As the EU presidency rotation enters into a new trio of presidencies, so does the EU Structured Dialogue, where EFIL participates. This October it was the turn of Italy, being the current seat of the EU, to host the EU Youth Conference. Charlotte Klinting (member of EFIL’s European Pool of Representatives) attended on behalf of EFIL. Also, two of the facilitators of the Conference are EFIL’s members of the Pool of Trainers: Dulio Santos (AFS Portugal), Eliza Popper (AFS Hungary).
Instead of dealing with one topic per presidency, as was previously the process, the revised Structured Dialogue deals with one topic throughout the entire trio of presidencies, this being Italy, Latvia and Luxembourg. This trio has chosen to discuss Youth Empowerment through Political Participation. In addition, the Italian presidency wanted to set out recommendations about Young People’s Access to Rights (click here to read the Joint Conclusions).
The process of Youth Empowerment through Political Participation is in three steps:
1) Setting the guiding framework and questions (Italy).
2) Create the recommendations based on consultations, which are then sent for review to policy makers (Latvia).
3) Review and finalise recommendations which will become Council Resolutions (Luxembourg).
In Rome, all the youth delegates worked in working groups on different aspects of the topic, and the conclusions were turned into a guiding framework and a set of guiding questions. It is now the task of EFIL to consult our members on the following questions:
- What should be done to stimulate a culture of political participation in all aspects of education?
- What should be done to increase trust and understanding between young people and decision-makers, empowering both to better work with each other?
- How should young people and youth organisations be fully involved in shaping policies together with decision-makers?
- How can youth work empower young people for political participation?
- How should young people from all backgrounds be informed, empowered, and engaged to take part in political and democratic processes, and how should new and alternative technologies and tools be used for this?
Want to read more? Check out the website for the Italian presidency
For more: elisa.briga@afs.org
Charlotte Klinting, Dulio Santos, Eliza Popper
Charlotte Klinting presenting outcomes in Plenary
