Dear friends,

JEF Europe is pleased to invite you to participate in its next international youth meeting on the Future of Europe to be held in Athens, Greece

This meeting will take place from Friday 11/04/03 to Sunday 13/04/03. Under the title "EUROPE! – A GENERATION AHEAD", the Youth meeting focuses on evaluating the work of the Convention of the Future of Europe. It draws together young people from across the continent involved in the debate on the Future of Europe in their countries. The goal of this meeting is to discuss the draft European Constitution the Convention has produced so far.

Friday 11 April 2003

10 h 00 - 15 h 00
Arrival and registration of participants
Hotel COSMOS , 12-15 Victoros Hugo Street

17 h 00 – 18 h 00
Registration for the conference at the Old Parliament

18 h 00 – 20 h 30
Official Opening:”Young people from the enlarged European Union debate with…”
Greetings from:
Ntora Bakoyanni, Mayor of Athens
Nikos Lampropoulos, President of JEF Greece


Presentation of the mid-term results of the Convention Project (National debates)

Panel Discussion with
Paraskevas Avgerinos, Convention member
Alison Weston, President of JEF Europe

Debate with the participants

21 h 00 – 22 h 00
City Official Dinner

Saturday 12 April 2003

09 h 00
Pantios University
Plenary : introduction to working groups and working methods

09 h 30 – 13 h 00
Meeting in working groups
- Introduction by working groups’ chairs and rapporteurs
- Working groups-each working group will discuss key articles of the draft Constitution produced by the European Convention

13 h 30 – 14 h 30
Pic-nic in the Syntagma park

15 h 00 – 17 h 00
“European market”, Public Action on Syntagma Square
- Public campaign activities (European puzzle, voting stand, etc)·
- Informational stands about the enlargement and the Constitutional Convention·
- National Sections present their activities· Presentation of the Exhibition of JEF

17 h 30 – 20 h 00
Meeting in working groups
- Final remarks and conclusion of the working groups’ discussions

21 h 00 – 22 h 00
Greek buffet

22 h 00
European Party at the Pantios University

Sunday 13 December 2003

10 h 00 – 12 h 00
Meeting in plenary at the Old Parliament
- Presentation of the reports from the working groups
- Panel composed of the working groups’ rapporteurs
- Discussion

12 h 00 – 13 h 00
Closing address
Speakers:
M.Papayannakis,President of E.M Greece (to be confirmed)
Ellen Trane Nörby, Vice-President of the Youth Convention

13 h 00
End of the meeting

14 h 00
Optional sightseeing to the Acropolis

The participation fee is 50 Euro and has to be paid on arrival. This covers participation in all activities and full board from the evening of Friday 11/04/02 to the morning of Sunday 13/04/03, in a hotel in the centre of Athens.

A travel reimbursement is provided, up to a maximum of 180 Euro, to cover 70 % of a second-class return train ticket or of an economy class flight ticket.

For participants unable to cover their travel expenses themselves, special conditions can eventually be provided on a case-to-case basis. Please send a justified request to the JEF European Secretariat (info@jef-europe.net), if you want to apply.

If YOU want to take part in this event, send us your application as soon as possible in any case before 10 March.

More.....

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.

General timetable of the Working groups

- Ice-breaking and getting to know each other
- Short introduction to the topic
- Short presentation of JEF-Europe official positions
- General debate on the topic of the working group (e.g. Foreign, Security and Defence policy in general)
- Discussion on the relevant articles of the future Constitution
- Conclusions

Read here the instructions to arrive to the Hotel and the meeting venues !

Look at the explaining maps to get where we are waiting for you !

If you arrive after 17:00 on Friday, please go directly to the Old Parliament, thanks!

Athens, 12 April 2003

“EUROPE! A GENERATION AHEAD”
FEDERALISM IN THE MAINSTREAM DEBATE

“European Identity is like pornography. You cannot define it, but certainly you
recognise it when you see it”, Alison Weston, President of JEF Europe, pointed
out yesterday evening at the official opening of the International Youth Meeting
in Athens. This 3-day event is the second large-scale initiative of JEF under
the project “Europe! A Generation Ahead”, run with the support of the European
Commission.

The first pictures of the event are already online. Have a look!

High resolution version also available for the press!

click here

On 11-13 April over 200 young people from all over Europe met in Athens to discuss on the Future of Europe. In working groups the participants debated on the basis of the first draft articels of the future European Constitution.

Please find the conclusions of the different working groups below.

Have a look at the pictures of this great event!

Pictures of:

- the Street action on Syntagma (Constitution) Square - click here

- the Conference and plenary meeting at the Old Parliament - click here

- the Fun Times - click here

- Behind the Scene - click here