Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Non-Formal Education (NFE)
as part of our holistic approach to lifelong & lifewide learning 

Last week the European Youth Forum organised the NFE week, a series of events dedicated to the Non-Formal Education, including the last meeting of our NFE Working Group that has done an excellent work in promoting the issue of NFE, including the important question of Quality Assurance in NFE (more on this here).

The NFE Week is an interactive space for youth organisations and stakeholders to establish dialogue and learn from each other on the latest developments on recognition policy and practices in NFE, while enhancing their advocacy work in this field. It started in 2006 under the name of NFE Dialogues, and has now grown into the NFE Week, focusing on specific topics. This year the theme of the NFE Week was "A push for recognition of NFE" and covered three different elements through each day: 

1. recognition of NFE policy and practices, 
2. quality assurance in NFE, as a key tool for recognition of NFE (both within organisations, but also by society)
3. impact of NFE on young people's employability (launch of a research study commissioned by the Youth Forum → read more about this here)

During my opening speech of this year's NFE week edition at the key stakeholders meeting last Wednesday in the United Nations House in Brussels, hosted by UNESCO, I stressed why the Youth Forum has focused so much on the question of recognition of NFE.

First of all education is among the main priorities of the Forum, especially in terms of a holistic approach that covers both formal and non-formal education as well as informal learning. However, for the past two years the focus was slightly more on the NFE part due to the specific advocacy needs and trends in youth policy development at European level. 

As a platform representing almost 100 national youth councils and international youth organisations in Europe, the Youth Forum strives to raise awareness and make visible the role and impact of youth organisations as one of the main providers of non-formal education.

Through their educational programmes, youth organisations contribute to the holistic development of young people throughout life; therefore, it touches upon all dimensions of young people, from their development both as an individual as well as an active member of society, to their inclusion in social and professional life. The recognition of their role as NFE providers and of the benefits of NFE for the individual (the young person) as well as for society as a whole is crucial to ensuring such holistic development of young people.

The Forum has for long advocated for the recognition of non-formal education, and has significantly contributed to further developments of recognition policy and practices in the youth field. This work was done together with other stakeholders in the field, such as the Youth Partnership (through the Forum's participation in the Expert Group on Recognition), the European Commission (as members of the Youthpass Advisory Group) and UNESCO & UN for global cooperation. Also partnerships with civil society organisations like EUCIS-LLL, which we officially signed in April this year, have helped us reinforce lifelong learning policies at European level.

However, it is important to stress that working towards recognition of NFE doesn't imply that we are working against formal education. My understanding, which is also reflected in the numerous YFJ polices, has always been that these two things our complementary. NFE as methodology is very much part of the youth organisations DNA while the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning processes are reflected in gaining a set of skills that complement the knowledge acquired through formal education. 

In the coming years we need to ensure this complementary approach is reflected also in our advocacy and through our new strategic priority "Empowered Member Organisations" explore ways of better coordination and task division between formal education stakeholders, NFE policy stakeholders and the direct of role of Youth Forum where an added value is identified.

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Vote@16 and Strasbourg mission

This evening in the train from Strasbourg to Brussels I had time to reflect on several things that were going through my head during the vote@16 mission to the European Parliament.
First, it was about the nature of my trip. Second, it was about the EP as an institution. Third, it was about the core notions of political participation and the advocacy work we aim to do as well as the vote@16 campaign that emboides both of these notions.

My train ride with a Board member from Brussels started on Sunday early afternoon with a proper picnic-like atmosphere (I made some fresh pasta carried around in a taper-ware and cutlery, he bought some starters and drinks). It never seizes to amaze me how traveling by
train can be so much less of a hassle than flying while at the same time wish the prices for train rides, especially the fast-track ones, would be more affordable. During the lengthy travel I was very much looking forward to working together with my colleagues on very hands on advocacy and lobbying, just like back in 2009 when I was part of a small but loud crowd of enthusiastic JEF members welcoming the MEPs to Strasbourg and calling on them to take the European integration project further and bring it closer to the citizens.

