LATVIAN YOUTH CONVENTION ON THE FUTURE OF EUROPE
March 7 – 10, 2003

REPORT ON THE PROJECT’S EVENTS

Event: Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe
Time frame February 13, to March 13
Organizer of the project (name of the organization) Club “The House” / JEF - Latvia
Name and title of the contact person. Dainis Lasmanis, project leader
Telephone No; fax No, e-mail 9114480; 7326548 ; dalas@navigator.lv

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPLEMENTED EVENTS
(Schedule of implementation included)

There were three components to organizational side of the project:
1. preparation for the planned events of Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe,
2. Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, March 7-10 and
3. sending the information about the Convention, the final resolution and summary of opinions to the deputies of Saeima, ministries, mass media, public organizations and others, as well as promotion of the started discussion.

Preparatory events for the Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe

ENSURING THE WORK PROCESS
- Prepare and send out invitations to chosen people about participation in the advisory task group
- Preparation of the information package for the members of the advisory task group.
- Meeting of the advisory task
- Involvement of volunteers
- selection of discussion moderators
- Launching of Club’s “the House” home page
- Preparation of the information package for the participants
- Preparation of the informational package for the moderator

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONVENTION PROGRAMME
- Preparation of the comparative chart containing the information on the national youth conventions and forums on the future of Europe in various countries
- Development of the criteria for participant selection
- Development of the program
- Development of the task group themes
- Development of the ideas for the entertainment events


INFORMING OF THE SOCIETY

Before the event
- Preparation of the contact information (schools, media, local governments, NGO, school boards)
- Preparation of the informative material (press release)
- Sending of press releases to the media and calling back
- Sending the information to schools, universities, NGO’s and local governments
- Preparation of the informative posters and distribution to schools, universities and colleges

During the event
- Invitations to media and organizing of press conferences
- Placing the information on the Internet
- Sending out the information in the mailing list

After the event
- Preparation and editing of the resolution
- Translation of the resolution
- Presenting the resolution to the representatives of government
- Sending the resolution to the mass media
- Sending the resolution to all the participants
- Sending the resolution to the deputies of Saeima, representatives of Latvia in the European Convention, Cabinet of Ministers
- Sending the resolution to the Presidium of the European Convention, deputies of the European Parliament, International European Movement, national branches of Young European Federalists

DRAFTING THE PARTICIPANTS
- Development of the participant selection criteria
- Development of the list of NGO’s, political parties and student boards from universities invited to the event
- Development of the invitation letter
- Development of questionnaires for the members of represented NGO’s, political parties and student boards
- Development of the application form (1 variant – for the schools, the other – for NGO’s)
- Placing the application form in the home page of Club “The House”
- Announcing of the beginning of the application process
- Application deadline
- Formation and convocation of the task group for selecting participants
- Evaluation, development of the list of approved participants
- Informing the approved participants about the registration
- Registering of the approved participants
- Development of the list of all registered participants
- Creating the mailing list for the registered participants
- Sending the information to the registered participants


PRACTICAL AND TECHNICAL MATTERS
- Attracting sponsors
- Reservation and hiring of accommodations (Bulduri, Saeima)
- Renting the necessary equipment
- Choosing the feeding company (Bulduri, Riga)
- Supplying with chancellery goods
- Organizing the entertainment events
- Attracting the Important persons (Ministers, representatives, etc.)
- Renting the bus (Riga-Bulduri, Budluri-Riga)
- Preparation of the Saeima passes for media and others

Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe

Summary

Friday, March 7, 2003 - Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, day 1

Friday, March 7 was the opening day of the Convention when the discussions on the future of Europe began. In the opening ceremony of the Convention (the opening speech was given by Dainis Lasmanis, the leader of the project) the main aims of the Convention – involving the Latvian society in creating the future Europe, as well as enlarging the role of youth in these processes – were announced. After reading the speech from the President of Latvia Vaira Vike Freiberga, whose main points were that participation of young people in creating the future architecture of political, economical and cultural life reflects the activity and the thoughtfulness of the youth today, which, in turn, gives a reason to believe in a successful development of the country, society and Europe, the Convention was opened by Una Spelmane, director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Riga – the main sponsors of the Convention.

During the day, the participants were given general information on the questions connected to European future. The beginner of the theme was a representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Eduards Stiprais. His speech was devoted to the process of Latvia’s accession to the EU and political trends concerning this at home.

The director of European Integration Bureau Edvards Kušners told about the national interests in the process of joining EU. In order to create a discussion between Eurooptimists and Europesimists, Kušners raised some questions whether and what are our interests now and what will they become after joining the EU.

