach. On the other hand, as the Commission mentioned this morning, it is a reality that the European Union has a rather limited competence in this field for
66 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy the moment. Maybe it could be changed by the White Paper process in the coming few years, but I doubt that much will happen on this, also because the national authorities are saying that they are not interested in such a development but there might be small changes. This means that if we want to have some concrete proposals realised in the coming years from the White Paper process - which in itself is a very admirable initiative which we really praise - then we have to make very concrete proposals. This is also what the Commission says whenever we talk to them and it is the first time that we've had this chance. This is why one of our proposals is that the European Union and the European institutions should present comprehensive comparative studies on youth policy and do it on a regular basis. It could be every second year presented in the European Parliament and the Council and ascertain that the representatives of young people, youth organisations, could also make contributions to this process. This would make sure that we would take into account the fact that we are living in a dynamic world, which demands dynamic solutions.
As a second point you could say that youth policy is a special field, even if it's not more special than many other fields in Europe. This is why they have also introduced this very interesting procedure called the open method of co-ordination, particularly to be used in fields where European Union doesn't have a full competence. It's already used in employment, in preparing education and social policies and one further step could be to make sure that the youth organisations representatives were recognised as full partners in this process because here we really think about issues that are debated also at the national level, so there we can take into account the diversity of Europe and still make our contributions.
Thirdly, it should be considered, this is the opinion of our youth council, whether we should also use this co-ordination method in the field of youth policy. We would be very encouraged if the relevant institutions analysed the situation to assess whether it would be possible to introduce such a method in the field of youth policy and of course in that process we would be even more likely to be one of the primary partners. These are two or three proposals that we might be able to take into account, there are of course many other issues, I think many of you have raised relevant issues.
Ms Dolors CAMATS, Catalonian National Youth Council (CNJC)
Our Lithuanian colleague touched on an issue which is very important for us because the language we normally speak is Catalan and we don't have Catalan here, even though we're
67 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy members of the European Union. The CNJC would also like to focus on the participation of young people, a fundamental element in order to allow young people to be full citizens with all their rights and obligations today and tomorrow. The only way of doing this is to ensure that they participate. We have to take on our responsibility in terms both of rights and obligations. A lot has been said about participation, there's no magic recipe for this, but there are a few key elements that we would like to highlight. We need to guarantee conditions of life, access and participation to all young people, equal conditions allowing the emancipation of young people and guarantee there are jobs, home training, everything that allows young people to participate in society. A lot of discussion has already focused on education and the need to guarantee that young people are trained, not just for a profession but also for active citizenship. But the channels to allow people to participate are equally important such as youth organisations, political and trade union organisations, which play a key role that needs to be recognised and reinforced. Sometimes when talking about participation we shy away from using the word power, participation means access to power, let's not hide the fact that we also want the ability to decide and to have an impact on decisions and have access to power. Another point which is important when talking about participation is the context and I will conclude on that. It has been said, that in order to increase participation you have to think globally and act locally but these days it's even more important for the local level to affect the global level. Cultural identity, linguistic and national identity that of any minority has to be recognised for access to participation in an increasingly global world. It is only if we can guarantee that diversity has been accepted as a value rather than a threat, vis-à-vis the increasing harmonisation of our lives that we can move forward. As the Catalan people, we are very linked to other Mediterranean people's and unfortunately this is not being recognised today. I would not like to conclude without making an appeal on one of the issues which defines the present and the future, the phenomenon of immigration. If you declare some people legal and others illegal it's not the way to promote participation and this should be made clear.
Mr Mickael Garnier Lavalley, Comité pour les Relations Nationales et internationales des Associations de Jeunesse et d'Education Populaire (CNAJEP)
I will also concentrate on the participation of young people. The president of the Economic and Social Committee told us at the beginning that young people were our future, not just the future I think, but the present, mainly the present. As the documents say,
68 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy young people today are not all the same and ways of participation must also be very varied. We would not deny the importance of participation of our organisation locally and nationally in our countries. There are also non-organised youth who have to find other areas to participate and express their views. They should be able to express their views in various areas in a direct dialogue with the local and regional, national and even European political authorities. In schools, within the work place, participation has to take on different forms: formal, informal, institutional, so that most of them, most of us can give our opinion on life in society. It seems to me that one of the big problems of the European Union, and more globally of our society, is a democratic problem, a lack of link between the citizens and the public authorities. If there is anything that we would back it is that of the democratic ideal to bring the political decision-makers closer to young people, closer to citizens in general. That is a way of allowing young people to participate more. It's important to demonstrate that as young people we don't just want to express opinions on issues which concern us directly but on all the social issues. We do have opinions on all of these issues and if we don't have access to means of expression it's really a pity. I think that one of the benefits of a meeting like this is the development of various forms of participation. I would also like to say something on who we should participate with. We are not just talking about organising talks and dialogues with other young people, Europe has an ageing population, that's important to maintain a link with other generations. The participation should allow that link to be strengthened.
Ms Päivi Timonen Verma, European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA)
ERYICA has national partners in 35 European countries, informs millions of young people according to the questions or problems young people themselves raise. I will limit myself to three demands. Young people are the most importance resource of any society. That might be seen as self-evident but can we say that our modern European societies invest enough in young people as the economic, social and political future of those societies? In our view, just investment to be effective must happen in the framework of a coherent comprehensive youth policy in each country in the sense defined by the Economic and Social Committee. The European Union White Paper must support the development of such policies and it must include complementary measures to make Europe a part of the daily life of all young people. Active and meaningful youth participation is the foundation of any effective youth policy. This means possibilities
69 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy for young people and their organisations to participate at all levels, local, national and European level. This includes carrying out an evaluation of youth policies and programmes. There is already much good practice in this area in different countries and at the European level. The White Paper exercise has been an important first step. Efforts should be made now to make sure that a process of consultation and involvement covers all categories of young people and of people and services working with young people. My last point is that especially at the European level, effective participation requires a clear information strategy to ensure that many more young people have access to European programmes and opportunities. This is a demand that came out of many of the national White Paper consultations. The last ten years of the European Union's youth programmes have shown that there is a real information deficit. We hope that the European Union in the White Paper will make a clear information strategy, one of its areas for priority actions.
Ms Ellen Trane Norby, Liberal and Radical Youth Movement of the European Union (LYMEC)
When talking about participation of young people in society, it's important to make sure that the position of young people is taken into account. My organisation is represented in 65 countries in the world. There is a great difference between places like Bielorussia and here but there are similarities nonetheless. All politicians want to speak for young people. I was young once and I'm representing young people but it should be young people themselves involved in decision-making process. You get quite demoralised when looking at how little young people participate. If we want to just support young people's participation in democratic process, it's vital not to underestimate the position of young people and their active participation. It is extremely important for young people to have a say. During the last European elections young people seemed to be pretty apathetic about voting. The reason for this seems to be that most countries have adopted youth policies in an attempt to save the young people in their countries but generally these policies do not directly involve young people actively, or young people were unable to express their opinions on the policies being pursued. They were policies which were set up according to traditional models, outdated tools, new technologies were ignored and people didn't speak young people's language. So it's the politicians ignoring the problems of young people. It's a good idea to have us all here today as a forum but let's not forget that there are many young people who are not organised at all and who are totally unable to participate in any decision at all. You could get the impression that you're just completely powerless. We
70 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy think that there really seems to be a problem with that access to participation. Young people in Eastern Europe for example are often to be considered as second-class citizens, they surely have something to say too. Every time people talk about accession, they should be taken into account too. Nobody seems to respect the principle of equality. Often Danish fishermen and French farmers are compared but the enlargement countries are ignored all together. We need to take into account everyone, if we want an integrated Europe. Glossy political documents such as the White Paper are useless if we don't follow it up with effective action. The policies of the European Union suffer from that defect. They don't lead to participation. On the contrary, they put young people off, they're fed up of hearing promises and seeing nothing, so please make sure that the White Paper leads to something. If people see things happening, they are more likely to get involved and that goes for the candidate countries as well. Hopefully they too will be able to participate in all the European Union programmes.
