March 2015 EU Youth Conference: CESI Youth calls on political leaders to actively seek a deeper dialogue with young workers
2015-04-02 12:00
In the context of the March 2015 edition of the EU Youth Conference, CESI Youth representative and conference delegate Matthäus Fandrejewski urged political leaders to be more proactive in seeking input for policies from the organised civil society representing young workers. Organised biannually by the Council Presidency, the European Commission and the European Youth Forum (EYF), the EU Youth Conference is an institutionalised forum for dialogue bringing together representatives from the European Commission, EU Member State ministries, national Youth Councils and a number of international non-governmental youth organisations (INGYOs).
This year’s fist EU Youth Conference, held last week in Riga, concluded on March 26 with the adoption of a set of recommendations for European and EU Member State political leaders on ‘Empowering young people for political participation in democratic life in Europe’. They call on them to take measures:
- to involve young people more systematically in political decision making
- to further develop youth-friendly tools for political participation
- to boost local and direct democracy in order to foster young people’s political engagement.
As a next step, the recommendations will be discussed during the upcoming Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYC) Council meeting in Brussels on May 18-19.
Matthäus Frandrejewski, who participated for the CESI Youth in a workshop on ‘Strengthening the role of youth work for political empowerment of all young people’, highlighted the importance of the EU Youth Conference platform as a vital instrument for youngsters to convey their ideas and concerns to policy makers at the highest political level. During the conference in Riga, he noted: “I am glad that the CESI Youth is now represented at the EU Youth Conference for the third consecutive time. A continued participation in this forum is an important tool for us to keep highlighting the desire of young workers to participate in relevant policy discussions.”
The next European Youth Conference will take place in September in Luxembourg, where the CESI Youth hopes to be able to make its voice heard again for the benefit of young workers.
