During the last General Assembly held in Maribor, Slovenia, the European Youth Forum (YFJ) elected the new board to lead the platform for the upcoming two years. In the new team there is also Miroslaw Krzanik, experienced member of AEGEE and former member of the Comité Directeur!
Together with the best congratulations for the great success, the AEGEEan interviewed Miroslaw (better known as Mirek) to get to know a bit more about him and his experience.
The AEGEEan: What has been your experience with YFJ? How did you get there?
Mirek: The first time I came across the European Youth Forum YFJ myself was in June 2010 when I attended the 1st European Convention on Youth Work that was organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. After that, already as a CD Member, I was working with YFJ on multiple occasions. In the beginning of 2011 I was also selected to be a member of an Expert Group on Youth in Action. That was the first time I became a member of any working structure of the Forum and also when I became familiar with all the processes and most of opportunities that are provided by the platform. For the past two and a half years I have been working on different issues and contributing to different processes. Most significantly I was involved in the new Youth programme debate, education, volunteering and the Structured Dialogue. But the first and most important aim was to increase visibility of AEGEE in the Youth Forum, and I guess we managed!
What does it mean for you being a YFJ Board member?
On personal level I can say that it is some sort of a final step in my life-long journey through different youth organisations. On the other hand, hard work only starts now and for the next two years, because my mandate will last for 24 month, I will have to do a lot to prove that the support I received in Maribor was what I deserved. On a more professional level it is a chance to achieve my political agenda which I drafted over the past months. YFJ provides a wide range of opportunities to lobby for young people. My plan is, first of all, to focus on mobility issues, most importantly, visas and residence permits for young volunteers, pupils, students or trainees coming to the European Union. I hope that together with my colleagues from the Youth Forum and Member Organisations we will manage to convince politicians and policy-makers that young people deserve better! Secondly, I would like to work on education, both modes of it, meaning formal and non-formal, and also everything that is in between them. Thirdly, I wish to happily conclude the process of establishing a new Youth programme for the years 2014-2020. All in all, it is a challenge but also a chance to achieve a lot.
What will be your tasks?
As a Board Member I will be working on the political agenda of the Youth Forum. Unlike in AEGEE, in YFJ functions of the Secretariat and the Board are separated. Thus, Board Members are focused on setting up an agenda, preparing political ground, representing the whole platform and making sure that the Workplan is implemented. Precise tasks will be assigned to each one of us only in the beginning of the mandate, which starts on the 1st of January.
What can be the benefits for AEGEE?
First of all AEGEE can become more visible and what bothers us, would be also delivered to a higher level. I hope also that by having me in the Board of the Youth Forum we will rise a little bit awareness of the political importance of our work and maybe more people will become interested in it. It is also important that what I strive for in the Board of YFJ is directly linked to my experience in AEGEE. All the problems with visas are particularly visible in our network which reaches far beyond boundaries of the European Union. Similarly, the Youth programme is crucial for our existence and provides us with a significant part of our income. I hope that 
through delivering these issues to YFJ and further to politicians, I will manage to improve environment in which AEGEE and similar organisations function.
How can AEGEE members support your work in there?
In the Youth Forum we will be working in the next two years on many issues that AEGEE deals with, including mobility, formal and non-formal education, employment, next EU Parliamentary elections and so on. I hope that we will remain active in those fields as an organisation! Furthermore, I hope that AEGEE will become an expert in those domains and I will be able to relay on the knowledge of our members whenever I need some more in-field information!
You have been on the stage at the Agorae presenting yourself several times: is there any difference in doing the same on the stage of a General Assembly of YFJ?
I think AEGEE is friendlier. In the Youth Forum there are a lot of political discussions happening behind the scene and each time you take the floor you need to be aware of them and careful of what you say to make sure you would receive necessary support for your claims. In AEGEE we know each other better, we all share the same story and only rarely somebody has a completely different stand on an issue. But the stress associated with public speaking is just the same…
Thanks to the European Youth Forum & Léa Charlet, AEGEE-Paris for the photos.
Written by Alfredo Sellitti, AEGEE-Salerno