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.

"We believe that the structures of the future of Europe should be much clearer than they are today. One of the problems causing the alienation of citizens from the Union of today seems to be the fact that many people - especially many young people - do not understand the structure of the system. There is no clear mandate and there is no clear way to keep people and decision-making powers accountable for the decisions which have been taken. Therefore, the majority of the Youth Convention would like to propose a federal structure for the future of Europe."

Ellen Trane Nørby, Vice President of the Youth Convention, speaking to the Convention plenary, Friday 12 July 2002.

1. Being President of the Youth Convention must have been a really interesting experience. How did you find it overall?

I have no doubts about it: it has been the most challenging experience of my very short political life. The Youth Convention was not an event of international youth organizations where you know exactly who is with you in the room, where you know the background of the members and you have already set in the statute the common aims. The Youth Convention was a group of 210 individuals with 210 different backgrounds, ideas and expectations towards the Convention itself. From the beginning we had no idea how it was going to end up, and we had to find it out on the way. This was a big challenge: living with unpredictable events. The only thing that was clear to me and to the other members of the Presidium and the rapporteurs was that on Friday morning we were going to present the result of our meeting to the senior Convention plenary, and that we had not been given a lot of time to do it. 48 hours to give the opportunity to every single member of the YC to express her/his opinion on every single issue is an impossible time schedule; and it would have been even worse if the Youth Forum members of the Youth Convention Steering Committee, which included the secretariat of the Convention, the European Parliament secretariat, the Commission’s Secretariat General, DG Education, and the Youth Forum, had not been successful in amending the original proposal of the Convention Secretariat, which had proposed a one-day working meeting only.

2. At the beginning, what expectations did you have about the Youth Convention? What did you hope to achieve?

Perhaps it is important to begin with my fears rather than with the expectations. I was afraid, and I have to confess that I still am, that those whole thing was intended to be primarily a PR event for the good image of the Convention rather than an event designed to give young people a real opportunity to make a contribution. You know the story: 210 young people, selected or designated with unclear procedures by the senior Convention members, meeting in the EP under the auspices of President Giscard d’Estaing. Although he stated that his aim was to “listen to the views of young people”, he in fact left the room when we were about to present our results to the Convention plenary on Friday morning. We had only two days to prepare a “visionary” contribution, trying to give everyone the possibility to influence the final result with her/his own specific idea, while still keeping the aim of making a coherent declaration at the end.

Last week, in a unique and innovative exercise of democracy, 210 young citizens met in Brussels to make their voices heard and to contribute towards the building of Europe. We came from a vast range of backgrounds: from Ireland in the west to Turkey in the east; from Spanish communists to far-right xenophobic Danes, from pupil and student organisations, trade unions and scouts, from organisations of the disabled to those of ethnic minorities, to name a few.

We were faced with a difficult task: under an extreme time-constraint, to overcome our differences and produce a strong statement, an answer to the question, "what do young people want for the Europe of tomorrow?". It had to be strong and concrete enough to make an impression on the senior Convention and the general public, and rich enough to reflect the diversity and breadth of the Youth Convention.

The European Youth Convention, which promised so much, was limited even more by influential members of the 'senior' Convention, yet managed to deliver a good final document. The proposal for a federal Europe is in my view particularly important, as is the emphasis on informing the populations of member states and candidate countries on the workings of Europe.

Given only six hours to debate the paper, a hardworking Presidium and a Convention wholly committed to giving itself some meaning meant that a well written final document, which the majority of the Youth Convention supported, was presented to our seniors.

Final Text adopted by the European Youth Convention
Brussels, 12 July

Introduction

"The Union needs to be more democratic, more transparent and more efficient. It also has to resolve three basic challenges: how to bring citizens, and primarily the young, closer to the European design and the European institutions, how to organise politics and the European political area in an enlarged Union and how to develop the Union into a stabilising factor and a model in the new, multipolar world."
From the 'Laeken Declaration on the Future of the European Union'.

Involving young people in the construction of the European Union was one of the specific goals of the Laeken Declaration. Young people are not only important for Europe's future, they also have an essential role to play in the Europe of today. The strong results of the Youth Convention demonstrate beyond a doubt that young people should not be included only because they are young, but also because they can make a real contribution to the construction of the European Union of tomorrow.

The Youth Contact Group on the Convention was established in February 2002 by a number of member organisations of the European Youth Forum, in order to bring a youth perspective to the debate on the future of Europe. The Contact Group was initiated by the European Community Organisation of Socialist Youth (ECOSY), European Trade Union Confederation Youth (ETUC Youth), Federation of the Young European Greens (FYEG), Young European Federalists (JEF), Liberal and Radical Youth Movement of the European Union (LYMEC), and the Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP).

The Contact Group has since expanded to include more organisations, namely: Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC), European Democrat Students (EDS), International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), ATD Quart Monde, Allianssi, the Finnish National Youth Council, and most recently, the Dutch National Youth Council.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday 12 July 2002
For the attention of Newsdesks
Contact: Stein Ramstad, tel: +46 703674765

Youth demand a Federal European Constitution!

