Let me share with you some information and my impressions on recently attended event of the European Youth Forum, also known as Youth Forum Jeunesse (YFJ). Accordingly to its self-definition, the European Youth Forum (YFJ) is an independent, democratic, youth-led platform, representing 98 National Youth Councils and International Youth Organisations from across Europe.

The YFJ works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations towards the European Institutions, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. From my side I may add that it is a very powerful organization that has closed ties with key political institutions and organizations from all over the world. Therefore, it is crucial for YEE to try to collaborate closely with the YFJ using all the existing tools and opportunities. So it is of vital importance for YEE to be present at the Youth Forum statutory meetings.

The name of the event I attended is COMEM that stands for Council of Members, that this time took place in Antwerp, Belgium, from 5-8 May 2011. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the most important issues of the organization, to debate on its policies and priorities, and also to get reports from people who are running a platform of 98 youth non-governmental organizations and national youth councils in between its meetings - the Board and Secretariat of the YFJ.

The official opening of the meeting by the current president Peter Matjasic was shortly followed by the introduction of agenda and addressing speech of the head of the European Youth Foundation, who expressed interest in further cooperation between the fund and both the YFJ as a whole and its separate members.

Among numerous activities run during the COMEM, the following ones in my opinion deserve particular attention. First of all workshops. The idea lying behind organizing this session was to give delegates of the represented MOs update on priority topics the YFJ focuses its work on. These workshops are always run either by Board members or by respective members of the Secretariat responsible for a certain field. I participated in the workshop called ‘New financial perspective - the future of the support for youth'. The group's attention was drawn to the process of discussion of the new program Youth in Action 2.0.

The program is being actively discussed at present by both the European Commission and by other relevant stakeholders. And since the YFJ is an active part of the process, Board members leading the session and responsible for this sphere called on all the participants to spread the call among their organizations to actively contribute to the process by providing Youth Forum Board and Secretariat with their views concerning what the program shall look like, what the needs of organizations are and, very importantly, what part of money shall be devoted to which priority field. All the questions might be turned into the following terms: what are the needs of contemporary young people? what amount of money is needed to fulfill these needs? The other groups meanwhile were discussing various important topics, such as youth employment action, vote at 16, youth work development, youth rights, European Youth Foundation, etc.

Also policy commissions meetings were foreseen during the event. These meetings were organized to discuss the YFJ current and future policies towards different institutions and partners it is actively collaborating with. While being a member of the Advisory Council on Youth (AC on Youth) I made my mind to join the one where the issues of cooperation between the YFJ and AC on Youth were discussed. A couple of present members of the AC shared their vision on the role of the body in the co-management system of the CoE and also debated a bit on how the mechanism of reports from those 20 members of the AC elected from the pillar of the YFJ might be improved in the future.

Another session was devoted to various Thematic Squares, fields of initiatives of MOs, where anyone interested in running a session on a certain topic of concern may suggest it 1 month prior the COMEM and if the topic is supported by other MOs, it may be drafted in the agenda. I participated in the square dedicated to the topic of youth participation during which Slovenian and Greek MOs presented their project on youth participation run last year. After that the participants of the group had the opportunity to share their practice, concerns, proposals, etc. regarding improvement of mechanisms of youth participation in Europe.

Another important point on agenda was an Extraordinary General Assembly where important documents (financial and progress reports, report of the Chair of the AC on Youth, strategic priorities sheet, etc.) were presented. Also a report on membership review process was read. The process of review is initiated either by MOs or by the organization itself and is done to detect whether an MO falling under the review is fulfilling the criteria of membership of the YFJ. This time it was Azerbaijanian Youth Council NAYORA falling under the review process. The report was basically positive that resulted in unanimous decision to maintain its membership.

Having decided upon the dates of the next meeting, that is supposed to be on 25th and 26th November 2011, the General Assembly was closed.

I would like to encourage you to brainstorm the topic of contribution to the future Youth in Action program since obviously the European Commission funds have been and will undoubtedly be one of the main financial resources for our activities. Contribution of any kind is welcome, but it would be of particular importance for the European Youth Forum and then for the European Commission to know how we as those regularly using these funds see them in the future, what we would like to change (e.g. amount of money granted, application procedure, system of reports, etc.). All this information is necessary and important for reformers and thus required from us. You may share your opinions, thoughts and concerns by sending any relevant information on the matter to YEE External Relations Officer on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. who will then transfer it to an appropriate person in the YFJ Board and Secretariat.

Kyrylo Ivliev
YEE External Relations Officer