Contact Group of Youth NGOs demands Convention Presidium to urgently clarify the role of Youth Convention representatives

European Youth Forum, AEGEE, Allianssi, ATD 4th World, DEMYC, DUF, EDS, ECOSY, ETUC Youth, JEF, FYEG, LYMEC, YEPP

The Contact Group of youth NGOs calls on the Convention Presidium to urgently clear up any ambiguities surrounding the participation of the elected chairs of the Youth Convention in the meetings of the European Convention. The youth organisations support the letter the Chair and Vice-Chairs of the Youth Convention sent to Convention President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing requesting this.

The main concerns raised in the letter are the following:

• Clarification of the status and roles of the elected Chair and Vice-chairs of the Youth Convention within the European Convention. The three chairs call for a decision by the Convention Presidium at its next meeting that enables participation of the three chairs to the European Convention in a way that ensures that the opinions expressed by the Youth Convention are taken into account by the European Convention.

• To make sure that the three young Chairs, who are not in a position to cover the related costs themselves, are able to follow up on the Convention Presidium’s July invitation.

The full participation of young people in the Future of Europe Debate in the wake of the Youth Convention would be jeopardised if these issues are not clarified.

“We hope that we will have the opportunity to represent the views of young people as expressed in the Youth Convention while the work of the European Convention continues and progresses,” says Giacomo Filibeck, Chair of the Youth Convention. “We can serve as a relay between the European Convention and young people in Europe if the Convention remains committed to youth participation. Practical obstacles to this should be removed and our status clarified before the working groups conclude their work and President Giscard d’Estaing presents the draft constitution. Otherwise the Youth Convention could be justifiably viewed as a one-off PR stunt.”

ends

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. In its meeting of July 12, the Vice-Chairman of the European Convention, Jean-Luc Dehaene, underlined the need to maintain the momentum created by the Youth Convention and stated that the Chairman of the Youth Convention and its two Vice-Chairwomen would from now on be invited to attend the European Convention's plenary meetings, so that they could report back on them to Youth Convention participants as a whole.

2. The Contact Group of Youth NGOs was initiated in February by the European Community Organisation of Socialist Youth (ECOSY), the European Trade Union Confederation Youth (ETUC Youth), the Federation of the Young European Greens (FEYG), the Young European Federalists (JEF), the Liberal and Radical Youth Movement of the European Union (LYMEC), the Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP). Several other youth organisations have joined the group since (see header).

Press Contact:

Jorge Camara, European Youth Forum, Tel: 32 2 286 94 17