Youth Convention on the future of Europe

The Young European Federalists (JEF) welcome the conclusions of the European Youth Convention, held in Brussels 9-12 July. The Youth Convention has shown that the voices of young people should be heard; not only because they are young, but because they have a real contribution to make to the future construction of Europe.

Berlin, 12. Juli 2002

Pressemitteilung

Die Jugend Europas fordert eine föderale Verfassung für Europa

Die Jungen Europäischen Föderalisten (JEF) begrüßen die Verabschiedung des offiziellen Schlussdokuments des Jugendkonvent. In nur drei Tagen ist gelungen, was keiner erwartet hätte: Die Arbeitsgruppen einigten sich auf die wichtigsten Inhalte einer europäischen Verfassung, die letztendlich mit breiter Zustimmung vom Plenum angenommen wurden. Der Vize-Präsident der JEF, Jan Kreutz, jubelte: „Wir sind auf dem Weg zu einer föderalistischen Verfassung!“ Der 22-jährige Politik-Student aus Berlin hatte während der Arbeit des Jugendkonvents das Amt des Berichterstatters der Arbeitsgruppe „Demokratie und Partizipation“ inne. Die ebenfalls in der JEF aktive Anna Lührmann, Mitglied des Präsidiums des Jugendkonvents, freute sich über die gute Stimmung bei der Annahme des Papiers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday 12 July 2002
For the attention of Newsdesks
Contact: Laura Bacci, tel: 32 2 286 94 12 mobile: 32 476 40 24 79

Youth Convention calls for stronger reference on youth in EU Constitutional Treaty The results of the Youth Convention, presented by its Chairman Giacomo Filibeck to the adult Convention today, are welcomed by the European Youth Forum. Amongst the proposals made by the Youth Convention to the adult Convention there is a clear demand to make a stronger reference on youth in the EU's Constitutional Treaty, thus reflecting the changes that the European Youth Forum has been proposing to the EU institutions for the past few years.

Pressmeddelande från Liberala Ungdomsförbundet (LUF)

Kontaktperson:
Anders Ekberg,
förbundsombudsman LUF
Mobil: 070-238 90 62
E-post: anders.ekberg@liberal.se

Tisdag 16 juli 2002

Gör Europa till ett

- Det europeiska ungdomskonvent som hölls i Bryssel förra veckan kom fram
till att det behövs en europeisk federal konstitution. Liksom hos oss
ungliberaler i Sverige finns det alltså ett stort stöd bland ungdomar i
Europa för att EU utvecklas till en federal och demokratisk union. Europa
kan och bör förenas till ett, säger i dag Liberala Ungdomsförbundets (LUF)
förbundsordförande Birgitta Ohlsson.

AEGEE-Europe represented at the Youth Convention

AEGEE-Europe welcomes the results of the Youth Convention and sees its relevance for voicing the visions and ideas of young people. AEGEE hopes that the Youth Convention will be followed up and that youth’s involvement into the debate about the Future of Europe will be continued. However AEGEE-Europe questions the high politicisation of the Youth Convention and its legitimacy to represent the European youth.

AEGEE-Europe had the pleasure to be represented at the Youth Convention and sees the strong need of voicing the concerns of young people in the debate on the Future of Europe. It appreciates the support of this concept by the Convention Secretariat, European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Youth Forum.

RESOLUTION ON THE CONVENTION

To be transmitted to the European Convention from the XXIVth Congress of the World Federalist Movement, London, UK, 15 July 2002

This Congress of the World Federalist Movement,

Considering that a process of European unification has been going on for many years, and the progress achieved has enabled internal conflicts amongst European states to be overcome, and brought progress in the civil, democratic and social development to Europeans,

The Declaration of Laeken in December 2001 established a Convention as a framework for dialogue on the Constitution of the European Union, the work of which will be concluded by an Intergovernmental Conference in 2004. As a response to the challenges set by the work of the Convention, the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute (EUI) has convened a Working Group which is constituted by Professors from all Departments of the EUI in order to draw on its existing research base which has a distinctive interdisciplinary profile based on policy relevant, systematic and rigorous academic work, as its response to Joshka Fischer’s speech at the Humboldt University, Berlin illustrates (C. Joerges/ Y. Mény/ J.H.H. Weiler (eds.) What Kind of Constitution for What Kind of Polity? Responses to Joschka Fischer, RSC 2000: http://www.iue.it/RSC/symposium/).

Indeed, the RSCAS has a respected track record in advising the policy-making community, and has prior experience of research on the core issues identified for the Convention Policy (see, for example, the selection of papers as part of the RSCAS’s ‘Series on Constitutional Reform of the European Union’ reproduced at http://www.iue.it/RSC/EU/). Its work on the reorganisation of the European Treaties is a case in point (‘A Basic Treaty for the European Union - A Study of the Reorganisation of the Treaties’. The Report can be downloaded from the RSCAS website at http://www.iue.it/RSC/Research.html).