Ms Anna Kinberg, Swedish Employers' Confederation (SAF)
I represent the Swedish Employers’ Confederation. I am a small businessperson, I'm not a youth businessperson as such. However I do have a small company which I run. I'm very proud to represent a very committed Presidency country and I note at the same time that many young people are sceptical about the European Union. Our participation rates in the elections to the European Parliament were very low indeed and there is talk of the democratic deficit and therefore I feel that this White Paper is so important. We need to act on it since the youth of tomorrow will be the leaders of tomorrow and what we do today will determine their confidence in the European Union. You can not buy trust, you have to get it from the bottom up through an organisation. This is why I feel that what we want to accomplish at Community level and give priority to in the White Paper are measures to facilitate for young people to work and study wherever they choose within the Union and facilitate for young people in the candidate countries to travel and work. This has been mentioned by several speakers already today. I feel exchanges, mobility, recognition of diplomas, etc. are very positive. I would however like to say a word of warning on how much we should do at Community level. Perhaps everything that has been mentioned so far is not suitable to be dealt at Community level if we have too many bodies for supporting European programmes, etc there is a risk that we alienate some of these young people and we reduce further the trust that we wanted to give. This is why I feel that it is so important to ensure a proper dialogue with young people, we need to talk to them as
71 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy citizens, we need to get rid of obstacles to free movement instead of raising new barriers by centralising too much.
Mr Guillaume Legaut, World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM)
I represent the Scout movement and I'm also the president of the advisory council of youth issues in the Council of Europe, one of the few bodies where young people are really involved in decisions and where the participation of young people in political decisions takes on its full meaning. I wanted to underline that. Three points: the White paper asks what the youth policy of the European Union should adopt. It's important to underline certain aspects. Youth policy is a long-term policy, it prepares the next generation, it doesn't prepare the next few years or next elections. It's difficult to get that through to the political powers that be, it is a long term policy that needs to be integrated and it needs to be a sort blanket policy involving all sectors. It's important to avoid shutting young people off into some kind of enclosure. They must be integrated into all aspects of European policy. For long-term policy you have to equip yourself with the means to bring about stability. Obviously the Council of Europe already encompasses a large number of States and we are in an unstable area so the challenge of peace and stability is very important. Economic stability is often given priority to the detriment of peace.
Second question for youth policy is why should Europe have one? What is it going to contribute to over national youth policies? Some people touched on this, this morning. Perhaps it was ideological and intellectual fiction in some cases. It's important to place the human being at the heart of the European project for young people in Europe. For the scout movement, what's important is to educate citizens individually and be socially committed and active, and people should be happy and able to develop. It's a personal development in all forms: economic and social, personal, spiritual and philosophical. It's all these aspects which are important. They should be reflected in the White Paper. The richness of society lies in its diversity and its variety and these aspects need to be an essential part of a youth policy. Europe has a very rich history and it has a very rich future and these aspects have to be taken into account. Youth policy has also to set a goal, a clear political vision, Mr Almeida said this morning it was a political debate and I agree. What kind of young people do we want for the future, that is the question? Young people, capable of making their own choices, responsible young people who can take on responsibilities for their choices and able to assert themselves on their own values.
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Mr Pablo Cameselle, National Youth Council of Spain (CJE)
In the national youth council of Spain we would like to dwell on certain issues which affect the participation of young people, and in particular the framework within which they still all move. One of the main difficulties we have when talking about European youth policy is the fact that it doesn't exist. You can't really talk about a European youth policy yet. Youth policy is of course mentioned in various other policies such as the education policy and the various programmes such as the Youth Programme but that doesn't mean that we, young people, have our own policy or a clearly defined youth policy. The process of drawing up the White Paper shows that youth issues are transnational, European, perhaps international but mainly European as far as we're concerned. The existence of a European youth policy needs to be recognised as such in the Treaties of the European Union. For example we have references to the mobility of young people, without mobility you can't draw up a proper White Paper, you need a proper legal framework which allows the action plans in the White Paper to be implemented. There have to be clear principles adopted, there are differences between the North and the South of Europe, so we need a European youth policy which has to link up various actions and take the different circumstances of young people everywhere in Europe into account. As far as participation is concerned, we'd like to call for a European law on associations which would promote European associations. Participation is an important, indeed vital instrument for European construction. We should have our own legal framework which would allow that to happen.
Mr Raj Jethwa, Trade Union Congress (TUC)
I represent the Trade Union Congress, which is the national centre for trade unions in the United Kingdom. We represent 7 million members which means that we are a key representative body within civil society and we're the major social partners. Unions can help young people in work to influence decisions about their employment directly and wider social policy including producing equality based on gender, race, sexuality, disability or age. And through trade unions we can help young people by showing them how these issues affect them, how they can play a part in influencing policies. I'll make two basic points about that, first of all, in Britain, unions are key deliverers of lifelong learning and we have spent a lot of time increasing capacity through training workplace representatives to deliver training in the work place. And I'd like to see more support for union activities which are focused on organising young workers into trade unions, and
73 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy encouraging young people to be more involved within their unions as well as empowering young people to influence their workplace first of all but learning through that how to engage in a democratic process. Secondly, within the UK, we have as part as our school curriculum, our national curriculum, a new emphasis on teaching 14-16 year olds about their role as citizens through citizenship training and this includes participation in voluntary organisations, and in trade unions. The TUC is producing materials for teachers to use which introduces young people to the concept and role of unions and we are also looking at doing this on a web-based format. So I'd like to see this emphasis on citizenship strengthened in formal education, especially the emphasis on rights and responsibilities at work. And perhaps some sort of core themes across the European Union and more support from the Commission for such initiatives.
Ms Zeynep Aydemir, Youth for Habitat International Network
I work for an NGO called Youth for Habitat International Network, which is based in Turkey. It promotes the empowerment of young people and increases their capacities at all levels. I will be a bit selfish and focus on Turkey in my own intervention as it is considered as a unique case within Europe, though today conflicts are surrounding this country. As a country with a very dynamic population, Turkey will be the one with the largest number of people under the age of 30 when it enters the European Union and this will be the case no matter when Turkey joins the European Union, which seems to have been the last one when the conclusions of the summit are considered. Although Turkey has been in close co-operation with the European Union in terms of its economy since the early 1960s, it shares similar concerns with other candidate countries as well, especially regarding the implementation of the youth policy. Moreover, it becomes much more difficult as young people do not have a well-organised associative life and many are still not able to access basic services which will provide them with a sound adulthood. As a result of this lack of associative life, the problem of making oneself understood to counterparts in the European Union Member States emerges. It is also very important that young people are aware of the mechanisms through which they can participate. Bearing in mind all these facts about Turkey, a few youth organisations, a few non- governmental organisations in Turkey strive to promote the involvement of young people in civil society. This is also tried in terms of decision-making , implementation and evaluation processes, especially beginning from the local level. However, we expect this initiative to improve once faced with the European Union vision. It's a very positive development that the countries for
74 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy which accession negotiations have not been started are also invited to this hearing. Youth for Habitat believes that since this is the largest enlargement of the European Union, a good way of incorporating young people of pre-accession and candidate countries would be to familiarise the young people of newcomers to the existing form of civic life in the European Union, no matter how different they are in terms of culture and ‘religion’. Finally, the promotion of participation also requires related statistical data and enough information on the trends that are affecting the related countries, especially in candidate and pre-accession countries as this would assist in formulating appropriate and sound policies.
