The Youth Forum Board in Cluj-Napoca

Last weekend, the board of the European Youth Forum met in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, European Youth Capital 2015.

The meeting opened with the preparation for the November Council of Members in Madrid. The theme will be “Juventud necessaria” and will focus on the importance of youth and organisations. This is particularly relevant at a time when Spain is suffering from one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the EU.

A key measure to increase youth employment is the youth guarantee, and the Board adopted its position paper on the Youth Guarantee, based on the expertise and input of the Youth Forum’s members. The Youth Forum calls for an effective Youth Guarantee monitoring system, especially in terms of its impact on young people. The Youth Forum also calls for a cross-sectorial approach to the scheme, making sure that it is included in youth and education policies.

Another key topic for the Forum is ensuring inclusive societies, with the Youth Forum’s members adopting a Resolution on the topic earlier this year. Many people from different backgrounds and experiences feel alienated from European society. Europe needs to urgently address the marginalisation of young people across societies and social groups.

Crucial to the Youth Forum’s advocacy is the rights-based approach and the board had a training session on this crucial advocacy tool. They went through the main concepts of the rights-based approach and what it implies for the work of the Youth Forum.This included an overview of the human rights framework at both European and global level.

Finally, 2016 will be a crucial year for the Youth Forum. The Board discussed ideas on the Youth Forum’s 20th anniversary celebrations and the European Youth Event in Strasbourg. The Board also had the chance have fruitful exchanges with Cluj-Napoca’s Youth Capital platform the Share Federation and Mayor Emil Boc. The Youth Forum expressed their delight that Cluj-Napoca’s European year has already engaged tens of thousands of young people to hundreds of different events through an exciting programme and the Youth Forum looks forward to even more in the coming months.