This meeting fell within a double context: the follow-up to the White Paper on Youth and a series of sectoral meetings on the future of Europe between NGOs and Commissioners, particularly those taking part in the Convention. It reflected the Commission's willingness to keep in close contact with young people and Youth NGOs.Both Commissioners considered dialogue and co-operation with youth associations to be of paramount importance in the debate on the Future of Europe and for the outcome of the Convention.This meeting was organised around two main topics: what is the vision of young people on tomorrow's Europe? And what should be their role and their place in this Europe?
Each debate was introduced by two short contributions done by young people themselves (Asa Nilsson, EEE-YFU; Jan Kreutz, JEF; Pascale Boulanger, WOSM; Simon-Erik Ollus, Allianssi).

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- To create a Europe attractive to young people
- A Europe stronger when it comes to the respect of Human Rights, both inside and outside the Union
- A multicultural Europe open to the rest of the world.- A need for more young people to be present in the EU institutions (more young MEPs or young civil servants)

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
In this context, Mrs Reding mentioned the Commission’s traineeship program and she stressed the importance of more courses on Europe in national educational systems (also referring to the “Printemps de l’Europe”).

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- A Europe which listens to young people

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding's response: The Convention and the Commission have already listened to what the youth has to say on the future of Europe. The Commission will continue to take into account young people's expectations in the field of the draft common objectives in the context of the Youth White Paper, as well as in the field of employment, notably in the framework of the 'employment package'.Mrs Reding is very aware of the difficult situation with organising the so-called non-organised youth and attracting their attention to European matters. Both the NGOs and Mrs Reding agreed that it takes a great effort to meet the demands of the youth today. More effort is needed at all levels, national, regional and at European level in order to increase the European awareness and to guarantee a sufficient feedback from the grass-roots level. Youth NGOs themselves could help the Commission in reaching the youth at the lower levels. Mrs Reding and Mr Barnier invited the youth NGOs to seize the Convention members about their demands.

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- To increase young people's mobility
- To ensure that all young people have the means and the opportunity to spend a period of at least 3 months in another country (resources available need to be tripled over the next few years).
- At all levels of education, revision of the educational programs (before the EU enlargement).
- To extend the opportunity of long-term mobility to a greater number of young people

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding's answer on these last 3 points : the EU works within a limited budgetary framework decided by the Council of Ministers.to abolish administrative obstacles to mobility with third countries such as visa and other documents, simplification of the procedures.Mrs Reding's answer : this issue has to be dealt at the national level.

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- Creation of a Youth World-Programme

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding's comment : good idea but not so easy to implement because of budgetary aspects- all while taking into account enlargement.

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- To better involve youth in the European integration process
- Importance of civil society in our European societies. Young people asked for a better recognition of this role by the EU.
- Civil society is the vehicle for young people's participation.
- Young people have a real contribution to the construction of an enlarged EU. Their recommendations prove that they can play an important and active role at national, regional and local levels, in stimulating debate and in promoting active citizenship.
- To recognize the expertise of youth organisations.

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding's input : the concept of "volontariat collectif" should be further developed.She also pointed out that “listening” is at the basis of the Commission’s approach to civil society in the debate on the future of Europe. Although this is not an obligation, the Commission has organised several sectoral hearings with NGOs in this respect.She clarified that youth NGOs are different than other actors in civil society when it comes to financing them: youth NGOs need permanent financing, whereas others only need financing as to their initial establishment.

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- The youth wants then to be treated as equal partners, to have a voice in European decision-making.
- An increased financial contribution from the EU is required.
- To improve the co-operation between the youth sector and the European institutions, namely the Commission. A source of inspiration could be the work done with the Council of Europe, including co-management (“co-gestion”) of projects between institutions and NGOs.

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding's answer : the co-gestion system is not allowed by the European legal texts. Difficulty of any intervention without any legal basis. Actually, she fears that the future will bring an even more restrained form of cooperation. She clarified that a legal basis would be welcome, but that it must be taken into account that the principle of subsidiarity also applies to complementary competencies.

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- To help marginalised youth.

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding’s answer : the Commission fully takes into account marginalised youth. The NGOs representing them are consulted as all other NGOs. She even pointed out that one of the members of the Youth Convention chosen by the Commission represented ATD Fourth World.One of the first priorities of youth programs is to reach these young people, but this proves to be rather difficult on many occasions. In this respect, she also stressed the importance of life-long learning projects, whose role is complementary to those of the regular educational institutions.

CONVENTION
The Commission was urged to promote the youth demands presented in the Youth Convention.Commissioner Barnier promised to put forward the young people's messages, even though he could not give any guarantee of the impact. Indeed "it depends on other bodies at the Convention". The Commission’s second Communication on the future of the Union concerning the institutional architecture will contain several of the elements required by the Youth Convention. Lastly he insisted on the importance of the 'acquis' which has to be strongly preserved and further developed. Our first worry is to avoid taking a step back.All the means available in order to put forward the youth's interests have to be reviewed and activated (Structural Funds for instance).

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- The Praesidium of the Youth Convention was invited to attend the Convention meetings. Unfortunately, without any financial means.

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Mrs Reding and M. Barnier's answer : the invitation was sent by the Convention secretariat who is the only interlocutor for such matters.

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- A proposal for youth in the revised Treaties
- There is so far no specific article on young people in the Treaties.
- The European Youth Forum has put forward a proposal to be included in the treaties, which contains actions such as: a) Increase mutual understanding between young people in the European Union, b) Enhance the mobility of young people, c) Promote active citizenship and ensure that young people may fully participate in European governance, and further on.
- To give the EU a complementary competence to support the actions of Member States in the field of youth.

ANSWERS OF THE COMMISSION
Commissioners Reding and Barnier's comments : endorsement of a consolidated legal basis for EU action in favour of young people in the future Constitutional treaty.

MAIN CONCLUSION
- Mainstreaming of youth matters in the Cohesion Funds
- Importance of national and regional debates
- New article in the revised Treaties / reformulation of Art.149
- This meeting should not be considered as an isolated event : initiative to be launched in the framework of the "employment package"

By: EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDirectorate-General for Education and Culture
Contact, see: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education_culture