EUROGLOBE YOUTH EVENT
“Europe against the wall”
18 May 2008, 12.30 pm
Šentjakobsko gledališče
“Put your ideas on the table and Europe against the wall!”
Europe Against the Wall was the consequent follow up event of the assembly. It brought youth from all across the Slovenian civil society together to state and discuss their political opinions, ideas, fears and dreams about Europe. The result in form of an open letter have been sent to the Slovenien and European institutions.
Outcome/Open Letter
We are pleased to present the outcome of the EuroGlobe Youth Debate that took place on the18th May 2008 in the EuroGlobe arena in Ljubljana.
Shakespeare created a participatory round theatre where the audience could interact among themselves and with the people on the central stage. In this spirit the EuroGlobe Europe Against the Wall youth debate gathered representatives from the Slovenian civil society to a circular debate where the spotlight was put on the audience – the youth representatives – to state their fears, visions and demands concerning Europe. But the chairs on the central stage – the Slovenian and European leadership – sadly remained empty and so the visions and demands lacked their recipients.
This is why we have decided to make a short summary of the fruitful exchange of ideas from our Shakespearian debate – a play script that can be read by those unable to attend the performance. We hope you will enjoy the reading and take on the demands in your future work!
Volunteerism and active citizenship must be given a higher value.
As youth NGOs we contribute to increase the active citizenship and to build a better society. The recognition of non-formal education as well as the value of volunteering is crucial for us to succeed with this task. But also legal and social change when it comes to equality is crucial for active involvement of all youth.
Proper funding of youth NGO is crucial for their functioning.
The increasing tendency to give project-based funding rather than administrational grants makes it hard to create the solid structures needed for a sustainable civil society as well as tends to influence the agenda of NGOs. An increase of the structural financial support of NGO on a multi-annual basis would greatly increase NGOs ability to achieve their full potential on a long-term basis – this has to be implemented both at the Slovenian as well as the European level.
We need transparent and fully democratic decision making
on all levels in order for youth to have a voice on their future. The European Parliament remains the only directly elected body of the EU and its powers must be strengthened. But also transparency in all European and Slovenian institutions need to be increased. The process behind the drafting of the Lisbon Treaty (the so-called Sherpa method behind close doors) contradicts the idea of increasing citizens’ participation. Citizens, and particularly youth, must be given the mechanisms to be involved fully in the European decision making process.
The structured dialogue mechanism is not enough to guarantee youth influence.
Without a proper consultancy mechanism, involving all relevant stakeholders, outcomes are likely to lack their full potential. For example the lack of a proper dialogue between stakeholders has resulted in the recent debates around and on the draft of the new European anti- discrimination directive as it became widely known, and recently confirmed by the European Commission, the proposal for the new EU anti-discrimination directive might not include such grounds as age, religion/belief and sexual orientation and might cover only disability. However the lack of dialogue can also be observed on a national level in case of Slovenia this is the case of the adopted discriminatory Law on Registered Same Sex Partnership in 2005. For efficient and democratic policies youth should be included in a meaningful way in all policy making, but also youth civil society can contribute greatly at the implementation level and their role in this process should be strengthened.
Binding legislation is needed on the European level.
We must admit that member states do not live up to the standards set by the European level unless there is a binding legislation. Leadership and binding legislation are necessary to tackle priority issues – words are not enough.
Europe’s visa regime needs to change drastically in order for Europe to integrate and for the fostering of active European citizenship.
Still, burdensome, expensive and often discriminatory visa procedures are the reality of many young Europeans. The Slovenian presidency’s initiative to create a common Community visa code is important, but we need to move even further as in accordance with the http://www.getvisible.org/www.getvisable.org campaign supported by the European youth civil society that demands the removal of visa for young Europeans inside Europe.
Youth wants to be part of building our society of tomorrow – don’t pretend to listen to us but give us the tools to become an integral part of the process!
