“Young people want to be heard?” – Nathan Metenier, External Relations Officer
Dear members,
The advocacy work of our network is still improving and things are changing slowly in Brussels. October was still a very good month and I have the feeling that things can change even more!
As you all now, Youth and Environment Europe advocated for creating a strong coalition of youth-led NGOs to advocate on climate change and environmental issues at the European level. This is the very purpose of Generation Climate Europe.
Together with other Youth-led networks and NGOs we can have a stronger and better voice. It is great working with different organisation with different perspectives, priorities. I’m learning a lot from them!
At the beginning of October, the coalition was invited to moderate the opening session of the Sustainability Conference of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
A lot of important decision-makers were present at this meeting: the president of the EESC, the Director-General for Environment and the Finnish Presidency of the European Union.
This was a unique opportunity for us to ask what their institutions can do to better involve young people in the climate and environmental decision-making processes. The answer of one of them? “We already have a new very young commissioner”.
It is true, we all can admit that this commission showed trust in the youth, nominating the 29 years old Virginius Sinkevicius. But we can do more, more to really engaged young people in the processes: from high school students to young professionals.
On the afternoon, we organised the very first roundtable discussions with a lot of young people from the strike movements, youth-led NGOs and youth movements. A lot of MEP came from very different parties. I hope this will be the start of a conversation with the Parliament!
Having a seat at the table: this is our ambition. I therefore came again in Brussels two other times this month in order to meet with youth-led NGOs, the Directorate-general, Environmental NGOs and other youth-organisation to better spread the word about the coalition.
The coalition can become the interlocutor of the institutions and start working on concrete projects altogether.
In a nutshell, a lot is to come soon!
Feel free to send me an email if you have any request or any ideas!
Nathan
YEE aims to unite environmental youth non-profit organisations in Europe in order to enhance international cooperation, increase knowledge about the climate crisis, raise awareness of environmental problems and to strengthen participation of youth in environmental decision-making.
