Encouraging youth cooperation with Eastern Europe and Caucasus

Structured Dialogue,
5-7 September 2011, Warsaw, Poland

Around 230 participants from all over Europe gathered in Warsaw from 5 to 7 September for the next structured dialogue in frames of EU Polish Presidency. The conference is a chance for young people to make their voice heard in the European Union.

The structured dialogue is a platform for young people to participate in policy making in the EU and in their respective national governments. Every six months, as the presidency of the EU is passed on to another EU country, the president  takes on the role of organizing and managing the structured dialogue. The youth conference is a part of this structured dialogue process. It brings together the input of all youth representatives and a statement with recommendations is formulated, which is then presented to the Council of the EU, the EU commission and EU parliament.

This year for the first time the topic of the dialogue was “Youth and the World” especially targeting Eastern Europe and Caucasus. Apart from young people, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth – Androulla Vassiliou, minister of education in Poland – Katarzyna Hall and Peter Matjašič – president of European Youth Forum, took part. 10 representatives of International NGO-s were present including selected representatives from AEGEE Shushan Khachatryan (AEGEE-Yerevan) and Rene Janssen (AEGEE-Leuven).

During joint workshops, perspectives on cooperation with targeted countries were discussed. Youth delegates and, Representatives of Commission and Ministries were divided into working groups in order to discuss various subtopics of Cooperation with Eastern European and Caucasian countries. Topics of discussion were: barriers and obstacles in youth cooperation between the EU and EU neighbouring countries, programmes and grant schemes to support mobility and participation and so on. The Joint Recommendations worked out at the conference are online and can be accessed here:

The most actively discussed topic was free Schengen visa category for youth worker and a strong independent youth programme of the EU Youth Conference put forward to the EU and the Member States.

“I am glad to see youth participation in democratic life in practice, and, indeed flourishing.  Commission will put forward a single programme for reasons of efficiency and cost effectiveness. But make no mistake, in substance the Commission will propose to continue and develop the actions of Youth in Action programme in favour of non-formal learning trough the participation and the mobility of all young people” – stated Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth.

AEGEE-the European Students’ Forum, as one of the biggest student organizations which is present in Eastern European and Caucasus countries as well, strongly encourages the cooperation and highlighting it even more after selecting Bridging Europe a focus area for the next years.

The next EU Youth Conference will take place in Denmark and we could use your input so we can represent AEGEE and its members. Stay tuned for more information on this next year!