As an EU expert Maris Sprindžuks also gave a speech in the Youth Convention. Sprindžuks is a former delegate of Latvia in the European Convention. He gave an insight in the working principles of European Convention and main opinion clashes there.

At the end of the evening the participants were divided into groups and they went on a night track, where they were given various tasks – creation of a song about freedom, carrying a friend, etc.

Although the participants were tired after the long day, they still were willing to dance or listen to music, while meeting each other and continuing discussions many had started earlier that day. The knowledge that they gained helped them over the next days.

Saturday, March 8, 2003 - Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, day 2

The second day of the National Youth Convention started with a lecture from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sandra Kalniete. The main accents of her speech were the current events concerning the European Convention in context with declaration and protection of Latvia’s interests in foreign politics. Mrs. Kalniete also commented on questions of great importance to Latvia and other candidate states concerning the enlargment of EU and the distribution of power.

Right after the lecture the participants of Convention started their work in self-chosen task groups: The Missions and visions of Europe, Europe and the Rest of the World, European Culture and Identity, Democracy in Europe, Collective Security. The participants of Convention started their work with proposing possible themes for discussions in order to meet the goal of the Latvian Youth Convention – preparation of the resolution.

The informative base of each participant was increased by the invited lecturers, which helped to gain a wider insight in questions chosen by the participants of task groups to discuss. Lecturers also helped the participants to evaluate the most appropriate themes for continuing working on them and reaching results. Thus Atis Lejinš, director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, put in his share in creating resolution by talking about solution of the common foreign policy problems in order to keep European unity without loosing the tight and successful cooperation in other spheres. Professor Maija Kule, director of Latvian University’s Institute of Philosophy and Sociology stressed the theories of the changeable identity’s creation while talking about Europe in context of identity and culture. She also revealed the complicated ways how to reach a unified definition of identity. Janis Vaivads, advisor for the European Integration Bureau, stressed the importance of the political and economical integration in time, when it is not possible to talk about a long-term existence of political integration without mentioning economical integration and the other way around.

After the lectures of professionals in EU field the participants of Convention returned to their task groups in order to continue discussions there and after a short while to meet up in the plenary session where each task group presented their work. The time for each presentation was five minutes, after that followed the questions and suggestions from the audience. This made the task group work easier, because it helped to formulate the themes clearer and brought the discussions to fruitful results.

After the lunch an informative presentation of the Internet discussion forum for Latvian Youth Convention took place. This forum lets other Latvian youngsters to participate in the Convention by giving their opinions and letting the participants of Latvian Youth Convention to take notice of some issues that they might have not noticed before. After the informative presentation, the participants returned to their task groups to continue work.

In conclusion of the second day of Convention an activity meant for testing the creative resources and collective spirit took place. It was called From Bulduri to Lisbon. The informal part of the evening was continued by two young bands “Centurions”and “Enas”, ensuring a musical enjoyment.

Sunday, March 9, 2003 - Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, day 3

The best characteristics of the third day of the Latvian Youth Convention were the tense and fruitful discussions. There was no help available from the professionals in European issues on Sunday and all day was spent working intensively in the chosen task groups. This was the day when each task group tried to reach the results of their work – summary of opinions on the theme that had been the main precondition in choosing the specific task group.

The atmosphere was tense in the first plenary session of the day, where the representatives of each task group presented the latest results of their work. The many questions after the each presentation proved the willingness of the participants to take part not only in the work of their group, but also to see the future of Europe in an overall context. For the development of the overall context some task groups visited other task groups and “exchanged with experiences”. The heaviest exchanges of opinions and ideas during the plenary sessions of this day revealed fully the width of the Convention’s themes: the possible counterforce of Europe while trying to stand against the USA’s influence in political arena; the ability of Latvian state to influence the decisions in the context of European politics; the popularization of the European culture while neutralizing the effects of the traditions coming from other regions of the World; how broad in the sense of borders can a fully functioning European Union be.

Sunday was the hardest day in the course of Convention, because the work in the task groups ended only before the dinner. Every task group had prepared their summary of opinions. After the dinner there was the final plenary session prior to which nobody knew how long it will take to find the unified truth on the future of Europe and how intensive this process will be.

The organizers of the planned musical entertainment saw the first participants only after two o’clock at night, when those participants of the Convention that had endured the five hours long discussion round were ready to change the activity of their brain cells for the physical activity on the dance floor.

Monday, March 10, 2003 - Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, day 4

The final day of the Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, March 10, started with departure from Bulduri to Riga. The officially dressed participants became acquainted with the office of European Movement Latvia and Club “The House” and were getting ready for the final meeting that took place in a perfectly adequate environment for this important event – Saeima Red Hall.

