Yesterday I picked up my umbrella, put on my waterproof coat and forced my self out of the door into the gray Nordic weather to have a coffee with a friend in the even grayer concrete heart of Stockholm, to discuss what we could do to raise the profile of the youth movement in Europe.
The thing is, we need to be more active in finding ways to demonstrate what lies behind our various positions and go out in the wider world, outside the meeting rooms, to collect support and raise awareness. The means are there. One thing that immediately come to mind was a useful tool that crept out of the dark tunnel of Lisbon Treaty negotiations: The Citizens' Initiative.
Despite the fog enveloping the final model for the initiative, a number of organizations already have gathered a substantial amount of signatures. The formal discussion has, of course, spun into a typical quarrel between Parliament, Commission and the Council on how to verify and collect signatures, what are the time limits etc. But what we know for sure, though, is that for the initiative to be considered, it requires 1 million signatures. According to European Voice, Greenpeace already has 1.2 million signatures demanding the Commission to forbid genetically modified corps. The European Disability Forum, on the other hand, has collected 1.4 million signatures for better rights for people with disabilities. These are good examples for us in the European Youth Forum to learn from – I think we could gather the one million quite easily if we decide to do so. The key is to find a specific enough question, a clear demand. I would go for demanding the voting age to be lowered to 16 years in European elections.
Gathering the signatures would not only be good in terms of advocating for a specific issue, but would be good in raising the profile of the Youth Forum, and would serve as a demonstration of our power to mobilize young people. No more member states or Commission asking if we “really” represent young people.
So, one thousand people collecting one thousand signatures and we have it! Yesterday I think I would have collected a couple of hundred quite easily, despite the gray november weather and according to many the somewhat depressing(some call it modernist) architecture dominating my new city center.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Rights of Roma People in the EU-And the Role of Civil Society
The human rights situation of a society can be measured by how it treats its minorities. The EU should take a long hard look in the mirror, and ask whether it can say that the treatment of its Roma minority can be said to be corresponding to this principle.
Can anybody pretend that the practice of putting Roma children in institutions of the mentally handicapped instead of school is just(which seems to be a common practice in Slovakia)? Or are the frequent acts of violence and regular discrimination against Roma in many European countries not something that indicates that the protection against discrimination is something often overlooked in the case of Roma people?
Discrimination of Roma people is to a certain extent linked to a social acceptance of racism towards them. I believe all of us have been present in situations, where people we know have banally said they “don't like” Roma people as a group or openly expressed their prejudice with collective accusations such as “they are criminals” etc. Now where does this kind of thing come from? It is often well educated, highly civilized(not always, of course) human beings who say these things. To one part, the reason is that there is not that much knowledge about the history of Roma persecution in Europe: the slavery in 1900th century Romania, the forced sterilizations in Sweden in the 1930ies and 1940ies, exterminations in Nazi Germany and so on. Secondly, the Roma society is seen as closed, patriarchal and intolerant. Bearing in mind the persecutions mentioned above, this is hardly surprising. However, the fact that Roma people also have problems of their own making does not change the fact that what is going on now is a disgrace for a continent priding itself for its human rights regime.
The debate in the past months in Europe has also shown how easily dangerous demagogy and straight forward racism can creep to the surface. The recent expulsions in France, was the arch example of how prejudice can be exploited by politicians on the cost of a group of people. It was said, that many of the people expelled were criminals. Well, if they were, why were they not prosecuted in a normal order? Maybe because many of them lack citizenship, and thus lack the rights connected to it. If a state wants to expel people, it needs to be based on aquis communaitaire, or more precisely, on practice accepted by the European Court of Justice. In the case of France, the expulsions are targeted at a group of people, instead of treating Roma people as individual citizens of a common market area with free movement and basic human rights- and freedoms as bearing principles.
Since children and young people are the group that are clearly affected concretely by what is going on, it is important for youth organizations to take an active interest in the matter. First through pushing for the Roma peoples right to proper education and participation, second, by considering projects aiming at the integration of Roma young people in society. On this, I know the Slovak Scouts are being active, for example. A comparison and best practice sharing between youth organizations would be very interesting and useful. This could also result in recommendations to decision makers on how to tackle the question. The advantage of youth organizations is, that we actually do practical things to seek solutions, a fact that should be better recognized by society at large.
