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Thank you! Highlights from our Online General Assembly

24/11/2020

What a weekend! For the first time ever, our bi-annual General Assembly went digital. We were very excited to welcome our Member Organisations from across Europe as we joined together to take key decisions on the future work and leadership of the Youth Forum.

We thank all those who took part over the three day event for your patience, commitment and passion! Due to your active engagement in this year’s General Assembly, we were able to adopt: two policy papers on youth participation and youth, peace and security, one motion on the Erasmus+ successor programme, and resolutions on gender-based violence, anti-gypsyism and abolition of death penalty measures in Belarus.

It is with great pleasure that we can also announce the results of European Youth Forum elections.

Congratulations to the new Board of the European Youth Forum 2021-2022:

President - Silja Markkula

Vice-Presidents - Anja Fortuna and Frédéric Piccavet

Board Member - Nicolai Boysen

Board Member - Panagiotis Chatzimichail

Board Member - Paulína Jalakšová

Board Member - Simon Lindkær Andersen

Board Member - Tom Matthew

Board Member - Monika Skadborg

Board Member - María Rodríguez Alcázar

Board Member - Christiana Xenofontos

Member Organisations also voted to elected members of our consultative bodies, the Financial Control Commission (FCC) and the Consultative Body for Membership Applications (CBMA).

Congratulations to:

FCC - Sarah Canavan, Simon Devos-Chernova, Samedin Rovcanin, Pia Winstén,

CBMA - Daniela Ordowski, Alessandro Scelfo, Adam Smuga,

Once again we would like to thank all of the candidates who took part in these elections. We are proud to hear so many strong voices speaking out #ForYouth Rights!

The General Assembly was also invited to make decisions on membership. We're very happy to welcome a new member to the European Youth Forum family! Congratulations Phiren Amenca for becoming our new observer member. We also reviewed and approved the membership of the National Youth Council of Italy and welcomed our first associate member, TDM 2000 International. Well done to all!

Finally, this General Assembly was made even more special by giving out our first ever ‘Youth Rights Honorary Award’. We couldn’t think of a more deserving first winner than the National Youth Council of Belarus (RADA). While 2020 has been an extremely difficult year for all of us, for RADA, the challenges they have faced following the undemocratic elections in Belarus have been at times overwhelming. However, they continue to stand up for democratic values, rule of law and the rights of all young people in Belarus. The Youth Forum will continue to stand with RADA in these hard times and we support the crucial work that they do. Well done, RADA!

Youth Rights Award - congratulations RADA

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