In an extremely politically responsible atmosphere, based on the process analogue to the State’s decision making process, the participants of the Latvian Youth Convention debated over the formulation of the points incorporated in the final resolution, which is a summary of all discussions in task groups, expressed opinions and supported ideas. The heated discussions were finished only a few minutes before the presenting of the final resolution to the representatives of Saeima and government. After a short while the representatives from the media, Latvian delegates in the European Convention Guntars Krasts and Liene Liepina, as well as Deputy Speaker of the Saeima Eriks Jekabsons, began to arrive. After the opening address given by the leader of the Convention project Dainis Lasmanis, each of the representatives from Saeima complimented the initiative; enthusiasm and expressed interest of each participant in the future of Europe and Latvia’s place in it. The chairman of the Saeima Foreign Affairs Commision Inese Vaidere encouraged the participants of the Convention to become ambassadors in their own place of residence and with their Euro-positivism to captivate not only their peers but also their parents and grandparents. After the welcoming addresses the floor was handed to the delegates of the Convention that first commented shortly on the hard work done and then, in the name of all participants of the Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, handed the resolution to the representatives of Saeima.

After a storm of applause and Guntars Krasts’ promises to distribute the accepted resolution to all responsible persons in Saeima and government, a great satisfaction could be sensed among the participants of the Convention. The intensive, three days long work, was finally done.

As a nice surprise came the prepared “day-time munchies” in the Saeima Guest Hall. Although a little tired, participants used a chance to talk to Guntars Krasts, start the heated debates with Ainars Dimants (the president of the European Movement Latvia) and Inese Birzniece (former delegate in the European Convention from Latvia).

Because of the plenary session of the Saeima Commission in European Issues in the Red Hall, the participants of the Convention had another chance to present the results of the Convention to everyone present and to answer all their questions.

After the event
The main aim after the event was to inform the society, especially politicians, about the final results of the convention and promote the discussion on the future of Europe. For reaching this aim the following tasks were put forward:
· to promote the discussion in the Internet (www.klubsmaja.lv) and in public events (especially those organized by European Movement Latvia and Club ”The House”,
· to express the opinion of the participants of the Latvian Youth Convention in the National Convention on the Future of Europe;
· sending out the final resolution and the summary of opinions to the deputies of Saeima, Ministries, NGO’s etc.

2. THE EVALUATION OF THE REACHED AIMS OF THE PROJECT
Evaluation
Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe is an event organized by Club “The House” in co-operation with the European Movement Latvia, which took place March 7-10, 2003, in Bulduri and Saeima, Riga. 70 youngsters aged 16 to 25 from all regions of Latvia took part in the Convention. There was a great variety in regional and organizational representation, difference in age, gender, educational level and interests among the participants. The result of their work process – youth resolution and summary of opinions – was presented to representatives from Saeima in a reception in the Saeima Red Hall.
Latvian Youth Convention was 4 days long, it’s aim was to involve Latvian youth in solving questions of great importance to Europe and Latvia, express their opinion about shared European values, and, based on those values, work out the ideal vision what the future Europe should be like. Latvian Youth Convention’s on the Future of Europe role in involving youth in solving political, economical and social problems has been almost immense. It has also contributed greatly to the consolidation of the civil society of Latvia. The wide diversity of the youngsters represented in the Convention lets us evaluate the result – resolution and summary of opinions – as a miniature reflection of the shared position of Latvian youth. 70 participants of the Convention were selected from 360 applicants. This was done, according to criterions, that included also diversity in representation – regional, age group, educational level, ethnical, gender, organizational, political and interest.
In the result of the Convention youngsters have learned the art of debate and discussions, ability to probe into the raised issues, as well as to argue and substantiate their opinion. As another positive trait of the event should be mentioned the great information flow, which left each youngster better-informed about issues concerning European Union.
After the discussions started in the Convention formulation of the shared opinion youngsters have understood that they can reach a common position. The accomplished work has motivated the participants to engage their peers in similar discussions. Based on this, there is a hope that the willingness of Latvian youth to have an influence on the questions relevant for Latvia will become even stronger and thus even better results may be achieved in the future.

Evaluation of the participants

The participants of the Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe admit that they have gained new friends and acquaintances; contacts; experience in discussions and teamwork; new, relevant information on the European Union; possibility to formulate and express their opinion, as well as to listen to and understand other youngsters’ opinion, thus forming a little different view of Europe and the questions concerning European Union.

The participants liked the work process – task groups-; atmosphere and attitude towards them; location of the Convention; competency of the discussion moderators; lectures given by lecturers; diversity of youngsters; the organizational side of the Convention and the content of it; tie planning; discussions held in plenary sessions; accessibility to Internet; evening events with musical entertainment.

