This year’s spring Council of Members of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) took place in Brussels on 15 and 16 April. EFIL was represented by its permanent representative to the YFJ, Alexandra Singpiel, and the Structured Dialogue representative, Alexandra Ruivo Cordeiro.
During this Council of Members, there were updates on the work carried out by the Youth Forum over the last six months and the 2015 Annual Report was also presented to the members. A brand new campaign “We Are Youth Work”, which aims to promote youth work across Europe, was also launched during the meeting. Several discussion groups among members took place – the so-called Thematic Squares- and EFIL representatives took part to the ones on the Refugee crisis and the EU Structured dialogue with young people.
This time the four items on the agenda, all of them being passed, dealt with Quality Standards on Youth Policy, Youth Autonomy and Inclusion, Equality and Non-discrimination, and on the EU Foreign Affairs Council conclusions of 15 February 2016 on non-extending restrictive measures for the Republic of Belarus.
The resolution on Quality Standards on Youth Policy aims at creating a common understanding among member organization of the YFJ of what quality youth policy should look like and identifies core standards and indicators on which youth policy should be based, e.g. having a rights-based approach, and being participatory.
The resolution on Youth Autonomy and Inclusion aims at ensuring that all young people access social and economic rights, by adapting the current system to the new realities and the life of young people.
The Policy paper on Equality and Non-discrimination calls for an end to discrimination against young people based on age and other factors, and any other action which hinders their transition to adulthood and autonomy.
More information on the work of the European Youth Forum can be found here: http://www.youthforum.org