Courier

Please don't forget that we encourage you to post information on your activities, projects and publications in the courier.
In order to do so, you simply have to send an email to courier@youthforum.org

THANK YOU!

News from Partners

GCAP reacts to outcome of Madrid Food Security Summit
Call for Participants: Seminar on Youth Influence at Local Level held in Sweden
Call for participants: Council of Europe seminar on e-Participation
The COURIER - Magazine of Africa, Carribean, Pacific and European Union Relations
Social Platform Weekly Update
SOLIDAR Weekly Round-Up
SALTO Participation activities 2009
Blog: ROLE OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFRICA-EU PARTNERSHIP IMPLEMENTATION

French Presidency Youth Flash #4

In the framework of the joint Presidency Project between the French Youth Council (CNAJEP) and the YFJ, CNAJEP produced the fourth and last issue of the French EU Presidency Newsletter, the French Presidency Youth Flash, with news on the activities of the French EU Presidency, which ended on 31 December 2008.

You can download the newsletter here: English version - French version

For more information on the French EU Presidency, you can always contact YFJ's French EU Presidency Project Officer, Maika Billard , or the EU Relations Coordinator, Ewoud Roes

The YFJ has a new Pool of Trainers!

The new Pool of Trainers for the mandate of 2009-2010 has been formed. The following trainers were selected to the new POT:

1	AEGEE	Basak Zeynep Tuzun	21	ICYE	Maram Anbar
2	AEGEE	Musa Akgul	22	IFMSA	Daniel Rodriguez Muñoz
3	AEGEE	Maria Nomikou	23	IFMSA	Karolina Tuomisto
4	Alliance	George Kalmpourtzis	24	IGLYO	Bruno Selun
5	CJE	Gabriella Civico	25	IYNF	Monika Novosadova
6	CNJ	Andreia Henriques	26	JEF	Liga Grundsteine
7	CNJ	Bruno Antonio	27	JEF	Asa Gunven
8	CNJC	Elena Diez-Villagrasa	28	LIJOT	Karina Ufert
9	CNJC	Marc Cases Martin	29	LIJOT	Marius Ulozas
10	CTR/WOSM	Radu Cosmin Seuche	30	MSS	Matej Cepin
11	DEMYC	Marilena Kyprianou	31	MSS	Simona Mursec
12	DNK	Astrid Weber	32	NCYOG	Ilona Kochoy
13	ECOSY	Carmen Fischer	33	NYCR	Ekaterina Sherer
14	EEE-YFU	Erik Breves	34	ÖJV	Daniela Gertrud Reiter
15	EEE-YFU	Pernille Christensen	35	RYEurope	Eija Kauniskingas
16	EEE-YFU	Aygen Bekte	36	SCI	Grazyna Pulawska
17	EFIL	Eva Vítkova	37	SCI	Dejan Acanski
18	EFIL	Florin Feldmann	38	WOSM	Nina Arnus
19	ESYN	Costas Chronopoulos	39	YEE	Lilit Simonyan
20	FIMCAP	Lea Sedlmayr	40	YEU	Marko Paunovic

Congratulations to you all !

European Youth Forum in Informal Council of Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs - 22nd January, Luhacovice, Czech Republic

Dear friends,

We would like to share with you the outcomes of the event the European Youth Forum (YFJ) co-organised with the Zlin Region (Czech Republic) and that took place on 20-21 January: “Youth Employment in Times of Crisis: an EU-Youth Dialogue in the Zlin Region” and which the YFJ presented to the Informal Council of Employment Ministers during the opening session on the 22 nd January.

For the YFJ, this was a very successful achievement as it allowed us to put forward our key messages on the topic of “Youth Employment” towards the Employment Ministers of EU. It was a concrete sign of willingness of the Council to hear what young people have to say on a matter that strongly affects us directly: Youth Employment.

Our key message out forward to the Employment Council tackled not only the question of youth employment in times of crisis per se but also the topic of development of skills, mobility of young workers and our demands for the Spring Council on what concerns the need for to invest in youth to be reflected in the post-2010 Lisbon Strategy, as well as the short-term measures and initiatives to deal with the current financial and economic crisis, especially in the context of the implementation of the European Economic Recovery Plan.

Additionally, the European Youth Forum urged the EU Member States to agree on a renewed and updated European Youth Pact within the post-Lisbon framework.

The YFJ final and key message to the EU Council of Employment Ministers was: “In times of crisis, invest in youth!”

In attachment:

- The agenda of the event co-organised by YFJ and the Zlin Region

- Conclusions of the event “Youth Employment in Times of Crisis: an EU-Youth Dialogue in the Zlin Region”

- The agenda of the Informal Council of Employment Ministers

- Speech the President of the European Youth Forum, Tine Radinja , put forward to the Council of Employment Ministers.

- Press release the YFJ issued last Friday, immediately after our presence in the Informal Council of Employment (click here for the French version)

For further information, please contact Inês Alves, Policy Officer for Employment, Social Cohesion and Youth Pact

YFJ Annual Communication Survey
EXTENDED Deadline:3 February 2009

Like previous years, we would like to invite you to fill in the Annual Communication Survey. Your answers will help us to improve the Communication from the YFJ to its Members and they will be used to feed the Annual Communication Plan for 2009.