Part of the participants of the Convention were unsatisfied with the lack of time; inactivity of some youngsters and their unwillingness to take part in discussions; the outcome of resolution (by mentioning that it is not specific and detailed enough); feeding and unheated accommodations.

The managerial side of the Convention everyone admits to be very good and professional – always keeping up with the schedule as well as being competent and considerate organizers.

Work in task groups everyone sees as a success, although sometimes there was lack of time, work was tense and a little chaotic, and opinions of some people strongly dominated over the course of action. Participants believe that the result is worthy to be showed to the society and political elite. Work in task groups is an excellent way for an effective opinion exchange.

Comments on the result reached are very heterogeneous – some believe that their opinion is included in the resolution, some – that the position expressed in the resolution should be more commented. However, they all agree that a great amount of work has been done successfully in a very short period of time and this is an investment in the future. The main aims and goals of the Convention have been justified.

Recommendations from the side of the participants of the Convention were to add a few more days to the Convention; continue with realization of similar projects; devote more time for the discussions in plenary sessions and to announce the division in task groups a little earlier, so that there is enough time to prepare some materials on the topic. All the youngsters invite to further participate in the discussion forum on the Internet.

3. STATISTICS

The number of people involved in the implementation of the project:

There were 50 people involved in the implementation of the project (10 in the organizational task group, 5 discussion moderators, 7 lecturers, 18 people in advisory task group, 10 volunteers and a webmaster)

The number of people directly involved in the project events:Within the project’s target group: 70 youngsters took part in the Convention~150 people (TB/LNNK meeting; lectures, discussion in the Kuldiga Secondary School, in the training seminars of young lecturers)

Number of people indirectly involved in the project’s events (for example, TV viewers, parents of the students)

The parents of those directly involved in the project and members of their families could be regarded as indirectly involved people (~400).Over the course of the project the information was sent to around 250 local governments, 26 school boards, 360 NGO’s (~1500 people).Participants registered in the home page (~40), not registered visitors (~300)~ TV, radio audience (2,8 million)

TOTAL 50 + 220 + 2240 + (2,8 mill.)*= 2,802,510 people

4. PUBLICITY OF THE PROJECT.

In order to gain reflection in the media as wide as possible, there was both collective and individualistic approach used. Before and after the convention, as well as during the event, there were several releases sent to both regional and national media. With several important media representatives the organizers of the Convention contacted individually both by e-mail and telephone.
Taking into account that our calculations concerning the publicity of the Convention are based on statistical figures about the mean television channel and radio audience, as well as the mean number of press subscribers, we can only talk about the possible size of the audience that was reached by the information concerning the Latvian Convention on the Future of Europe. The number of people that possibly have seen or heard about the event might be reaching over 1.6 million Latvian inhabitants and 10 000 European inhabitants. The greatest publicity for the event was the news coverage of the Latvian Youth Convention in the Latvian Television’s news program “Panorama”, where the total length of the story was 2.5 minutes (March 7 and 10) and also Latvian Radio, where the reportages were included in 5 broadcasts, as well as the information in Radio Naba on the March 10th.
From the printed press, the information on the Convention showed up in the Neatkariga Rita Avize, where the summary of the resolution and a picture were printed as well. Latvijas Vestnesis also has been fallowing the course of action on the Convention – there were 2 publications: one analytical, the other informative. There has been a publication in Euronews. In the near future it is planned to place a publication in the news leaflet of the European Integration Bureau, magazine Virziens Eiropai and in regional press.
Since the Convention’s first day there can be found a home page (www.klubsmaja.lv/konvents) with detailed information on the Latvian Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, as well as a discussion forum, where everyone is asked to express his/her opinion and thoughts on the specific topics. Other homepages that reflect the course of the project are www.eib.lv (European Integration Bureau), www.eiropakustiba.lv (European Movement Latvia), Latvijas Socialdemokratiskas Stradnieku partijas jauniešu nodala www.lsdp-jo.lv (the youth section of the Latvian Socialdemokratiska Stradnieku party), www.tb.lv (To Fatherland and Liberty), www.politika.lv (Internet portal), www.ngo.org (Center of the NGO’s). Internationally Club “The House” is mentioned in Convention Bulletin Edition issued 15.-17.10.2002 www.constitutional-convention.net

We think that the publicity so far has been on a satisfactory level. It needs to be taken into account that the work with media still goes on.

This project was organised in the framework of JEF transnational project on the Future of Europe supported by the European Union.

JEF European Secretariat
Chaussée de Wavre 214d /Waversesteenweg 214dB-1050 Bruxelles/BrusselTel.: +32 (0)2 512 00 53; Fax.: +32 (0)2 626 95 01email: info@jef-europe.net; website: www.jef-europe.net