Ms Helena Proos, LO-Sweden
I feel that it is extremely important when you discuss youth issues that you look at why young people are not very committed. Already at school you experience a situation where people don't pay attention to what you're saying. You have an opinion but nobody cares. It doesn't matter to your teachers, it doesn't matter to your future school career and if you continue giving young people those signals, that is the way they will perceive society in the future. It becomes very clear in a lot of the work we do where people say that youth issues are the most important but as soon as there is talk about making cuts and reductions in the budget that is where the reductions hit the hardest. We need participation in the trade union movements, in the political sphere but young people are always included last because they are the youngest, they are not the oldest and most experienced. We need to stop paying lip service to these concepts, we need to show that we mean business when we appoint people to different positions we need to nominate them based on their knowledge, on their experience as young people and this has to begin already at school. When somebody has an opinion, we have to take it seriously, we have to prove it to them that we do take them seriously.
Ms Claire Mc Carthy, Irish Girl Guides
I'd like to make a brief comment about young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds because often when we talk of barriers for these young people we talk of money or language as barriers to European participation, but what I would see as one of the main barriers to participation by young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are often parents and families because families who for generations have been outside the
75 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy participation loop are generally hugely sceptical that any benefits will come from participation in such an organisation or exercise. This pattern is repeated over and over again by numerous generations resulting obviously in a Catch 22 situation. So I just think that we should note that when targeting young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, we can't just look at the barriers of money and language, and so on, but we also have to look at the parents and perhaps have a programme for them too.
Mr Sebastian Giwa, National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU)
I have got three questions that affect us all. I think they're answered but I'm going to ask them anyway. Are young people a resource or are we an obstacle? On whose terms should we participate? On our terms or on the terms in a structure and so on? Am I living my life today or is it a transition to something else? I think you know the answers to the questions so I won't answer. But I think that they are core questions for this process and two basic foundations in this process are that the creative abilities and critical thinking of young people must be seen as resources and that opportunities for participation and decision-making are democratic rights. They are rights and not oncrete questions and demands.
Ms Josefin Wiklund, National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU)
LSU would like to emphasise the importance of a cross-sectoral approach and we are wondering if the European level is changing the opportunities and situation for our national organisation. What requirements do you place on this, what opportunities does this provide us with and what are the requirements on the Commission? With their present working methods, is it possible for the European Commission to implement a cross-sectoral youth policy for Europe? There is no Commissioner for youth policy, but a directorate on youth policy only.
Mr Georgios Sklavounos, member of the European Economic and Social Committee
I am a member of the Economic and Social Committee and I'm here as rapporteur on a series of questions which affect European youth. My first opinion was on cultural policy for European youth and my last report was on fighting against child exploitation,
76 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy children in the sense of the United Nations, and tackling sex tourism. I think that the Economic and Social Committee has made an ongoing effort in this direction, we do not simply draw up opinions, we contribute to policies too. We have made many efforts to attract new allies such as social partners, local administrations, organised civil society. Hopefully we'll be able to move together in society. We have developed, for example, a network of organisations of citizens and cities which are friendly towards children. We have a good proposal here, it's a very good opinion and the aims are very practical. At this particular phase, we need to choose objectives which can be put into practice but that does not mean that it is enough. It does not mean that today we should simply demand that these objectives be put into practice and nothing else. I think that we all agree that the problems of European youth require a holistic approach. We need a clear European dimension which can be planned right down to the local level, right down to the level of local administration. The level of the municipalities. I think that in order to achieve this, in order to guarantee the participation of young people we need a civilisation based on participation. A culture which will have structures which are based on participation, institutions based on participation. We need a cultural dialogue, but participation without the necessary information and knowledge, without the possibility of developing critical knowledge, without having the power to decide is not participation. If we take into account that 30% of students in British schools are practically illiterate when they leave school, we can understand what the crisis of participation is, what about the crisis of the urban environment, the crisis of the school, the violence, extremism, political extremism in the big cities. I will conclude with one word, at the level of municipalities we can reach the highest degree of complimentarity and synergy and there we may concentrate.
Mr Tim Schrock, German National Committee for International Youth Work (DNK)
I represent an international committee of the German youth wing and the party political youth organisations in Europe. Today we're in a unique situation, we are trying to organise a participatory event here. We want to work on the White Paper. We have different experiences in our different countries, we try to pool them and somehow we've got to get influence into the White Paper. I don't quite understand why individual countries like Germany make such a store about organised and non-organised youth. At the local level there isn't a big difference sometimes between positions of organised and non-organised youth groups. We have youth organisations, they should be locked into a process and that does
77 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy emerge clearly from the White Paper but where are the results going to go? I mean, is the White Paper going to be a once off effort and that will be it, or shouldn't there be a platform where ideas can be developed? I'd like to thank the Economic and Social Committee for creating this platform, as I said this platform should be a springboard, it shouldn't be a once off event. If you are a young person and you're not involved in a highly organised organisation, then you can be frustrated if your views are not getting through. If we produce, or if the White Paper really comes out and then if it's to have an effect, young people have got to see real progress made. It's got to be seen to be more than just a paper but a realistic handbook for real life.
Mr Hamid Khelifa, Euro Contact Jeunes
I come from Strasbourg, I'm well acquainted with Neuhof, the suburb of Strasbourg, as I work in with young people in suburbs. I think a key issue here is what can Europe do to inform young people in suburbs, to inform them about Europe. A lot of young people are completely confused about Europe. They don't know what's going on, there is an information gap. If you're a deprived youth and you're really left outside, we've got a project called the information office for suburban youth. But quite frankly if you go out into the field and you find young people in the suburbs and depressed areas in Strasbourg or somewhere else, you can tell them until you're blue in the face that there is a European exchange programme as they wonder what has this got to do with them. They feel left out. People have talked about schools a lot. People have talked about education but I think not enough is being done in schools. Not very many schools are really getting their act together.
Be a young European citizen for the future certainly in Kindergarten you don't hear anything about it, I've got a child who's been through Kindergarten, most the way through primary without ever hearing about Europe. I think it's important for young people to get an idea of why we're going on about Europe, they've got to realise that it's part of their life and I think you should start telling them about it when they're really young, why not in Kindergarten and also I think we should think carefully about what might be done in the way of financial help for young people between 15 and 25. I don't know to what extent we've got the power to moot the idea of a special fund for young people. I know we're in a situation where things are not easy on the financial front but I don't know whether or not grants could be made available to help young people learn more about Europe and indeed learn useful things which might help them in their working life.
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Ms Jennifer Florido, Young reporter of Swedish European Union Presidency
I come from Young Reporters, which is a project organised in Sweden to engage young Swedes in the European Union. I must say I'm quite pleased to sit here among a group of adults, that's to remind us that young people are the future of Europe and that they need to be represented, listened to and respected. I know some of you have come here as volunteers, leaving jobs behind temporarily. This is among many other reasons why I hope that this policy becomes a reality for us soon. As I recently heard from someone that I have interviewed, just a little bit of participation makes you an addict. What I'm trying to say with this is that if we all got the chance to feel important at one point and receive proper guidelines from society and school we would all feel like an influential part of society and we would keep going with that for probably the rest of our lives.