The European Parliament is truly a fascinating institution. Where else in the world do you see so many different cultures, languages and variety of opinions come together to discuss and make legislation that is directly applied to EU27 plus the EEA countries (e.g. Norway),  while at the same time influencing the lives of over 500 million Europeans. It was both thrilling and chilling to see the Euroskeptic Nigel Farage and xenophobic Marine Le Pen share the same house of European democracy with the legend of the Greens Daniel Cohn-Bendit and the federalist liberal Guy Verhofstadt to name just the two most opposing names when it comes to the federalists views of the EU. As a federalist, I'm happy that the “f-word” has become mainstream in EU politics again but hope that leaders and politicians live up to the true spirit of Altiero Spinelli and federalism to involve the citizens in the decision-making by informing them properly and honestly about the issues at stake.

Lowering the voting age to 16 has been one of the main issues when it comes to political participation of young people within the European Youth Forum for several years. We have ample proof and research that testifies in favour of the importance of giving the youth a voice in political decision-making, especially by expanding the most basic type of political involvement such as voting to 16 and 17 year old. Our advocacy work in favour of this has constantly gained momentum and visibility. Last summer the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on its Member States to lower the voting age to 16. This has encouraged us in our work to try to push this also within the EU. 

We have pondered a lot about which would be the correct method and in the end opted for the sometimes tricky and difficult one of a Written Declaration in the EP. Though getting 50% of the EP + one is no mean feat, I believe that by putting this topic on the agenda, by
persisting in informing people about and basing our work on elements linked to citizens education as well as fighting for young people in Europe to get the rights that match their duties we are on the right track. I have witnessed the enthusiasm and efforts put into this work by our Expert Group and our MOs. It has been inspiring. Doing all this jointly with the 5 signatory MEPs, our members and the great team work between Board and Secretariat, such as demonstrated in the two missions to Strasbourg so far, gives me hope that we can manage to get the necessary amount.

However, even if we were to fail, we would know we have done our utmost and would have contributed significantly on raising the relevance of the issue. Rome wasn't build in a day and women were not given their right to vote easily either but long-term struggles do pay off in the end. And I sincerely hope that if not by 2014 at least by 2019 all across the EU young people as of 16 will be eligible to vote in the European Parliament elections.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012 

The Importance of Investing in Youth & continuity of our work

I believe that securing funding for education, training and youth at all levels is one of the main areas the European Youth Forum needs to focus (or better yet maintain its focus) on in the immediate future, something that has to do with continuity of the things we have been working on heavily in the past year. Especially through the next EU Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) where youth needs to be a cross-sectorial priority, and ensure the role of youth organisations is recognised both politically and financially.

For the past few days here in Brussels I've been attending meetings and working together with our Secretariat and Member Organisations on explaining the need to invest in young people, promoting the value and work of youth organisations, advocating and briefing stakeholders on the current state of affairs with regards to the future EU youth programme and engaging with Commissioner Vassiliou in an interactive live Euranet radio debate while launching our LoveYouthFuture campaign.

I'm convinced that our long-term strategy combining the specific sectorial approach (focus on the future generation of EU youth programmes) and the broad cross-sectorial approach (mainstreaming youth as a political and financial priority in the next MFF was the right one. 

Within the sectorial approach we were indeed faced with many challenges and didn't get the desired continuation of an independent separate YiA2.0 programme. However, we can be proud of the work we did and learned many valuable lessons along the way. We achieved some important milestones both within the Council as well as the European Parliament: a separate youth chapter and support for European youth NGOs and EU-wide networks. Now we need to continue keeping up the moment and make sure this approximation of the Council and the EP more towards our initial proposal of “youth moves”, “youth decides” and “youth works” than the Commission's original Erasmus for all proposal will be further strengthened and supported by a specific budget line for youth.

