On 16-18 March, members of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) met in Brussels for the Council of Members (COMEM), with a packed agenda of negotiations. Charlotte Klinting (Denmark) represented EFIL.
Members were presented with and voted on the Progress Report, membership issues and financial statements. The Annual Report for 2014 has also been published and can be downloaded here.
The COMEM continued with in-depth policy discussions on: quality employment; inclusive societies; the youth work convention; and the structured dialogue.
Two specific policy documents were discussed, one on social inclusion and one on quality employment, and members voted on a total 200+ amendments, which goes to show how important these issues are.
The final versions of the policy resolutions can be found here:
“Inclusive Societies at Stake”:
“Time to Act: More Quality Employment”
The issue of quality employment was also at the centre of the discussion at the last GA and is a high priority of the work plan. In fact during this COMEM, a Public Plenary on “Creating Quality Jobs for Young People” was held and Michel Servoz, Director General of DG of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion from the European Commission came as a speaker.
In terms of EFIL’s priorities, the YFJ work plan continues to focus on mobility and visa issues, as the mobility resolution was adopted last GA, and more importantly in the light of the revision of the EU Visa Directive. It did not feature strongly in the progress report, but the YFJ Board has engaged with EFIL and other youth exchange organisations to continue this lobby effort, and EFIL will join the newly established Mobility Network of the YFJ.
The group of representatives from youth exchange organisations attending the COMEM
For more: elisa.briga@afs.org