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Conclusions
Chair: Ms Malin Berggren, National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU)
I'll be taking you through the last hours of today's hearing and we'll do the following: we'll have a brief summary of today's events presented by our three respective chairmen sitting in front of me and a few comments and remarks from Commissioner Ms Reding, who is responsible for youth issues as well as a number of other things. There is also room for a concluding debate which is really open to all of you.
Let's begin by brief summaries of our three chairmen on the thematic sessions which we have organised during the course of the day.
Ms Irini Pari, member of the European Economic and Social Committee, chair of the first session on Employment and Social Integration.
I just want to give you a taste of the work we did this morning in the first session, which was on youth employment and social integration. We heard from the representatives you can see before you: that is young workers, young businessmen and women, various forms of representatives of the marginalised and various youth organisations from the different countries of the European Union. It was a very rich discussion, particularly concerning the instability which characterises youth employment. There is unequal treatment, unequal salaries for young people and the national guidelines for employment need to tackle these matters. We need a correct and more efficient implementation of European directives, collective bargaining agreements and youth exchanges and the improvement of policies must be taken into account and put into practice. We also have to look at the reduced social protection that young people have and job security and also the question of young parents who are working and the need to provide proper childcare. We also heard that the education systems and the systems providing vocational training need to equip young people with necessary skills, knowledge and qualifications - and there I would include basic education as well - so that they are able to meet the demands of the current labour market. Another issue which was raised is the need to support young businessmen and women as a source of innovation and of creation. Supporting young people in trying to find capital is very difficult for a young businessperson. Also the need to support
80 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy entrepreneurship, not just for the businessmen themselves but as a broader aim for society as a whole. Particular attention needs to be paid to young people who are excluded from the labour market and from society as a whole either because they are poor or because they're part of a minority or because they're just different. For these young people, employment is often a place in society itself, it often gives them self value. So an effort needs to be made for us to become closer to these young people, to attract them towards the centre of society, organise meetings, and provide proper training for those people who work with these young people. The national actions which are being prepared in the various countries need to take this into account as they prepare actions to fight against marginalisation. So I think basically the message is give young people the possibility of participating in workplace society. In the future of Europe, be they workers, businessmen, the marginalised, women or men, so that we can build a Europe which has a new spirit, new dynamism, which is a serious Europe, which is a responsible Europe.
Mr Luis PINTO, of Jeunesse étudiante et catholique internationale - Mouvement international des Etudiants catholiques (JECI-MIEC), chair of the second session on Education and Mobility.
What I'm going to give you is just a few conclusions from the session that I chaired this morning. I'd like to begin by saying we talked about the key role of education. When we need to define youth policy, education is essential as a transversal subject with various different implications and a broader aspect is that of course learning doesn’t happen just once, it's very long term, it's not just about school and professional training. Now we should definitely bear in mind this new concept of lifelong learning. Education is terribly important for social integration and socialising people, it's about personal development in society. For youth policy, we should think about all aspects of education. Education touches every young person to a certain extent but a lot of people don't get enough benefit from education, they miss the boat, the concrete policies don't target them well enough. We still see discrimination. Some young people are not even allowed to go to school because they're kept home and put out to work for economic reasons. Young people are discriminated against for all sorts of reasons, they are marginalised, they are discriminated against - including sexually. I suppose an appeal we want to put out is that if we are writing a youth policy we've got to make sure that nobody slips through the net and that everybody benefits from it. We talked about the school of course, we said that school is an important institution still but school in a multicultural environment, in a globalised economy, in a faster moving world it is school which has new challenges to face, it has difficulties to
81 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy face. What values are we going to try and continue to impart in a democratic society? It's difficult to train young people to go through lifelong learning, it's very difficult to prepare people for a labour market which is changing rapidly. Young people need to be more and more entrepreneurial, it's difficult to prepare young people to participate in democratic society in a broader Europe. Then there is the non-formal side of education. Non-formal education of course is something which is imparted by a lot of the organisations present today. Organisations do very important jobs, we've got to think about teaching, about methods, we've got to think about the best kinds of teaching methods to get minorities on board and young people on board who have missed out in the past. We have to have a better dovetailing between formal education and non-formal education, particularly when we're writing a new policy for the youth of today. And the last word is on the subject of mobility. I think that we all felt that more young people should have more opportunities to be mobile, not just university students going to other countries but other people should benefit as well. We'd like mobility to include intercultural or multicultural learning to allow people to be more employable and really come into their own as flourishing fully-fledged members of society. There are barriers to mobility, administrative barriers, political barriers, even curriculum barriers so a lot of organisations have worked at proposals. We now need the political support of the institutions in the European Union as well as our countries. I'd like to invite the Commissioner, Ms Reding and the Commission to read the proposals that our organisations have written. They explain better than I could have done what's really at stake for our young people today.
Ms Tuulikki Kannisto, member of the European Economic and Social Committee, chair of the third session on Participation and Civil Society
The debate wasn't a long list of problems. Instead there was a lot of optimism in the contributions which were made. A common objective is to improve the situation and life of young people. We have to have hope for the future but we have to believe in the present day we're living through as well. It was clear in the debate that youth organisations have projects at the local, regional and national level and through these projects young people can be included in a democratic decision-making process. Youth policy is a long-term policy, even if youth is a relatively brief phase. I think it's important that youth organisations have room to work, they also need economic support to be able to operate. There were no major differences in the debate between young people from rural areas or cities. In spite of advancing technology, work for young people is a main concern in rural areas so that we can slow down
82 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy the exodus of young people from countryside to the towns. We need more information centres for young people. We have some examples of these in European Union countries and I think we could have this type of centre with internet access for example in all countries. In terms of the candidate countries, the need for mobility between countries has been mentioned so that we can establish basic values and we want people from the candidate countries to be able to bring their own ideas and experiences and join the debate on fundamental values. We've mentioned equality between men and women and clearly there are still many problems for example in terms of pay, but what is clear is that participation by young women is more difficult to achieve than that for young men. So the European Women's Lobby has provided its document for the Commission and I think this can be very useful in drawing up the White Paper. So to sum up, I think that this morning somebody said that the White Paper has to be a dynamic paper and I'm sure that this idea has been present throughout our debate.
Ms Malin Berggren, National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU)
Before we give Commissioner Reding the opportunity to speak on the issues raised, I would like to open the floor to questions and comments.
Mr Jan Van Gils, Director Research Centre Childhood and Society
I would like to say a couple of words, expressing my concerns, I work in the European Network of Child Friendly Cities. It's a new organisation, we've got a clear view on how young people should be on board. I'd like through your chair to make a proposal to the Commissioner. Would it not be possible to consider the following:: couldn't we think about the living environment which young people are most interested in, the environment of education, shouldn't we have a broad debate not on the issue of participation in education or on who is having access to education but let's debate about what we really want of education, what's the point of education, how long should it last, what is getting into the way of good education, what's the relationship between education and work? These are key issues which affect the destiny of young people. Has the discussion started? Yes, but let's have a broad societal debate, let's get young people to express their views on education and the educational system, that will be a marvellous democratic exercise.