Our cross-sectorial approach and advocacy for a youth-friendly MFF has been focused on the European Council, the relevant MEPs working on the MFF report and today's launching of our online platform that will offer young people, volunteers, activists and interested public a chance to express their own views on why investing in youth is important and how this should happen. At the same time the platform offers a list of our own clear demands, especially the need for a strong focus on youth in the next EU budget. We need to ensure young people of today will have the right to be young again and focus on having dreams and hope for the future, contribute actively to society, be engaged and be able to lead autonomous lives similar to what their parents' generation was able to do. Instead young people today are in danger of becoming a so-called lost generation and chocked by ongoing austerity measures that clearly don't work. We have policy suggestions that go in the right direction: a youth guarantee scheme, a charter for the rights of interns and volunteers and recognition of youth organisations as providers of non-formal education helping reach out to more young people get better skills that make them better equipped for the challenges they are facing in becoming autonomous citizens.

As Youth Forum we should cater for the needs of our youth organisations and the young people they represent and make the case in favour of the youth sector as a relevant part of society that contributes to it and is part of the solution, not part of the problem. That is why young people and youth organisations need to be recognised, respected and supported fully and integrated in decision-making and policy-making processes in areas that affect them. And I am convinced that the best way for the Youth Forum to do this is to build on the excellent work done and the experiences and contacts gathered by maintaining continuity in this crucial area of our work so that we can jointly reach our goal of more investment in youth and youth-friendly programme for all young Europeans!

Wednesday, 10 October 2012 // campaign launch

Chères amies et chers amis, Cari amici e care amiche, Dear friends, Dragi prijatelji in prijateljice, Karaj amikoj, Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde, Queridos amigos y amigas ...

I want to hereby make public what some of you have known or suspected for a couple of weeks now, namely that as officially announced in the European Youth Forum (YFJ) Courier earlier today I have been jointly nominated by the Young European Federalists (JEF) and the National Youth Council of Slovenia (MSS) to run for a second term as YFJ President. 

It is with great honour and pride that I accept the nomination and the trust shown to me by these two organisations as well as by many other youth organisations and youth activists from all corners of the world who have contributed in motivating me to take this step.

Given the particular situation that for the first time in the Youth Forum's 16 year history (we had one previous case with Antonio Seguro from CNJ in times of the Youth Forum of the EU) we have the current President re-standing in an election I wanted to provide you with an
overview of what do I consider the main achievements of my presidency so far, where do I believe to have made a difference and why do I consider that my work is not yet done as well as where I get my motivation from to continue being engaged in the youth work and youth policy field in Europe.

I decided to do this by using this blog – which is itself a revamped 2.0 version of my first campaign to become YFJ President back in autumn 2010 – in order to present myself, my beliefs and ideas and outline some of the objectives I would like to implement together with you if you decide to entrust me with a second mandate as President of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) for the years 2013-2014. 

As a point of transparency and continuity you can read all the previous blog points devoted to the different relevant topics discussed during the 2010 campaign below and in the blog's archive so feel free to browse back and read up on what I said and compare to what I did in
my first mandate. This 2.0 version of the blog features the following sections:

• “about me” where you can read a bit more about my educational background, organisational involvement and the blog as such;
  
• “our platform” where I focus on some of basics of what the Youth Forum is and ask some questions about its nature, perceptions by members and partners and other issues linked to the inclusiveness and diversity of the platform as reflection points for future blog entries and sparking the discussion;
  
• “work done” where I highlight what I believe were the most important milestones and success stories of the past two years and create the links between my election promises and the work I've delivered during my first mandate;
  
• “what next” where I outline the five key areas I would like to focus on and concrete steps and vision that would underpin my actions and motivation;
  
• “supporters” where I present the nominating organisations with their justification and endorsement as well as additional supporting organisations that believe I'm the right person for the position;
  
• “comments” where I invite everyone to provide me with constructive feedback and exchange both general remarks on what you read or simply share your opinion.
  

The home page section will be dedicated to weekly updated content-related blog entries in which I will share some ideas on how I see the future development of the European Youth Forum and the main points that I believe are key in order to make the Youth Forum a truly inclusive and strong platform to unite us all!

I very much look forward to this important democratic exercise, all your comments and feedback and hereby officially launch my campaign: @curlyP for European Youth Forum President 2.0.