Signed by:
LYMEC (European Liberal Youth)
YEPP (Youth of the European People’s Party)
ECOSY (European Young Socialists)
JEF (Young European Federalists)
ETUC Youth (European Trade Union Confederation Youth)
FEYG (Federation of the Young European Greens)
YFJ (European Youth Forum)

Brussels, 25 February 2002

The period 2002-2003 will be particularly important for European integration. The European project is at a crossroad and the Convention is a positive step forward for further developments.

The Convention which will begin on Thursday 28 February represents a real chance for the citizens to participate in the debate on the future of Europe. We welcome the commitment of the Convention Presidium to engage in dialogue with representatives of civil society, and call on them also to recognise the vital importance of the voice of the youth of Europe in this process.

We, ECOSY, ETUC Youth, FEYG, JEF, LYMEC and YEPP, have formed a Contact Group of youth organisations in order to contribute to the work of the Convention and to the debate about the future of Europe. This Contact Group is open to all who wish to participate, and we look forward to many other organisations joining us. Between us, we represent many hundreds of thousands of young people across the entire European continent, and we firmly believe that young people must have a voice in building the Europe of the future.

The European Youth Forum, the platform representing young people and their organisations at the European level, considers this initiative as important in ensuring the involvement of young people in the European integration process, in line with its resolution adopted at the Council of Members meeting in Athens, November 2001. The Youth Forum encourages its members to join this initiative,

We call on you, the Presidium of the Convention, to demonstrate your commitment to a genuine dialogue with civil society, and to engaging the support of the citizens of Europe for your work, by recognising the essential role that the youth of Europe have to play in this process. We believe that this can only be achieved by the formal involvement of the representatives of the young people of Europe in the work of the Convention and in the debate about Europe’s future. As a first step, we call on the member of the Presidium responsible for contacts with civil society, Jean-Luc Dehaene, to invite us to a meeting to discuss youth involvement in the work of the Convention.

Yours sincerely,

Jan Krims
President, European Community Organisation of Socialist Youth (ECOSY)

Sinead Tiernan
Youth Co-ordinator, European Trade Union Confederation Youth (ETUC Youth)

Stefaan Pauwels
EU Responsible, Federation of the Young European Greens (FEYG)

Alison Weston
President, Young European Federalists (JEF)

Daniel Tanahatoe
President, Liberal and Radical Youth Movement of the European Union (LYMEC)

Rutger-Jan Hebben
President, Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP)

Henrik Söderman
President, European Youth Forum