Youth policy breakfast brings together permanent representatives to the EU

The European Youth Forum today held an informal breakfast meeting, hosted by the Finnish Permanent Representation to the EU, which brought together representatives from several EU Member States to discuss youth policy and the main priorities in the youth field.

The meeting, ahead of today’s Youth Working Party meeting of the Council, gave the opportunity for the Youth Forum to present its key priorities and to discuss these in an informal way. Johanna Nyman, the Youth Forum’s President, briefly addressed the audience outlining the Youth Forum’s position on the recent Council Conclusions on Youth Work, calling for concrete measures to be taken in that field.

Johanna also laid out the Youth Forum’s hopes for the forthcoming EU Work Plan for Youth 2015-2018, and commented on the current rhetoric on so-called ‘radicalisation’, which risks stimatising and further alienating young people. Youth policy should, instead, look beyond the symptoms at the root-causes, in order to prevent social exclusion, unemployment as well as discrimination of young people. Youth policy ought to contribute to more inclusive societies through strengthening youth organisations, citizenship education, youth employment and inclusion especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The Youth Forum also presented a series of short videos, the results of a digital storytelling project, which vividly illustrate the huge impact the youth work and youth organisations have on young people’s lives and on their communities.

Johanna will, later today, briefly address the Youth Working Party and in a more formal setting lay out the Youth Forum’s key concerns and aspirations for the youth field under the Luxemburgish Presidency of the Council during the second half of the year.

Read the Youth Forum's position on the EU Work Plan for Youth 2015-18 below.