This year’s spring CoMem, the European Youth Forum´s Council of Members, took place in Brussels 25-26 April. EFIL’s recently appointed representative to the YFJ, Alexandra Singpiel, attended together with Elisa Briga, EFIL’s Advocacy Co-ordinator.
Finally, after a longer process of consultations with the YFJ member organisations and having already voted on some amendments at the last CoMem in Greece in November 2013 the vote on statutory changes took place.
Another important change took place in the YFJ Secretariat as after 5 years of service, the Secretary-General Giuseppe Porcaro is succeeded by Allan Päll, who got selected following a long process of interviews.
The DNK (German National Committee) brought in an urgent resolution on the situation of Youth in both Ukraine and Russia. After some discussions the National Youth Council of Russia as well as the National Youth Council of Ukraine both agreed on the content of the Resolution and asked the membership for supporting it. Finally, the whole document with all agreed amendments was accepted with a huge majority, without a dissenting vote and only few abstentions.
EFIL together with CNTM (the National Youth Council of Moldova), EEE-YFU and ESN hosted a workshop (so called ‘thematic square’) on Mobility, as these organisations together with IFM-SEI and RADA are members of the YFJ working group on mobility. Only 11 participants attended due to the fact that there was the urgent resolution on the situation in Ukraine/Russia and some other topics to be discussed in parallel. However, there was a meaningful exchange between the participants present as all of their organisations experienced difficulties when it comes to mobility, but not all of them were aware of the work that was already done by the working group and what is still going on.
The first round of discussion of the next YFJ workplan for the years 2015-16 took place: it was a general discussion which now needs close follow-up to make sure mobility as well as intercultural aspects are given enough attention.
The next CoMem and General Assembly will take place in November in Romania, Cluj Napoca, the European Youth Capital 2015. It will be an important Statutory meeting since the new Board and the new work plan 2015-2016 will be approved.
For more: elisa.briga@afs.org
Alexandra Singpiel (AFS GER – EFIL representative to the YFJ) and Elisa Briga (EFIL Advocacy Co-ordinator)
The informal group of representatives of YFJ organisations dealing with youth exchanges: EFIL, YEU, Alliance, ESN, EEE-YFU, SCI, AEGEE/