For years on, the European political leaders have announced that the Enlargement of the EU was about to happen. The moment is arrived now; the deadline of 2004 is fixed.

Europe is arriving close to the last stop before deciding its final destination. In other words, it’s time to discuss Europe’s future, objectives, competencies and capacities in order to welcome the new member states in the EU. Afterwards, it will still be possible to deepen the European integration curse but we all know that it would required a political will that we could doubt to be reached. Therefore, we can only welcome the decision of establishing a Convention in order to prepare the next Intergovernmental Conference and the next Treaty reform.

The model of the Convention has the advantage of opening the space for a public debate. It would not have been possible to engage a debate about Europe’s future without involving the public opinion. The Convention has not only the task of proposing a document to the Heads of States for the next IGC, but to launch the debate and to make the discussion lively.

This debate has to involve all sectors of society: social partners; ngo, including critics against globalisation movement and youth organisations. ECOSY has proposed before the Laeken Summit to create a Youth forum of Civil society. Even thought this idea was not retained, we still insist in having a serious involvement of youth organisations in the process.

The young socialists have big dreams for Europe’s future. Our vision of the old continent is a place of peace, equality, freedom, solidarity and respect. For our project for an inclusive society, there is still a lot to do. For ECOSY, the EU has to change deeply. The European Union of tomorrow must be a federal one, which will be based on a European constitution. It is our objective to promote the European social model to guarantee social and economics rights to every citizen. The EU must also play a role on the international scene to influence the global agenda and to advance sustainable development

For these reasons we decided to participate actively in the debate. Indeed, we consider that this moment is particularly important for European youth and for the future of Europe.