Swedish Presidency event: EU cooperation in the Youth field.
Special report by Eoghan Dockrell
The conference was attended by 250 participants. Half were youth representatives (aged 18-30) and the other half consisted of EU officials, Director Generals and senior civil servants. The participants came from every EU member state and several other European countries. The purpose of the conference was to give the participants an opportunity to meet and discuss the substance of future EU youth policy cooperation.
The event kicked off on Saturday September 12th. We met in the grand hall of the conference centre for an introduction ceremony chaired by the Swedish minister for children. She gave a short speech on the importance of having a productive weekend and then we split up into our pre-assigned groups. Of the ten groups I was in ‘Employment and Entrepreneurship’. Before leaving for Stockholm I attended an intensive preparation day organized by National Youth Council of Ireland. NYCI chose me to represent Ireland and said my work with Youth Media for Europe was a strong factor in my selection.
The main objective of the conference was to draft a report, which would contain key messages from each group. In our workshop we tried to focus on concrete proposals that could realistically be implemented on a European level. My group consisted of entrepreneurs and those employed by big companies. We also had two facilitators and four resource persons (experts).
Of all our suggestions, we had to choose a maximum of ten points that would go into the final report. The entire report which includes all the proposals from each workshop can be found at www.se2009.eu/youth. The conference gave me an invaluable insight into how other young people from neighbouring countries view important issues like youth unemployment.
Some of our recommendations:
1. The European commission should recommend that Member States reduce their taxes for young start-up entrepreneurs and ensure that fair minimum wage legislation exists for young employees.
2. The European Council and Member States should encourage and fund a start-up of local and regional entrepreneurship clubs for youth. These clubs should have a national or/and European umbrella organisation.
3. The European Commission should initiate the creation of a European website which displays in an accessible format, the opportunities that already exist in the EU (e.g. business simulation, internship programmes, competitions, best practices, information, legal advice, etc).
We didn’t spend the whole weekend working. There was also entertainment organised every night. We were brought to restaurants and had authentic Swedish cuisine. On the second evening we ate reindeer. Musicians and Swedish pop-bands performed after the meals and we were also brought on a tour around the city of Stockholm. These events were a great opportunity for the delegates to meet and talk with people from other European countries.
On the final day, before everyone left for flights home, an ‘opinion square’ was set-up where delegates from different groups could view and comment on their college’s newly drafted material. This gave people the opportunity to make suggestions in other youth policy areas and in some cases the suggestions were taken onboard and woven into the group’s final report. Before the Swedish youth minister gave the closing address, a famous professor took to the stage. He proclaimed how crucial it will be for the next generation of young Europeans to work together in order compete successfully against emerging markets, like China and India. For this to happen we need to have cooperation and support from the EU. They need to provide us with opportunities to remain competitive in the future and they should look at some of the outcomes of this Swedish youth conference for guidance in doing so.
