The Young European Federalists (JEF) are glad to invite representatives of the media, embassies and NGOs to the international youth meeting “Young people from the enlarged European Union debate on the Future of Europe”. The event will take place in Athens, Greece, on 11-13 April 2003. It is the second large-scale initiative of JEF under the project “Europe! A Generation Ahead”, supported by the European Commission and run under the patronage of the President of the European Parliament Mr. Pat Cox and the Vice President of the Convention Mr. Jean Luc Dehaene.

The aim of the meeting is to engage the European youth in the creation of its own future. Through intensive debates almost 200 young people will work on amendments of the first articles of the draft EU Constitution. Their proposals will be presented to Convention members on 24 April 2003 in Brussels.

The opening session of the international youth meeting will take place in the building of the Old Parliament on Friday April 11 from 18:00 h. You are very welcome to this session to include discussions with Convention members, politicians, representatives of the European Youth Forum, ambassadors of the candidate countries, experts in the European affairs and university professors. A presentation of the mid-term results of the Convention Project will also be made, followed by a debate with the participants.

The work on the key articles of the draft EU Constitution starts at 9.00 h on Saturday, April 12, in the Athens University. On this day we organise workshops with participants, focusing on the important issues of the competences of the European institutions, the principles and the values of EU, the role of the national parliaments, the legislative system of the Union, and the European action in the world. The guarantee for a fruitful debate will be the presence of experts , who will explain the existing proposals in the text of the future EU Constitution. The 200 young people from all over the continent will take the message for a united federal Europe to the streets in an information action on Syntagma Square. Participants from the accession countries will present their countries on a special Enlargement-stall. In a variety of games adults and kids will be encouraged to express what they associate with Europe.

The results from the working groups will be presented during the closing session on Sunday morning. We will be happy to welcome you then and see you discuss with us the proposals of the working groups.

By organising the Athens event just a few days before the signing of the Accession Treaties with the 10 new EU member states, JEF wishes to make young people part of this historic act and shows its commitment to the democratic unification of the European continent. As a pan-European youth organisation, based on democratic and federalist principles, we have consistently campaigned in favour of the enlargement and worked hard to integrate members from Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.

We consider your presence at the meeting as a valuable contribution and will be honoured to have you on the spot. No other generation has such a feeling of the European spirit as young people and their efforts to contribute to the building of the future of Europe deserve your attention.

To download the press pack for the event click here: Download file