Live from the EU #YouthConf Kosice, Slovakia

How to enable all young people to engage in a diverse, connected and inclusive Europe ? In Kosice from the 3rd to the 6th of October, youth delegates and policy makers from across Europe sit at the same table at the EU Youth Conference to give recommendations on youth policies in the EU.

Youth delegates brought to Kosice inputs from 65 000 young people around Europe that were consulted these last months as well as the great work done in the previous EU Youth Conference that took place in Amsterdam and focus on the same theme. During these 4 days, they will have debates, discussions, confront the inputs from the consultations in the different countries and elaborate some joint recommendation that will be presented to representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the ministries responsible for youth of the EU Member States.

Tuesday 4th October:

The opening plenary started with introductory speeches from Luis Alvarado Martinez, Vice-President of the European Youth Forum and President of the steering committee of the Structured dialogue, Eva Masarova the head of department of the Youth Slovak Ministry, Jens Nymand-Christensen from DG Education and Culture from the European Commission, and Matej Cibik from the Slovak Youth Council.

In the afternoon, Youth delegates and policy makers split in different workshops. What are the challenges, the obstacles faced by young people to live in an inclusive and diverse Europe? How should we tackle them together with the institutions and the civil society?

Wednesday 5th October

Another day for youth participation. Today the delegates split again into workshop groups to continue the passionating debates and discussion of yesterday. What should we change in our education system? How to ensure safe spaces to better integrate minority groups? How to promote youth-led media ? By the end of the day 16 recommendation will be sent to the editing team that will work over night to prepare the final document. Also for the first time, young people that are not in Kosice were able to give feedbacks online!

The joint recommendations of the Conference will be discussed in November in a High Level Policy Debate by the Ministries from the 28 member states. They will then be addressed to the Council of the EU to be the basis of participative youth policies.

About the Structured Dialogue with young people

The EU Youth Conference is part of the Structured Dialogue, a unique process where young people contribute to EU youth policy. The Youth Conference in Kosice is hosted by the Slovak Presidency, the Slovak Youth Council and the European Youth Forum.

The Structured Dialogue with young people originates from the renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field adopted in 2009. Since then, this tool of joint reflection on the development of youth policy, which is meant to engage equally young people and decision-makers, has been repeatedly revised. The current Team Presidency of Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta decided to further strengthen the link between Structured Dialogue and processes taking place in the Council. In three successive EU Youth Conferences, youth representatives and decision-makers together will transform the vast amount of input received from young people across the EU into a set of concrete proposals.

More information about the Structured Dialogue can be found here.