The spring Council of Members (COMEM) and the Extraordinary General Assembly (Ex-GA) of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) took place in Brussels on 19-20 April 2013. The meeting was an occasion for the representatives of the two pillars of YFJ (the International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) and the National Youth Councils (NYCs)) to get together to discuss a wide range of topical issues of youth policy in Europe. The meeting was composed of two parts. Firstly COMEM acted as a platform for the members of YFJ to discuss policy papers and amendments, to listen to reports of the Board and to adopt resolutions. Seondarily, Ex-GA discussed the approval of changes to statutory documents, the review of membership of current member organizations and the acceptance of new members.

During this COMEM the participants had a choice to participate in one the 5 policy commissions: Updating the Policy Paper on Employment 2008; Post-2015 and Youth; Citizenship Education- Revision of the policy paper; The Youth Forum- a safe and conducive environment; Quality Education. Out of the existing policy commissions only the Policy Paper on Employment 2008 was ready for amendment by the delegates. YEE took part in the process.

There were also 4 thematic squares – a space for discussion on the topics of interest to member organizations: Vote@16 - Best practices and tools; The present and the future of the AC among Youth Forum; Roma Youth; The Structured Dialogue on Youth. YEE participated in the thematic square on the present and the future of the AC, during which the current president and members of the AC presented their work. Participants were invited to ask questions. Following this, they spilt into groups (Access to Rights, Non-Formal Education etc.) to discuss these issues in more detail.

Another remarkable thing during the COMEM and Ex-GA was the election of the members of the 2014/2015 Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. From among 30 applying organizations only 7 NYCs and 13 INGYOs had the opportunity to become members of the AC. Another 3 organizatons joined: YFJ: BEST; EUDY; UYF.

I think this was a very fruitful and productive meeting. Besides meeting new partners for YEE, I also met a lot of new interesting people from all over Europe. Hopefully we will cooperate with them in the future.

Zaruhi Stepanyan

YEE External Relations Officer