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Mr Eric Deshayes, European Youth Forum
I'm the vice-president of the European Youth Forum. I just have two specific questions on the White Paper and one comment on the participation of young people, which has been discussed quite a lot here today, and also on the relationship which we might have with the institutions. Well, on the White Paper, are we guaranteed that there will be a White Paper - it's a very complex process - and if so, is it going under the Belgian presidency? Second question: what follow-up is there going to be on young people's proposals? We've talked about society in transition, we've talked about a dynamic document, so are we going to see that this White Paper evolves? On the subject of participation, involving all young people, organised or not, I think that this participation is based on a confidence in politics, we need to believe that our participation can change something. So I'd like to stress the importance of local involvement because we see direct results, but here we're talking about European Youth Policy at European level. So actions at the local level also need to have an influence at the global and European level, how can that happen? More broadly then, how can we involve people who are not organised at the moment if they have the impression that those who are getting involved aren't achieving anything and that their requests and demands are not taken on board which is widely seen as being the case?
Ms Aysu SHAKIR, European Union Organisation of Socalist Youth (ECOSY)
I wanted to point out some things about education which weren't mentioned here yet. ECOSY confirms that every person should have the right to high quality and free education - which hasn't been mentioned here yet - that it should be free. It shouldn't depend on ones' background or financial means. This is the basic principle for equality for young people. Also, we are strongly committed to a model of quality education open to the largest number of students. We think that education prepares young people to become responsible citizens, able to contribute to the development of democratic society and to give them equal opportunities of social emancipation. We do consider that the budget costs for higher education in many European countries are endangering the quality in further steps of education and welfare of students. We do deeply regret the fact that students were not involved in the drafting of the Sorbonne, and Bologna declarations and in defining their objectives, even though they are one of the most important populations concerned by the potential reforms. We hope that in any future discussions student representatives and national unions of students will be associated at all levels.
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Also we would hope that European education systems in relation to equality between women and men should be to promote a greater participation of women in committees, assemblies and student organisations. We want to point out that a good student welfare system is one of the key factors in a good education system. For us it is clear that a just education system is only possible if the access is not limited by social and financial reasons. This is why we request increased financial support for less favoured students, to be additionally financed by the European Union.
Mr Guillaume Legaut, World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM)
I would like to make three points, but first I'd like to express a concern. You said that the Economic and Social Committee gave a more or less unanimous opinion on this issue. Is this because there is a broad consensus on this issue or is it because the issue is not considered to be of great interest and therefore people are voting without thinking very carefully about it? I'd really like to express my concern about that. Things that I think are important in defining a European youth policy, the need to be able to have contact and act at a local level to decentralise and get closer to the citizens. We need the decision-makers to get closer to the population rather than the other way round, closer to the citizens. Another important point is to give a more human face to the European ideal, what kind of citizens are we trying to form? Do we want individuals who are personally fulfilled or are we just looking at economic actors? So we need to stress all aspects of personal development, take all these aspects on board, not just the economic and social aspects but the personal side; the political, spiritual, philosophical aspects. We feel that's very important. The third point is the question of openness. I think that young people and youth questions will allow Europe to open up even further to the rest of the world with the strengthening of co-operation with Central and Eastern Europe. But there can also be a great element of solidarity with the rest of the world, with the less developed countries, with the Mediterranean Basin because what's at stake in terms of a youth policy is the idea of providing stability for Europe, which has an economic aspect but it's also a question of reinforcing peace in the world.
Ms Elisabeth Hardt, European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL)
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I have not so much a statement but more a question to the Commission and that is whether the Commission envisages the White Paper to be as we have stated a dynamic or living document or rather a static document? Is it going to be a snapshot about youth policy or will it actually be assorted with recommendations and a monitoring mechanism whereby we would be able to come back in two years perhaps and review the achievements that such a paper has actually brought about? Secondly, having just witnessed last year the acrimonious fight among decision-makers about the size of the youth action programme, which was if I'm not mistaking equivalent to the annual subsidies to European tobacco growers, I was wondering also if the outcome of the White Paper would address shifts in European Union budget lines dedicated to youth and education.
Mr Babis Papaioannou, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
I'm a Bureau member of the European Youth Forum. The question I wanted to raise is about the lack of information. There is a serious lack of information for young people in Europe. I think it's well known that the European Union and the national governments have created structures and networks in order to channel information both centrally from Brussels to the Member States and at the national level from the capitals to the remaining provinces. Howevre, the day-to-day practice tends to make us conclude that these networks are not working properly. There seems to be a problem in getting information through, how an average young person can find the information. Even today's event is for a select few, for us and for our organisations, it will be difficult for this event to have implications further than this. I think that it's unlikely that we're going to hit the headlines and we're not going to be splashed across television. But we have to find a way to get all this information, all these ideas across. As somebody said before, we need to bring the information down to the local level. My proposal is that in the Commission and in the European Youth Forum and all the other organisations represented here, we need to make maximum effort to give priority to the creation and strengthening of information networks. To make sure that we have publications, events, perhaps new web pages created on a national, local level so that young people can get this information. Finally, one of the participants this morning was saying that the European programmes for youth which are in place at the moment are addressed to one young person in 5,000 in Europe. We would like to increase this rate to demonstrate that these programmes which are based on the right philosophy are not the programmes for a few, they're not for specialists, they're not for people who
86 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy have priority access to information. We're appealing to you for your co-operation to help us broaden these programmes so that more young people can participate.
Mr Arnold Puech d'Allisac, European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA)
I'm the president of CEJA, we were founded in 1958 just after the Treaty of Rome was signed. It was only a small farming society then and farming is the main expenditure in Europe as it was created very early on. Before we had the free circulation of goods and persons in Europe we had an agricultural policy, however I think Europe has been beneficial and it has provided a good policy for young farmers. But at the moment we're a bit surprised, we're all going through a very difficult crisis for agriculture, for European society, with the failure of the CAP to tackle the beef meat crisis and DG agriculture are trying to absorb the surpluses and they're trying to reduce quotas. We know that production levels have to be adjusted to what is consumed, but obviously the people who are going to have to pay the bills are young farmers. The Commission is proposing to freeze all support to young farmers for three years. I think it's a shame that we're having this excellent debate on the White Paper but when it gets down to actually doing something in practice, who do they sacrifice for a certain period? They sacrifice the generation of young farmers. Madame Commissioner, can we count on you, can we count on your services for your support? Can you tell Commissioner Fischler that we're all in favour of solidarity but I think there are enough older farmers who could have their production reduced rather than picking on the young farmers who don't really cost that much any way.
Ms Violeta Tchavdarova, National Youth Council of Bulgaria (NMS Bulgaria)
I'd like to speak on behalf of my organisation which is a platform organisation of the biggest Bulgarian NGOs and one of the strongest national youth councils in the region of South Eastern Europe. During the period in which we established ourselves, we had to build our organisation during probably not the biggest but during one of the latest and the deepest ethnic crisis here in the region. Our challenging responsibility is to rebuild and reinforce our countries after the communist regime and various serious ethnic crises. Now, on behalf of Bulgarian youth organisations, I'm happy to contribute to the expert consultation during the White Paper process and I think I'm also speaking on behalf of several
87 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy pre-accession candidates. There are countries which will never be pre-accession countries and we should not forget the countries that, not because of the will of young people, but because of the will of politicians they are separate from the process of integration, mobility and participation in civil society. The lack of democratisation in the countries of south-eastern Europe is a problem for the whole of Europe. We should consider that young people from the region, especially young people from Yugoslavia and from the former Republics which are not yet pre-accession countries, need to be more involved in youth programmes. I'd like to thank youth programmes that consider south-eastern Europe as a regional priority for the third countries and allow full member countries such as Bulgaria to make common projects with south- eastern Europe, but I'd also like to focus attention on the fact that all the countries of Europe should have their chance to participate in the policy-making of pan-European youth policy.
