Live from EU Youth Conference in Luxembourg

UPDATED: Day two of the EU Youth Conference

After an evening programme, including a walking tour of Luxembourg City and dinner and an evening of entertainment, the delegates were ready on Day Two of the conference to get to work on honing the work they began yesterday. The morning was filled with intensive workshops where delegates jointly developed ideas for youth political participation and how these can be implemented.

This was followed by an "Opinion Agora" where delegates came back into the plenary to share the ideas developed so far and hear what the other groups have come up with in order to finesse them further. These will be developed this evening, by the editing team into the official output of the EU Youth Conference.

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EU Youth Conference: Day One

The EU Youth Conference has officially opened this morning in Luxembourg, with high-level key note speeches focusing on youth participation and how to turn discussions into reality, as well as issues at the top of the news agenda including the refugee crisis and the marginalisation of young people and how these might be tackled.

The opening plenary session featured key note speakers from the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, Xavier Bettel, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Johanna Nyman, President of European Youth Forum, Maurice Losch, President of the Luxembourg National Youth Council and Nathalie Keipes, Vice Chair of the EU Steering Committee on structured Dialogue address the plenary.

Prime Minister Bettel said: “We need bridges between culture, religion, countries and continents. We need solidarity that goes beyond borders,” referring to the refugee crisis and called for more action and solidarity. When it comes to youth participation, the Prime Minister urged young people to become active citizens and said to delegates: “the future has started and you will determine what it looks like!”

Commissioner Navracsics focused on political participation and how to engage young people, talking of his plan to engage one million young Europeans. Whilst positive about the Structured Dialogue process, he wants to turn the talk into action: “We have to turn ambition into action. We have to create an online space for the youth to voice their opinions.”

Johanna Nyman, President of the European Youth Forum, said that whilst times are tough for young Europeans, we have the tools and the expertise to make things better. She said, “We need true political participation of young people and we are the experts to make this happen”.

The inaugural session was followed by a keynote speech on Political Activism and Self-Conception of Leftist Youth by psychologist Katrin Hillebrand and Ralph Schroeder, Head of the Youth Unit of the Ministry.

After that delegates got involved in an interactive session, where they wrote their messages about youth political participation and attached it to a balloon which they then shared with the rest of the plenary.

This afternoon delegates are getting to work on the issues being addressed at the Conference and split into parallel working sessions addressing the following topics:

• Creating a culture of participation at school
• Involving young people in political decision-making
• Enhancing policy makers' engagement and commitment with young people
• Strengthening the role of youth work for political empowerment of all young people
• Developing youth friendly tools for political participation
• Developing local and direct democracy
• Promoting political participation through alternative forms
• Increasing synergies and cooperation between different actors

The input from these workshops will go into the final output of the EU Youth Conference.

Meanwhile, the Youth Forum had the opportunity to meet with Commissioner Navracsics and discuss youth political participation, as well as the Structured Dialogue and how it could be improved. After that, Johanna Nyman joined the Commissioner on a visit to a local youth club in Bonnevoie in Luxembourg.