Last week, some really good news came to all the AEGEEans. It was during the COMEM (Council of Members) of the European Youth Forum (YFJ, which stands for ‘Youth Forum Jeunesse‘) in Brussels.

AEGEE-Europe had just been elected to be one of the 30 organizations inside the Advisory Council (AC) on Youth of the Council of Europe, representing the European Youth Forum Member Organizations.

A great privilege, but also a big challenge. This is a big step forward for AEGEE in order to advocate for youth rights, and The AEGEEan team has spoken to Marko Grdosic, Liaison Officer towards the European Youth Forum, Luis Alvarado Martínez, President of AEGEE-Europe, and Mirosław Krzanik, Board member of the European Youth Forum, in order to know their priorities and expectations after the election.

Luis Alvarado and Marko Grdosic during the Spring COMEM in Brussels

What does it mean for AEGEE to be representing the European Youth Forum in the Council of Europe, and how can it benefit?

Marko Grdosic: AEGEE members should see our newest enrolment within the Advisory Council as a great privilege but as well as a big task. Given the perfect example of co-management Council of Europe gives to Youth through the Advisory Council, this shows the great role it has and how much it can actually influence policies of the CoE.

Having its seat in the AC, AEGEE will directly represent all the members, same as the members of other youth organizations, member organizations of the European Youth Forum. Therefore, AEGEE will now be able to strongly advocate for democracy, human rights and educational policies within the work of the Council of Europe.

Luis Alvarado Martínez: It means that AEGEE-Europe will be one of the 30 organizations inside the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe (CoE). This Advisory Council has co-decision or co-management power inside the Council of Europe to all the initiatives and policies related to youth. We will make sure the needs and interest not only of AEGEE, but of all the Member Organizations of the European Youth Forum are always taken into account.

Mirosław Krzanik: First of all we can directly influence priorities and decisions of the Council of Europe in the field of youth. At the same time let’s not think only about how AEGEE can benefit from it but let’s be happy that we can contribute and help in developing new policies, strategies and projects!

What are the main issues and priorities that AEGEE-Europe is going to deal with?

Marko: This of course will depend on the agenda that is in our world changing very often. If we are to talk nowadays, it will for sure be human rights, as a follow-up of the event organised by AEGEE this week in Strasbourg. Of course, education is as well an ongoing focus.

Mirek: That depends strongly on the people who will directly represent AEGEE in the Advisory Council and on the decisions of the CD and the members.

Luis: We as AEGEE have always showed a particular focus on Non Formal Education, its recognition, validation etc., but lately we have also done a lot regarding Youth Rights and Youth Participation. These topics will be in a core focus, as well as promoting the co-management power which exists in the Council of Europe in other institutions.

Miroslaw Krzanik is currently Board Member of the European Youth Forum

And which are the expectations you are holding?

Marko: I wish to see a strong AEGEE inside the Advisory Council, AEGEE with a good input, making sure to respond to all the challenges this role might bring. It would also be interesting to see if the experience we gain from this co-management system can give us a push when advocating for the same with the EU Institutions.

Luis: We expect to bring AEGEE to a whole new level of expertise, and advocacy action as well as much more involved in the work of the Council of Europe. AEGEE will develop very much and will use all the potential of this new position.

Mirek: I hope the AC will continue its strong focus on developing youth-related policies and advocating for youth rights in particular in regions where the European Union is not present, in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, etc. This way the Council of Europe can complement the actions which are taken by the European Union and strengthen the presence of youth in political discourse in those countries.

As members of the Advisory Council on Youth, and after your experience striving for youth rights and representing students in Europe, what does it mean for you to advocate for young people, and how do you work on it?

Marko: Youth has always been the most unrepresented group and this makes the advocacy work much harder. In general, what is important is to know people, be in a good time on a good place, network and promote. Also, the agenda of the relevant stakeholders has to be followed. In order to create the biggest impact, we always have to act in time with the institutions and mobilize other civil society colleagues to increase the visibility.  In the end, a good advocate has to be trained, social, a great spokesperson.

Luis: Well now there is a much bigger responsibility. Before we were only representing AEGEE-Europe (which is also not the easiest task, but we have some common values and ideas). Now we have to represent all the Member Organizations of the Youth Forum, without forgetting all the points of views and needs of all the organizations.

Mirek: I guess it is very important for the entire Network of AEGEE to get actively involved in creating expertise inside the organization. For now a lot of ideas, experience and knowledge are gathered in the CD and around it, among people closely cooperating with them. The challenge is to make more members interested in political issues. First steps have been made, Policy Officers are developing our internal knowledge and continue inviting more and more members to join them, but the more events are organized, the more opportunities to discuss policies and politics are created, the stronger our voice will be. And I guess it has to come from the members directly, without waiting for an incentive from the CD. Whenever you have an idea of what should be changed, what can be improved or developed, simply try to invite other people who share the idea, discuss it and write a summary, share it with the CD and others in AEGEE. This is how the first steps are made in order to inspire others!

At the same time, when you think about inviting external guests you can make a great use of the fact that AEGEE is now present in the European Youth Forum and soon will be in the Advisory Council! Put in your promo materials; use it as an argument for external guests to join your conferences, meetings, trainings!

So, what comes next? Which are the next goals of AEGEE-Europe in terms of advocacy?

Marko: This depends of course on the Comité Directeur, as they are the ones setting up the political agenda of the organization. However, thinking of next steps here in Brussels, it is prominent that we will all be putting our strenghts into stronger funding for youth, co-management questions, development of education area, unemployment and innovation as a key to development.

Luis: This week we are present in Strasbourg first to attend the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and on Wednesday we also start our event in the European Youth Center also here in Strasbourg. During this event we bring members of 15 different International Youth NGOs and together with them we draft the Youth Rights Campaign which we will launch soon. This campaign is a follow-up of the 9^th Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Saint Petersburg, Russia, were AEGEE was present and protesting for the lack of youth rights and freedom of speech for young people.

After this we will have a conference in Brussels in June, calling the European Union to implement a co-management structure inside the EU for the youth sector. We want the EU also to take the example of the Council of Europe and give a co-decisive power to the youth organizations.

Mirek: I hope that the next step to follow will look back to the membership of AEGEE. Now we are present externally, we are good at it, let’s try all together to use it in our internal growth.

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino, and Anna Gumbau Martínez, AEGEE-Barcelona

Pictures by the European Youth Forum (flickr)

Mirosław Krzanik, former Audit Commissioner, former member of Comité Directeur and former Liaison Officer toward the European Youth Forum, has been elected as board member of the European Youth Forum by its General Assembly in Maribor in December 2012, representing AEGEE in the European Board. The European Youth Forum (YFJ, from Youth Forum Jeunesse) is the biggest representative youth platform in our continent. It strives for youth rights in international institutions. In its daily work the European Youth Forum represents the views and opinions of youth organisations in all relevant policy areas and promotes the cross-sectoral nature of youth policy towards a variety of institutional actors. In this interview, Mirosław talks about the current projects of the European Youth Forum, his main goals for the upcoming term, as well as the role that his involvment in AEGEE played in reaching the goal of becoming a board member.

Please enjoy!

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