Last weekend the Parliament building in Strasbourg hosted the European Youth Event 2014 (EYE 2014), an unique opportunity for the next generation to generate ideas, discuss opinions and set the agenda for tomorrow’s Europe.
Undoubtedly, the EYE 2014 has been one of the best experiences I ever
had. Fantastic 3 days full of interesting debates and wonderful moments with
other 5.000 European young mates, all of us sharing a dream: a better Europe.
One conclusion: There are thousands and thousands of european youths committed towards creating another Europe, more democratic, social and federal.
During these 3
days, we took part in panel discussions on topics such as youth employment, the
digital revolution and sustainability and talked about tour ideas for the
future of Europe with politicians, journalists and other decision makers.
According to the organisation, the EYE conclusions will be handed to the
newly-elected MEPs during the first plenary in July.
In the
following lines, I highlight the most important conclusions taken from the EYE:
·
Celebrate the EYE 2014 was an excellent idea. The EYE was an admirable idea and I firmly
believe that it should be done at least twice during an European Parliament´s
legislature (two years after the elections and 1 month before them). Web Pages such
as the Ideas Lab (https://www.eye2014-ideaslab.eu/) should keep active in order so that the participants can write down
and share our current and future ideas.
·
Excellent organisation of the event. More than 200 workshops and
seminars took place with participants, including 180 speakers and MEPs. It was
really well organised. In addition, we had the opportunity to explore stands
run by various youth organisations (as for example: JEF (http://www.jef.eu/),
ESN (http://esn.org/), etc.), while also enjoying activities and entertainment
provided in the YO!Village and in YO!Fest. I had the opportunity to discover
new initiatives as for example: http://www.loveyouthfuture.eu/ led by the
European Youth Forum.
·
Youth employment is perceived as a priority that needs to be led at the
European Level. Job culture is
changing. European youth need and want good-quality, stable and sustainable
employment. We want the EP and European Commission to define a long-term
sustainable pathway and promote policies towards an equal and inclusive labour
market providing quality jobs. The Youth Guarantee is not enough, it is simply
a patch (especially useful for NEETs (Not Employment, Education and Training).
·
A more DEMOCRATIC EUROPEAN UNION was a common topic in all the
discussions. A single
European electoral system, enforcing the digital democracy and transparency needs
to be a “must” for the new EP. We, the citizens, want to choose the president
of the EU and also more instruments and policies supporting direct citizen
participation. We desire the European Union to be a global “fair player” with a
single voice (democraticly chosen).
·
Political will to promote an European identity. Not only are we European but we also want to
feel European citizens. Initiatives such as an European Passport and a
definition of the common European values (being solidarity as one of the core
values) have to be enforced.
·
Stop Austerity. We want a SOCIAL and SUSTAINABLE EUROPE, in which the Welfare stare is the core
political and economic value. Measures such
as a basic income were extremely popular. We all agreed that the EU budget
should be more focused on supporting environmentally sustainable economic
growth and social cohesion. Programs like the New Deal for Europe were often
acclaimed (http://www.newdeal4europe.eu/).
·
Enforce a minimum basis for the European Education, enforcing the vocational system (e.g. Austrian
education system), and a political democratic culture.
·
Promote a more UNITED EUROPE, promoting more EU integration. In most of the debates, some of the participants
stated that more competences should be transferred from the Member States to
the EU institutions, in order to create a united Europe, moving towards a
Federal Union
·
European Mobility needs to be enforced by the European institutions. There is a need of create more mobility
programs and a better integral coordination of all the matters related to mobility,
assuring the accessibility of all the social classes. However, the mobility should
not be mandatory; no one should be forced to leave their own country.
·
Lack of national press coverage of the EYE 2014. In my opinion, the national institutions and
media should have focused on spreading the event and its conclusions. It would
have contributed towards generating a pro-european feeling and to show the
commitment of the European Youth with a better EU.
As I said, it was a really nice experience. Thank you specially to all the members of JEF-Europe and JEF-Catalunya for giving me the opportunity to participate. I am pretty sure, that one of the best assets that the current European Union has is all the youths committed to work and fight for a better Europe. There is hope. The challenge now is how use this energy and ideas to move forward the EU.
