Dear friends

The final session of the Convention before the summer break coincided with the Youth Convention, which met in Brussels 9-12 July. The Youth Convention was first announced by President Giscard d’Estaing in his speech opening the senior Convention on 28 February, and its stated goal was to bring more young people into the debate on the future of Europe.

Despite strict time restraints and attempts by the Convention secretariat to micro-manage the entire event, the Youth Convention produced a strong final declaration which demanded a federal Constitution for Europe, a position which was supported by the majority of participants.

You will find in this issue of the Bulletin an interview with the elected President of the Youth Convention, Giacomo Filibeck, as well as reports from several of the Youth Convention’s participants and the text of the final declaration. The young participants showed themselves determined to demonstrate that there is an appetite amongst young people for a radical and democratic reform of the Union, and that young people can be credible participants in the political debate rather than ornamental appendages for the members of the senior Convention. It remains to be seen if the senior Convention is willing to take seriously its commitment to reach out to and involve young people, by engaging in a genuine follow-up process.

This is the final edition of the Convention Bulletin before the summer break. The next issue will be in early September, when the Convention recommences its work. As always, your contributions and suggestions are welcome, please send them to: info@constitutional-convention.net. All the articles of this and previous Bulletins are available online at the Constitutional Convention homepage, www.constitutional-convention.net. If you wish to comment on any articles, feel free to do so at our online discussion forum: http://www.constitutional-convention.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi.

Federalist greetings,

Your editors.