YFactor where is (y)our future? Putting youth on the EU agenda

On 5th February 2015 took place the YFactor where is (y)our future? Putting youth on the EU agenda event in the Committee of the Regions (Brussels).

This conference has been an opportunity for young people to present to the EU institutions 10 proposals related to 3 of the most relevant issues for young people in Europe namely the lack of jobs and youth unemployment; youth’s disinterest in the European politics and polarisation of the EU citizenship; as well as young people’s concerns about environmental problems and sustainable growth.

These mentioned proposals have been drafted, voted, and accepted by the attendees of the conference in an interactive setting.

The proposals are the following:

•  European funding for better and more inclusive policies. Europe Direct centres should be enabled to create networks that reach and allow the young people usually unheard to express their personal stories.

•  Stimulate green economy packages within the European Union legislation starting with the public sector through mandatory green public procurement.

• Making Europe more flexible with benefit programmes for new entrepreneurs and improved labour market integration.

• Put non-formal education gained skills on the agenda by making it visible and engaging all actors.

•  Internship programmes for young low-skilled people who just have compulsory education, or not even that.

•  European Union funding for education and democracy and citizenship including pan-European election simulations.

• Create a definition of the term “internship”; “traineeship” and “voluntary work” at European level with a criteria based on duration, payment/expenses, learning skills and minimum wage – inclusive of accommodation and food relative to every country’s living standard.

•  More young people involved in politics. European Institutions should encourage political education at all levels of educational systems in the Member States. It will raise awareness and make young people more active.

• Create a platform for local initiatives and socially responsible producers to be used as best practice. Promote the idea that alternative consumption can be competitive via funding innovative companies.

• Create a European mobility programme for students aged 10 to 18, immersing them into a new society, culture and language in order to broaden their minds and to boost their sense of European identity.

In Euromontana, youth is considered as a key transversal priority. Indeed, 80% of surveyed young mountain inhabitants say they would like to live and work there, when they were interviewed before the European Mountain Convention on youth in Chambery in 2012.

But, the impossibility of finding the training courses and jobs, young people want in the mountains makes them leave for the agglomerations where universities are concentrated, and they do not always come back. In addition, the insufficient supply of educational opportunities, a lack of infrastructures and an insufficient provision of cultural activities are major considerations in their plans for life. As a result, we encourage the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the European institutions in general to hear the needs of young people in mountain areas and develop, with Member States and the regions, adequate solutions to answer to them.

For any further information about the YFactor where is (y)our future? Putting youth on the EU agenda event visit the event web page here.