Statement of Ms Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture
It seems to me that progress seems to be working from what my colleagues have told me about your discussions, your contributions, suggestions, criticisms. What I heard about all of you is that it was very dynamic and that you've expressed a clear will to participate. I will pass on your determination to the Youth Council of Ministers so that they take it into account. As you have clearly understood, there are two levels where this is politically relevant: the national level where Ministers have to want to participate, they have to make a contribution, and it is this national level which you prepare. Certain speakers have spoken about the need of local authorities, cities, regions, yes of course this is where it's all happening. Youth policy isn't just a lot of blah blah but it's practical action in towns and villages among young people and it has to move to continue to make progress and I think that I've said this several times, if you don't budge, the Ministers won't budge. So for the Ministers to budge you have to budge first. I will try to get the Ministers moving in Europe but you have to do your bit as well. I think this meeting has been very positive, you have clearly demonstrated that you certainly do not intend to fall asleep and I don't intend to either.
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We are in the process of drawing up a White Paper. As you know only too well that this process, which was been set in motion under the French Presidency, has now been taken over by the Swedish Presidency and which the Belgian Presidency will take over too. In a few weeks I'm going to be holding discussions to prepare the Spanish Presidency. I'm certain that they won't want to do nothing either. So as the Presidencies are understanding that you want to be involved, that you want to participate, clearly this White Paper is not going to be a document which is going to end up in somebody's bottom drawer but it's going to be a text that will have to evolve within the Member States.
I can tell you that the European Parliament has understood this process which is being set in motion, which is why they too have organised a hearing on this problem. The MEPs want to listen to young people too. That's important because they have influence on their electors, you are the people who elect them. But of course not just you, you've got older people as well who also have to be involved in the field so take this opportunity which is being offered to you by the elected members of the Parliament, tell them that you want to budge too.
I will go into the summaries presented by the three rapporteurs. Child Friendly Cities: training, what is our objective, can we organise the debate on this? I have to say that under the Socrates programme we are constantly on request organising local activities: education, training, discussions on what education and training should be for. Should it be, as the scout representative said, an all encompassing form of education including spiritual and philosophical values? Or should training be highly realistic, preparing young people for professional life? That's a very big and interesting debate. I think in Socrates there are plenty of opportunities to organise such a debate, a debate which is very interesting and promising. The European Youth Forum wondered if there is going to be a White Paper, what do you think we've been up to over the last few months? We've been preparing it and we are preparing the White Paper with experts, your input, your discussions are going to be taken into account and that is why nationally, recently in Paris and now in Brussels, that's why we've organised this debate. It is something practical to allow your voice to be heard. This is essential and I've already told you the follow- up to this will be that the next European Union Presidencies will continue to foster a dialogue with young people.
How can we involve non-organised youth? This really is a headache. You represent a minority, you know that most young people are organised. They have rights, ideas just as those who are organised. How can we listen to them? This is a question which
89 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy was asked by representatives of the European Union. We've tried to improve our information systems, so that it is not just the organised youth who receive our information, but everybody. We are all making an effort to boost new technologies, this is an easy way to get to young people. Don't say to me now that not all young people have access to new technologies, we've got a new learning programme for that. We will never manage to contact 100% of young people but we do want to make as many instruments available to them so at least those who show interest are informed. Many young people aren't interested. I do talk to young people, I have young people in my house, they bring along their friends there and I talk to them. A lot of them are completely indifferent to the questions that we're discussing today. Of course they'll moan about it later, they don't want to be involved in the discussions but they're happy to moan. Anyway that's typical isn't it of young people, you have to take that into account. I think you as the organised youth have a responsibility for taking that on board. If young people are interested we'll try to make as much information as possible available and when the others start moaning I'll say get cracking then, organise yourselves and make sure your voice is heard.
Socialist youth: you talked about free education. This is a serious problem. If we want to go in the direction of the Americans we would not be able to keep our European model which is so different to the American one. Our European model has always been based on equal opportunity, that is why we attach so much importance to a good public education. We don't want education based on the means of the parents, the educational background of the parents. That is why the Ministers of Education are doing everything to avoid broadening the gap. Yesterday I was in Sweden to open the European Year of the Languages. I pleaded to get public education for all young people from the youngest possible age, to high quality foreign language teaching. On the labour market, if you don't speak foreign languages you're out. I really pleaded to get a traditional education system, a public education system to allow that possibility. You don't create this gap between those whose family situation allows them to learn foreign languages and those who can't. I don't want the Luxembourger to give me a dirty look. Everybody in Luxembourg has that possibility, I know, because we're a multilingual country even if we're a small country. But we've just seen statistics on language learning in the Member States, let me tell you that it's catastrophic. In quite a lot of Member States, and you know this only too well, in Europe we really want to guarantee that there is equal opportunity, it's essential to maintain equal treatment of all European young people. It's such a vital part of our European model of society. We have a European social model but we need to preserve and that
90 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy goes for teaching too. This is really one of my hobbyhorses and I'm not about to give up on this discussion.
Funding mobility: if the Ministers had given me more money for my mobility programmes, I would have given more money to students but they haven't. That is why under the French presidency we had a very broad discussion on the obstacles to mobility. I think you know that funding is one of the obstacles. European subsidies are never enough to get a young person moving. I said to the Ministers: ‘you didn't give me more money to increase the grants’. I said: ‘then do something in your own Member States then to increase people's grants’. Some of the initiatives are quite interesting. I think I'll tell you about them. Perhaps you could use these ideas to influence the decisions in your region or in your country. There is the German region where the savings banks and the local authorities have got together to create a savings account for mobility. Grandparents can pay in an amount of money on somebody's birthday or something like that and if they do so the local authority will cough up as well, and the savings bank gives very interesting conditions. When the young person gets to seventeen they can use the money not to buy a motorbike, but to go and follow a language course abroad for example. This really is aimed at mobility and it's an interesting idea, it might not solve the problem but it will support people and if we have thousands of ideas which are like that I think we'd be doing quite well. So that was just one example.
I think I've already answered the Scouts and I think that this discussion has to be based on the objectives of education. Are we going to prepare a human being for life in society or are we going to prepare a machine which goes to work? May be we need both. Education which doesn't prepare properly for the needs of the world of work is an education which prepares youth for the dole queue. I will give an example of this. We were unable to recognise the impact of new technologies in time. We failed to prepare an entire generation for using new technology. The result today is that we have 14 million jobless and 1.7 million unoccupied jobs because people are unqualified for New Technologies. So it's true you need both things, you need to prepare young people for work, you need to equip them with the skills they need for the labour market.
The European Federation for Learning asked whether the White Paper is dynamic or static? I answered that. I answered on the follow-up as well.
The Youth programme: not enough money in it. Yes I would agree, and the same thing would apply to the Socrates programme. The
91 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy youth programme is fixed for seven years and for seven years there will be the money which has been budgeted. You can't change it now so you'll have to come up with something new. Extra means to be added to the youth programme need to explore all the possibilities, create new possibilities and unfortunately there's nothing I can do about the youth programme, all I can do is to try to improve its efficiency. The poor funding is what it is.
The Young Farmers Council talked about aid to young farmers, which is going to be blocked. I didn't know that. I'm going to see Commissioner Fischler tomorrow and I'll ask him. I have to admit that I didn't know what is going on and I'll ask him if the Commission proposed that or whether this decision is something that the Ministers decided.