We kindly ask you to devote a bit of your time and attention to answer these questions.

To fill out the Survey please click here.

Thank you in advance for your time.

The European Youth Forum

Mark your diary: 29 April 2009 1st European Day on Solidarity and cooperation between generations

Join the campaign to mark the European Day!

Dear all,

Demographic ageing is strongly affecting the relationships among generations and the way European societies function. The demographic change brings new challenges, which requires a new assessment and reworking of several economic and social policies within society. Solidarity between younger and older generations is thus the key to answering those challenges.

On 28-29 April 2008, the Slovenian Presidency together with European NGOs, including the European Youth Forum, organised a EU Presidency on “Intergenerational Solidarity for Cohesive and Sustainable Societies”. The conference focused on seeking to reinforce social links between generations as well as to initiate a shift in policy-making to promote greater solidarity between generations.

Following the successful outcomes of the conference, the Slovenian EU Presidency decided to launch 29 April as the “European Day on Solidarity and Cooperation between Generations” to raise awareness about the need to promote greater intergenerational solidarity.

To make “European Day on Solidarity and Cooperation between Generations” a success we need your involvement and cooperation! This project can only work if it happens at grass root, national and local level .

With our awareness-raising campaign, we aim to attract the attention of politicians on European, national, regional and local levels who should work together with civil society groups on how to rethink and redefine the concept of solidarity between the generations, and on how to support civil society initiatives on intergenerational cooperation.

What can you do to mark the European Day 2009 :

-We strongly encourage you to cooperate with each other in planning actions at grass root level as well as policy debates to mark the European Day

- We would like you to send us any kind of information about positive actions and good practice examples of intergenerational cooperation. We would use this information to build up a press pack for the media.

You can find the complete toolkit on the campaign HERE.

If you have any question or if you wish to send us feedback, please contact Inês Alves - Policy Officer for Employment and Social Cohesion at YFJ Secretariat

Call for Participants

2nd Call for the 1% Solidarity Fund
Deadline 15 February 2009 13.00 CET

In line with the United Nations recommendations concerning development aid, the General Assembly of the European Youth Forum (Blankenberge, December 1996) decided that: "1% of the Annual European Youth Forum Budget would be allocated to finance concrete development projects involving young people".

This call for projects sets the criteria and procedures as well as the priorities established, for the selection and implementation of the European Youth Forum solidarity fund.

The European Youth Forum is committed to promoting the experiences of youth organisations in the field of development co-operation towards the United Nations, the World Bank and other institutions on the global level and promoting representative, democratic and sustainable Regional Youth Platforms as models to strengthen youth work development in other continents. Moreover, the Fund aims to contribute to the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) , the Millennium Development Goals, the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, and the plan of implementation adopted at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The call (0011-09) has been uploaded on the intranet (Calls 2009).

Call for YFJ Working Groups
Deadline 15 February 2009 12.00 (noon) CET

Please find attached the calls for the European Youth Forum Working Groups, in line with the reform of the internal YFJ working structures as agreed by the COMEM in Castelldefels in May 2007 (please see document 0830-07).

Call for a working group on Education
Call for a working group on Youth Policy Mainstreaming
Call for a working group on Human Rights
Call for a working group on Youth Work Development
Call for a working group on Employment (see amendment below)

You will also find them on the intranet (Calls 2009/Working Groups).

Nominations for Working Group members must be sent to the YFJ Secretariat by e-mail & fax no later than 12:00 (noon) CET, on 15 February 2009.

Please note that the dates of the first meetings for each Working Group are featured in the calls, and all successful candidates should be available to attend on these dates.

!!!Amendment: New dates for meeting of the working group on Employment!!!

Dear Members,

Please note that, due to unexpected developments, there has been a change to the dates of the first meeting of the Working Group on Employment and Social Affairs, the call for which is currently open. The group will convene for the first time on 21-22 March, not on 24-26 April.

Please check the amended call here.

Thank you for your understanding.

Call for partners

10th Edition of the University for Youth and Development

The University on Youth and Development is an activity jointly organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the Spanish Government (INJUVE), the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) and other international youth organisations.

In 2009 the University on Youth and Development will be gathering for the 10th time and therefore renewed hopes and aspirations, objectives and challenges are launched to the partners to reinforce this as the space and home of Global Youth Work and of the Global Youth Movement.

Main Goals

To create a political space where youth can act upon and acknowledge the role they play in Global Development.
To initiate and encourage debate aimed at defining the role youth play in elaborating development policies and in co-operation for development initiatives.
To facilitate a process aimed at defining and implementing projects within the field of youth.

Date and length of the Activities
The University will be held from the 13th to 20th September 2009.
The main arrival day for participants to the University is the 13th of September and the Departure day is the 20th. Activities are therefore foreseen to have the length of 6 days starting on the 14th and closing on the 19th of September. Partners should also consider the weekend 12th to 14th for preparatory meetings and preparatory work.
A preparatory partners meeting is also foreseen for May-June 2009, partners are expected to be available to attend this meeting.

