European youth cares about its future
The discussions of the Constitutional Convention is of major interest for
the young people of Europe. They are interested in actively participating in
designing the Europe of the future in which they have to live. Not only
European youth organisations want to be heard in the Convention process, but
also individuals. Several activities organised in the last 6 months helped
to express the will of these young people.

Youth Convention:

In the Youth Convention, taking place in Brussels from 9-12 July, 210 young
people from all over Europe gathered to discuss their visions about the
future of Europe and formulated their demands to the Convention. The
majority of the young delegates demanded a federal structure for Europe,
including the reform of the Council to a second chamber, the transferance of
all executive powers to the European Commission, co-decision power for the
European Parliament in all policies, an end to the right of veto in all
fields of European policy, and demanded to have the President of the
European Commission elected by the European Parliament. The Youth Convention
demanded that these reforms should be written down in a European federal
Constitution, which should be ratified in a European referendum. Considering
the fact that there were only four days for the discussion and the drafting
phase, this clear result is remarkable. At a reception of the Youth
Convention members by the Belgian government, Mr. Louis Michel, Belgian
Foreign Minister, answered to a question of one of the participants that the
absolute majority of the points the young people raised indeed represented
the opinion of the Belgian Government. In the joint meeting of the Youth
Convention and the Senior Convention several Convention members such as
Elmar Brok MEP congratulated the young people and demanded that the
Convention find answers to the issues raised by the Youth Convention.

For the result of the Youth-Convention click:
here

Youth 2002:

At the same time as the Youth Convention, there was a Congress of 1000 young
people discussing the future of Europe. This came to a very similar result
to that of the Youth Convention, asking for the reform of the European Union
into a Federation. The result of Youth 2002 was also presented to the
Convention.

For the whole document click:
here

Hearings/Youth Contact Group:

Besides single events, a common platform of youth organisations has been
established to represent the opinions of trans-European youth organisations.
Following the request from Mr. Dehaene (Vice-President of the Convention, in
charge of relations with civil society) to NGOs to organise themselves into
groups, individual youth organisations took the initiative to gather in the
Youth Contact Group. It includes the following organisations: Young European
Federalist (JEF), Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP), European
Community Organisation of Socialist Youth (ECOSY), the Liberal and Radical
Youth Movement of the European Union (LYMEC), The Federation of Young
European Greens (FYEG), European Democrat Students (EDS), the Democrat Youth
Community of Europe (DEMYC), International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY),
ETUC Youth, and ATD Quart Monde. It now also includes several National Youth
Councils, from Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands, reflecting the high
degree of interest amongst youth organisations in the Convention process.
Through several meetings this group has developed a common framework of
political demands, presented in several papers based on the “Youth Manifesto
for a European Federation”. These demands were also clearly stated in the
Civil Society Hearings, where Alison Weston, President of JEF, expressed the
opinions of the young people represented by the Contact Group.

The “Youth Manifesto for a European Federation”More information on the Youth Contact Group:
Click here
Speech of Alison Weston during the hearings:
Click here

If the Convention really wants to set the frame for a Europe closer to its
citizens, then the demands of the future citizens – of the youth of Europe –
should be heard and the result of the Youth Convention as well as the
demands of the Youth Contact Group should be taken into consideration by the
Convention in the “Drafting Phase”.