Our young friend from Bulgaria spoke about problems which are even more serious than the problems that we discussed in the fifteen Member States. The countries of the old Soviet block now have to rebuild a society which was completely destroyed, they have to find a voice, they have to reconstruct a completely flattened economy and build a democracy which doesn't exist in the same way as it exists in our countries. I'll appeal to all the European organisations to lend them a hand. It's certainly not easy, we've got plenty of problems in Europe but they've got more. So any help I'm sure would be welcome.
I will now move on to the three sessions. Ms Irini Pari, Employment and Social integration. We know that young people are the most vulnerable on the labour market, especially if their training is ill- adapted to getting a job, and the lack of economic protection, social security, housing, difficulties that young parents have, these aspects need to be tackled on a national level.
Innovation: young businessmen and women. Well there we can do something and we are. For example, the European Investment Bank is now lending money to young innovators, young people who want to take the initiative.
Mr Luis Pinto talked about education and mobility. Well with the Ministers we are in the process of identifying mobility problems. Often minor, such as security issues, problems of getting a grant, with the grant not being valid abroad, with student housing. The Ministers have promised to tackle that and I'll keep an eye on them. They promised that last autumn and I'll check in a few months time if any progress has been made, so I'll continue to push things there.
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New technologies. Do you know about the e-learning programme? Well there too we're in the process of resolving problems, sometimes it goes very well, very fast in some countries and others are less fast. There too, we're checking things, we have the Education Council of Ministers and they are going to address that issue too.
Mobility: at the level of non-students, well via new technologies, via things like school net, whose virtual application will be followed by practical application, through all this we're trying to boost co-operation between schools across borders, that's something new.
Lifelong learning: It's one of the Swedish presidency's priorities. If you look at the Member States, it exists to various unequal degrees. We want a new policy to be established everywhere. We want to seek out young people who left school early because they were unable to study and they didn't have the time to study. Sometimes when they come to their senses it's too late, lifelong learning is there to help them catch up.
Ms Kannisto talked about participation, civil society, youth policy or long-term policy. Long term policy is the most difficult because we're not talking to one set of people for many, many years. The associations will continue to exist for a long time but certainly the people are changing and getting older. Individual young people of course they grow older, so the dialogue with the individuals cannot be pursued over decades.
Now the young disabled persons: 2003 will be the year of the disabled. I suppose all youth associations are going to propose strong actions on their behalf in the year 2003. People often talk about the disabled but when it comes to the crunch things don’t get done. Pavements aren't made properly, you don't have ramps for wheelchairs on every street corner, so I think that's going to be a moment where you will have a strong voice to raise on behalf of the disabled.
Women: women have a very strong role now and you're really beginning to see that women are breaking through in society. I mean, I look around this room, a lot of dynamic young women are really in positions of prominence and responsibility. I think we have to be optimistic, I've heard here and there, notes of pessimism. We can't allow ourselves to be pessimistic, we've got to be optimistic, we've got to get out there, get on and solve problems. The more problems there are the harder we've got to work, the more active we've got to be to solve them. You've got a Commissioner here, who is willing to go forward with you. I need
93 Report on the Hearing on Youth Policy you and we can't be out on our own alone but I see that you are on my side, I'm on your side and together we could move forward and even give a kick to the Ministers every now and then.
Ms Malin Berggren, National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU)
Thank you Ms Reding for your very committed and positive response and your remarks. We all have a lot of food for thought as a result.
This session is drawing to a close. It has been one of four pillars in the consultation process on the White Paper. We've been putting together the White Paper on Youth Policy, not least the pillar representing civil society in youth organisations. The next step will be a conference organised in Umea in Sweden, on the situation of young people, on the16-18 March. There has been a cross- sectoral approach, a cross-fertilisation. Now I'd like to thank all the participants and the Commissioner in particular for your committed answers and not least for the challenge that you have thrown back to the participants in this room. Finally, I'd like to thank all three organising parties, the Economic and Social Committee, the European Commission and the European Youth Forum, thank you to all.
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List of participants
AFONSO Paulo, CNJ (National Youth Council of Portugal) AHMAD Taris, FEMYSO (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations) ALEXANDER Jon, ERYICA (European Youth Information and Counselling Association) AYDEMIR Zeynep, Youth for Habitat International network BÄCKMO Hanna, OBESSU (Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions) BARBESTA Stefania, Secretariat, European Economic and Social Committee BAUCH Gerhard, Bundeswirtschaftsministerium BENGELSDORFF Claudia, European Parliament BERGGREN Malin, LSU (National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations) BERGUA Edorta, Observatoire européen de la jeunesse (EYJ) BERNABEI Giannino, European Economic and Social Committee BESOZZI Carlotta, European Disability Forum BEWICK Tom, NTO National Council BJORGE Ragnhild, LNU (Norwegian Youth Council) BOHN Irina, Institut for Social Work and Social Education (ISS) BOZEC Jean -Yves, Association Majeur BROMBO Pierluigi, Secretariat, European Economic and Social Committee BRUNNER Edit, LSN BULK Marjolijn, European Economic and Social Committee BURNEL Roger, European Economic and Social Committee BOTIFOLL Luis, Confederación Española de Asociaciones de Jóvenes Empresarios CABALLERO Jocelyne, French Representation to the EU CAMATS Dolors, CNJC (National Youth Council of Catalonia) CAMESELLE Pablo, CJE (Spanish Youth Council) CAREMIER Bénédicte, European Commission, Directorate Education and Culture, Youth Unit CARMENTRAN Jean-Jacques, European Economic and Social Committee CARROLL Clare, European Economic and Social Committee CLOUET Pierre, Contact-2103 COLLINS Nick, ATD-Quart Monde CROFT Thomas, ATD Quart Monde CUMMINGS Andrew, ECYC (European Confederation of Youth Clubs) DA CRUZ MAURO Carla, CNJ (National Youth Council of Portugal) d'AGOSTINO Mario, Youth Express Network DANCKAERTS Ingrid, VPIJ (National Youth Council of Belgium- Flemish community)