The call can be found in the intranet.

For further information please contact Giuseppe Porcaro, at the YFJ Secretariat.

News from Member Organisations

Call for partners from CNAJEP Member organisation

Member of the French youth council (CNAJEP), the FNDVPQ is looking for partners for its Summer School of participative televisions in Marseilles (south France ) in 2010.

The FNVPQ is a network of associative and participative local televisions. Its 3 rd European Summer School will take place in Marseilles in July 2010.

It will last three days and its general theme will be “alternative and participative practices of local televisions in Europe ”.

Those three days of meetings between field and institutional agents, officials and public are aimed at:

• discovering other practitioners,
• widening networks and encouraging common projects,
• Calling up institutions on the participative television approach.

To concretise this Summer School, the FNVPQ needs European partners, field and institutional agents eager to actively participate to the event development and co-organisation.

If you are interested, please contact Thierry MICHEL, FNVDPQ coordinator +33 4 42 17 97 71 / +33 6 33 02 44 27 (cell phone). Click here for the French version.

E-mail: vdpq@free.fr
Website: http://vdpq.org

THANK YOU!

GCAP reacts to outcome of Madrid Food Security Summit

As you all know, the European Youth Forum is taking part in the European Steering Group of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). As a result of the closing of the Madrid High Level Meeting on Food Security and Agriculture by Secretary General, General Ban ki Moon and Spanish Premier, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the GCAP calls for a move from the right words to urgent action by making sufficient funds available immediately, particularly to local governments and local civil society. GCAP also demands that unfair trade, food dumping as well as financial speculation on food, be stopped immediately.

GCAP Poverty Hearings in Southern countries in 2007 and 2008 have shown the daily reality of unaffordable staple foods for millions of people. The global financial crisis is directly affecting those working in informal economies. As families starve, domestic and communal violence increases and criminal networks increase their hold on vulnerable populations. Meanwhile, this Madrid Declaration is focused on spending another year building a Global Alliance for Agriculture and Food Security. Southern governments are diplomatically calling this progress ‘slow' and GCAP is not convinced the best interests of food producers and poor consumers will be represented.

“ There is an insufficient sense of urgency or new funds compared to the money spent on unsustainable financial systems. The right to food is the basis of all human rights so this slow route highlights the present moral crisis. Private profits including food speculation and food dumping are still allowed. Sufficient and timely political responsibility for the welfare of people (food, water, health, education and decent work) is lacking. Not just in failed states like Zimbabwe – but in developing and developed countries alike,” said Sylvia Borren, Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) in Madrid for the meeting.

Nearly 2% of the world population, 116.9 million people, took action against poverty last October yet they still do not feel they are heard by their leaders. GCAP calls for women and farmer organisations, broader civil society and local governments to be brought into decision-making spaces now. If they can get even a tenth of the financial system bailout funds, the child dying every five seconds (mostly girls) can be saved.

GCAP welcomes the commitment from the Spanish government to make poverty and hunger priorities of its EU Presidency in 2010 and the UN Secretary General's promise that UN agencies will organize a coordinated response mechanism.

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is a civil society alliance of social movements, international NGOs, trade unions, community groups, women's organizations, faith and youth groups, local associations and campaigners working together across more than 100 national coalitions/platforms. GCAP is calling for action from the world's leaders to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality. In particular, GCAP demands solutions that address the issues of public accountability, just governance and the fulfillment of human rights; trade justice; more and better aid; debt cancellation; and gender equality and women's rights. For more information, visit: www.whiteband.org .

Source: http://www.whiteband.org/media/press-info/madrid-talks-in-the-right-direction-but-lack-urgency-and-funds

Call for Participants: Seminar on Youth Influence at Local Level held in Sweden
Deadline 15th February 2009

Youth Participation is one of the main priorities in the field of youth policy. It is aimed at encouraging young people to be active citizens by taking an active part either in the civic life of their community or in the structures of representative democracy.

In the framework of the European Commission White Paper, the Swedish National Agency in cooperation with SALTO-YOUTH Participation Resource Centre and the municipality of Jönköping decided to host a Seminar entitled “Youth Influence at local level”.

When? 16 th -20 th February 2009 (incl. arrival and departure)

Where? Jönköping , Sweden

For more information, please consult the EU-CoE Youth Partnership Website or contact Mr Johan Lycke from the Swedish National Agency.

Call for participants: Council of Europe seminar on e-Participation

The Council of Europe, in cooperation with the YFJ, is organising a seminar on the participation of young people through IT.

The seminar will take place in Strasbourg from 16-18/03 and bring together young people, youth organisations, researchers and policy makers to discuss the influence of IT developments of participation of young people in youth work, in democratic processes and the social inclusion of young people.

You can find the call here and register on http://coe.opencontent.it/

For any questions contact florian.cescon@coe.int or maarten.coertjens@youthforum.org

Blog: ROLE OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFRICA-EU PARTNERSHIP IMPLEMENTATION

The European Union Commission and the African Union Commission set up a blog space for Civil Society Organisations in the frame on the Africa-EU Partnership Implementation, where you can follow-up the developments in the involvement of Civil Society in that process and participate to discussions with comments: