The EU Youth Conference of the Cyprus Presidency held in Nicosia, Cyprus on 11-12-13 of September 2012. The topic of the conference was the “Youth Participation and the Social Inclusion of young people with migrant background”. The conference broadcasted in the European Youth Portal.
The Eurodesk Cyprus participated actively in the conference by disseminating the updates in the social networks and by collecting testimonies of youth delegates.Furthermore, the Eurodesk Cyprus prepared a bilingual interactive newsletter dedicated to the EU Youth Conference.
The topics of the newsletter are:
Cyprus Presidency: “European Youth Conference”.
Interview: Mohamed Yassine Ennaem: A young person with migrant background who lives in Cyprus.
Youth delegates and volunteers share their experience.
Joint Recommendations of youth delegates and Directors-General for Youth.
The EU Youth Conference is a part of the Structured Dialogue procedure that was established by the Council of the European Union to engage the youth in the decision process. Young people may shape the EU policy on topics that directly affect them through public consultations in each member state and the EU Youth Conference. Each TRIO Presidency sets an overall theme and then each presidency sets its own priority. The main theme of the 18 month TRIO Poland, Denmark, Cyprus was youth participation in democratic life in Europe. The priority of the Cyprus Presidency was the “Youth Participation and Social Inclusion”. The EU Youth Conference took place in Nicosia on 11-12-13 of September. During the conference of the youth delegates and Directors General of EU Member States discussed how youth participation leads to the social inclusion of all young people, with emphasis on the inclusion of young people with a migrant background and the importance of the participation of young people and youth organizations, especially in decision making for the creation of inclusive, democratic and prosperous societies. The joint recommendations of the youth delegates and Directors General of EU Member States was based on the outcomes of the national consultations in each member state. Find more information in the official website of the Cyprus Presidency.Useful Links:
The Eurodesk Cyprus promotes the sustainability through an interactive bilingual newsletter. The environment is one of the most important topics in the European agenda and also one of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
Topics:
Envrironment and EU.
Interview: Charalampos Theopemptou, Cyprus Commissioner for the Environment.
The Eurodesk Cyprus presents the structure dialogue process through an interactive newsletter with useful information, videos, images, resources,useful links and interviews.
They are also included the Guiding Questions of the Cyprus Presidency.
So!!!Get involved and influence the EU Youth Policy.
The newsletter is available HERE. The videos from the workshops from the second phase of the Structured Dialogue cycle on “Youth Participation in Democratic Life in Europe” in Sorø, Denmark on 18-21 March, are available in the European Youth Portal.
The theme of the Cyprus presidency is “Participation and Social Inclusion”, regarding the certain topics the Eurodesk Cyprus published a newsletter about the Social Inclusion and a newsletter about the Youth Participation.
The interactive bilingual newsletter of the Eurodesk Cyprus for the month January is special dedicated to the social inclusion,one of the eight fields of the EU Youth Strategy.
The topics are:
Social Inclusion and EU
School for the Blinds “Saint Barnabas”,interview from the Headmaster
The Newsletter of the Eurodesk Cyprus for the month December is special dedicated to volunteerism since the 2011 was the European Year of Volunteering.
An interactive billingual newsletter with interesting topics such us:
2011:European Year of Volunteerism-official video of the year
Pancyprian Volunteerism Coordinative Council
EVS:Interview with Eleni Michael,an ex-EVS volunteer.Useful links such as the EVS database,National Agency of the Youth in Action Programme,Youth Networks
The young people may affect the decision-making for policies in the field of youth since the November of 2009 after a decision taken by the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers). The European Commission is asking the opinion of the youngsters for the youth topics through the structured dialogue since the young people are the ones who are directly affected by the youth policies. The structured dialogue is part of the sub-action of the action 5 ,”Support for European Cooperation in the Youth Field”, of the European programme “Youth in Action”.
The main goals are to enhance the participation and the active citizenship of the young people, two branches of the “EU Youth Strategy” of the European Commission. The youngsters become actors in the process of decision-making, as a result, is improved the communication between the young people with the youth organization , national and European Institutions. The process of the structured dialogue has a really important contribution to the development of the European citizenship, since, the young people realize that the situation in a another European Country may affect their one reality.
The thematic priorities are set every 18 months by the Council of Ministers.The EU Youth Conferences are organized by each of the 3 Member States holding the Trio Presidency of the Council, firstly in a national level and then in a European level. The country that has the Presidency of the Council of Europe set its one priorities for their Presidency, so, the member-state that has the Presidency sets the topic for the Youth Conference.The opinions of the young people firstly, are collected in a national level through national conferences or through email and then are collected in a European level.Finally, the European Commission takes into account the outcome of the Youth Conferences in the process of decision-making.
Participating in an EU Youth Conference is a really very interesting experience for the young people, due to the fact that they have the opportunity to regard many aspects in a specific topic. The structured dialogue also promotes the multicultural aspect of Europe since each EU Youth Conference takes place in the member-state that holds the Presidency.
Now, the Trio Presidency is:
Poland 1 July 2011-31 December 2011
Denmark 1 January 2012-30 June 2012
Cyprus 1 July 2012-31 December 2013
The topic set by the Polish Presidency was “Youth and the World”, the topic of the Danish Presidency is ” Creativity and innovation” and the topic of the Cyprus Presidency is “Participation and social inclusion”.
Maria Strati 