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DEBRABANDERE Anne, European Youth Forum DENEYER Anne, European Youth Forum DENSTAD Finn, European Youth Forum DESHAYES Eric, European Youth Forum DIAS Sylvia, EU Federation of Youth Hostels Associations DOLINED Petr, KSDM (National Youth Council of Czech Republic) DOORLEY James, NYCI (National Youth Council of Ireland) EHNMARK Linda, Trainee, Secretariat, Council of the EU EIPL Aniko, NIKI (National Youth Council of Hungary) ELOFSSON Jan, Communicare EYPISIREN Levent, Minorities of Europe FABRIZI Serena FERREIRA Paolo, Secretaria de Estados da Juventude (PT) FERRO BUNJES Simona FILIBECK Giacomo, European Youth Forum FINZI Sabine, CEJI FLESSENKEMPER Tobias, European Youth Forum FLORIDO DAMM Jennifer, Foreign Minstry of Sweden FORCEVILLE Roel, YAP (Youth Action for Peace) FRERICHS Göke, President, European Economic and Social Committee FUCHS Denise, EWL (European Women's Lobby) GALLEGO Conchi, CJE (Spanish Youth Council) GALLEGO GARCÍA Rosa, IYNF (International Young Naturefriends) GARNIER LAVALLEY Mickäel, CNAJEP (Comité pour les relations Nationales et internationales des Associations de Jeunesse et d'Education Populaire) GEOGHEGAN Donall, NYCI (National Youth Council of Ireland) GERSTEIN Antje, Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände GHOOS Marie-Thérèse, COFACE GIL Laura, European Youth Forum GIWA Sebastian, LSU (Swedish National Council of Youth Organisations) GREBOVAL Cecile, EWL (European Women's Lobby) HAMRO-DROTZ Filip, European Economic and Social Committee HAMRO-DROTZ Markus HANRAHAN Denis, Irish Congress of Trade Unions HANSEN Bjørn, Jaaberg, Council of Europe HARDT Elisabeth, EFIL (European Federation for Intercultural Learning) HARJULA Eija, SAK (The central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions) HASSET Jillian, European Economic and Social Committee HÄUSLMEIER Karina, AEGEE (Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe) HEEGER Klaus, CESI Youth HELSON Philippe, Contact 2103
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HEISECKE Karin, IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) HICK Alan, Secrétariat, European Economic and Social Committee HIETANEN Mervi , Secretariat, Council of the EU JANSEN Thomas, European Economic and Social Committee JETHWA Raj, TUC JOYCE Fidelma, European Youth Forum JUNK Wolfgang, Secretariat, European Economic and Social Committee KANNIST0 Tuulikki, European Economic and Social Committee KARCHER Tobias, FEECA (Fédération Européenne pour l'Education Catholique des Adultes) KATHNOON Sadia, Vertretung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen KESSELER Sander, MIZW KHELIFA Hamid, Euro Contacts Jeunes KIMMERLE Johannes KINBERG Anna, SAF KIROTAR Charlotte, Swedish Presidency KIRSTILA Juha, Allianssi (Finnish Youth Co-operation Allianssi) KRIER Frédéric, CGJL (Conférence générale de la Jeunesse Luxembourgeoise) LANDMARK Peter, Communicare LAURENT Aurélie, Fondation de l'entreprise LAURITZEN Peter, Council of Europe LEENS, Commission DG-EAC LEGAUT Guillaume, WOSM (World Organisation of the Scout Movement) LEJEUNES Benoît LINDE Leif, Ministry of Culture (SV) LINDQUIST Camilla, LSU (National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations) LOBO Oscar, UGT-SPAIN LOPES Celia, CGTP-in LOPEZ Carmen, Oficina de Castilla-La Mancha LÜRSSEN Renata, Vertretung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen MAESTRI Sergio MAGHERINI Caterina, Yes for Europe MAHIEU Marie-Mechtilde, Youth Planet MANGERSNES Kare Dag, YMCA (European Alliance of YMCAs) MARTIN Brigitte, OBS MARTIN Marta, Basque Country's Delegation MARTINEZ GARCIA Juan, CC.OO. Sp MASTORAS Elias, Youth Delegation (GRECE) MAYR Thomas, Industriellenvereingung McCARTHY Claire, Irish Girls Guides MIFSUD Joseph, KNZM (National Youth Council of Malta) MOHEDANO Ana, OBESSU (Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions) MÖHRING Ute, Red Cross EU office
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MONTON Véronique, Ministry for Youth and Sport - France MORITZ Torsten, EYCE (Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe) MUÑOA Itziar, Basque Country's Delegation MURZI Ezio Gianni, UNICEF NOGUERA NVORGAM Püa O' CALLAGHAN Yvonne, ICTU OHN Pierre, Delegate of "Belgique pour le Livre Blanc" OLIVER MARTINEZ, Miguel A., Delegation of Andalusia Goverment OLSSON Jan, President of the Employment Section "Employment, Social affairs and citizenship", European Economic and Social Committee ORR KATY, European Youth Forum PALSSON Atli, ICYE (International Cultural Youth Exchange) PAPAIOANNOU Babis, GSEE, Greece PAPE Tim, European Economic and Social Committee PARI Irini, European Economic and Social Committee PINAULT Michäel, CFDT - Youth delegation PINTO Luis, International Young Catholic Students - International Movement of Young Catholic Students (JECI-MIEC) POETTERING Joannes, DNK (German Federal Youth Council) POIGNANT Lars, People to people POPOV Krassimir, NMS Bulgaria (National Youth Council of Bulgaria) PROOS Helena, LO-Sweden PUECH d'ALISSAC Arnold, CEJA (European Council of Young Farmers) PUMARES-CARCELLER Roger, European Youth Observatory RASQUÉ Danny, CGJL (Conférence générale de la Jeunesse luxembourgeoise) REDING Viviane, European Commissioner for Education and Culture RICHE-MAGNIER Marielle, Commission DG-EAC ROSTAGNO Donatella, European Youth Forum ROY Heather, WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) RUMMENS Luc, European Economic and Social Committee SALERES Carole, CNAJEP SANTACANA GUËLL Anna, MIJARC (Mouvement international de la Jeunesse agricole et rurale catholique) SAUER Joachim, DNK (German Federal Youth Council) SEM Sonia SENOGLU Ertugrul, GSM SHAKIR Aysu, ECOSY (European Union Organisation of Socialist Youth) SCHREIBER, European Youth Forum SCHROCK Tim, DNK (German Federal Youth Council) SKLAVOUNOS Georgios, European Economic and Social Committee
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SOARES Mário, European Economic and Social Committee SÖDERMAN Henrik, European Youth Forum SORHEIM Stig Erik SORIANO SANCHEZ María, Spanish Confederation of Entreprises STEENHAUT Sonja, European Parliament, Assistant STREBELLE Sophie, Hampshire-Dorset-Isle of Wight-West Sussex STICCHI-DAMIANI, L.U.I.S.S. STOLFA Matjaz, MSS (National Youth Council of Slovenia) SVENDSEN Kim, DUF (Danish Youth Council) TCHAVDAROVA Violeta, NMS (National Youth Council of Bulgaria) TERNES Georges, European Commission, Cabinet of Ms Reding TIBESART Théo, CGJL (Conférence générale de la Jeunesse Luxembourgeoise) TIBURCY Ulrich, Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Freien Wohlfahrtspflege - EU - Vertretung TIERNAN Sinead, ETUC Youth TILMANS Rob, ESIB (National Unions of Students in Europe) TIMONEN VERMA Päivi, ERYICA (European Youth Information and Counselling Association) TORRES COUTO Belmiro, Yes for Europe TOTH Szilvia, EYCE (Ecumenical Youth Council of Europe) TRANE NORBY Ellen, LYMEC (Liberal and Radical Youth Movement of the European Union) TRANTINA Pavel, CRDM- International Representative Czech Council of Children and Youth UTTERSTROM Astrid, Ministry of Culture (SV) VAISBRODAS Renaldas, LIJOT (National Youth Council of Lithuania) VAISTO Lauri, Finnish Youth Council VALENTINI Filippo, CEJA - European Council of Young Farmers VAN DER SCHAAF Eme, EYCA (European Youth Card Association) VAN GILS Jan, Director research centre Childhood and Society VAN LOON VAN VOOREN Dimitri VANHEE Jan, Ministerie van Vlaamse Gemeenschap VERHAEGEN Magali, ACV-CSC VERLEE Matthias VINDING Johnny VIRKELYST Dennis, DUF (National Youth Council of Denmark) VLANDAS Sylvie, European Commission, Directorate Education and Culture, Youth Unit WIKLUND Josefin, LSU (National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations) WILDSMITH Barry, BYC (British Youth Council) WISSER Ulrike, BBJ Brüssel sprl ZÔHRER Gustav, European Economic and Social Committee
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