The European Youth Forum welcomes the European Commission’s endorsement of a consolidated legal basis for EU action in favour of young people in the future Constitutional treaty.
Brussels, Tuesday 15th October- In a meeting with the European Youth Forum in Brussels on Monday, Commissioners Viviane Reding and Michel Barnier discussed European youth policies in the context of the ongoing work of the Convention on the Future of Europe.
At the meeting, representatives from several youth NGOs and National Youth Councils suggested including a better youth article in the future EU treaty, thereby giving the EU a complementary competence to support the actions of Member States in the field of youth. They underlined the need to consolidate current EU youth policies and programmes by adopting a clear article on youth. Commissioner Reding agreed with the youth representatives that the existing legal basis should be consolidated.
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.

"We welcome the support expressed by Commissioner Reding", the President of the European Youth Forum, Henrik Söderman said. "A better legal base is necessary in order to make the EU more relevant to young people and to make its current actions in this area more coherent and transparent".
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. In April, the Council of Members of the European Youth Forum adopted a written contribution to the European Convention entitled "Bringing Europe closer to its young citizens" which outlines the expectations of youth NGOs towards the European Convention and the EU institutions.
2. In July, the European Youth Convention called for the inclusion of a clear treaty article enhancing EU action in favour of youth and their participation in public life and EU decision-making..
3. The Convention Working Group on Complementary Competencies is addressing the issue on how to deal with issues where the EU can complement the policies of the Member States. Youth and Education are considered to fall into this category. It is foreseen that the Working Group concludes its work by the end of October.