Like most matters, also this is a complex issue. The problems are many, and no easy solution can be found. But awareness raising, clear condemnation of human rights violations and integration activities by civil society and the state, together with Roma communities, need to be taken. Otherwise, the dark clouds of discrimination will continue hanging over Europe, leaving an already for many generations excluded group in isolation for the decades to come.
Can anybody pretend that the practice of putting Roma children in institutions of the mentally handicapped instead of school is just(which seems to be a common practice in Slovakia)? Or are the frequent acts of violence and regular discrimination against Roma in many European countries not something that indicates that the protection against discrimination is something often overlooked in the case of Roma people?
Discrimination of Roma people is to a certain extent linked to a social acceptance of racism towards them. I believe all of us have been present in situations, where people we know have banally said they “don't like” Roma people as a group or openly expressed their prejudice with collective accusations such as “they are criminals” etc. Now where does this kind of thing come from? It is often well educated, highly civilized(not always, of course) human beings who say these things. To one part, the reason is that there is not that much knowledge about the history of Roma persecution in Europe: the slavery in 1900th century Romania, the forced sterilizations in Sweden in the 1930ies and 1940ies, exterminations in Nazi Germany and so on. Secondly, the Roma society is seen as closed, patriarchal and intolerant. Bearing in mind the persecutions mentioned above, this is hardly surprising. However, the fact that Roma people also have problems of their own making does not change the fact that what is going on now is a disgrace for a continent priding itself for its human rights regime.
The debate in the past months in Europe has also shown how easily dangerous demagogy and straight forward racism can creep to the surface. The recent expulsions in France, was the arch example of how prejudice can be exploited by politicians on the cost of a group of people. It was said, that many of the people expelled were criminals. Well, if they were, why were they not prosecuted in a normal order? Maybe because many of them lack citizenship, and thus lack the rights connected to it. If a state wants to expel people, it needs to be based on aquis communaitaire, or more precisely, on practice accepted by the European Court of Justice. In the case of France, the expulsions are targeted at a group of people, instead of treating Roma people as individual citizens of a common market area with free movement and basic human rights- and freedoms as bearing principles.
Since children and young people are the group that are clearly affected concretely by what is going on, it is important for youth organizations to take an active interest in the matter. First through pushing for the Roma peoples right to proper education and participation, second, by considering projects aiming at the integration of Roma young people in society. On this, I know the Slovak Scouts are being active, for example. A comparison and best practice sharing between youth organizations would be very interesting and useful. This could also result in recommendations to decision makers on how to tackle the question. The advantage of youth organizations is, that we actually do practical things to seek solutions, a fact that should be better recognized by society at large.
Like most matters, also this is a complex issue. The problems are many, and no easy solution can be found. But awareness raising, clear condemnation of human rights violations and integration activities by civil society and the state, together with Roma communities, need to be taken. Otherwise, the dark clouds of discrimination will continue hanging over Europe, leaving an already for many generations excluded group in isolation for the decades to come.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The EU Budget-Readiness to Invest Reflects Level of Political Ambition
Political ambitions must be matched with a corresponding budget. Therefor, it is no surprise that the Economist newspapers antifederalist columnist “Charlemange” and the traditionally EU-cautious Swedish Government(through an article by the EU-Minister Cecilia Malmström in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper yesterday) have both hammered the message that the EU budget should not grow. Ms. Malmström even explained that the budget should decrease. Charlemange compared the Eurocrats and MEP's to a teenager who wants more pocket money though the family economy is under pressure. What shall we say to this? And why does it matter for young people?
The first thing to remember, is that the financial problems of present must be taken seriously, and second, that a rethinking of the budget needs to be made for it to make sense. Of course, an increase should not be made just for the sake of it, and of course, countries struggling with deficits have a hard time motivating investment in the EU budget. There are many aspects to this question, and one could write about the need to invest in research and foreign policy, for example. Here, I focus more on the youth civil society aspect of it.
The Youth on the Move initiative forms a part of the recently adopted Europe 2020 strategy. The good news is that for the first time, youth is mentioned at this level in the EU context. This is due to the fact that in the light of the financial crisis, the structural problems young people are facing are becoming obvious. The high unemployment numbers and the the gaps in the social security systems are not helping the EU to build sustainable growth and well being.
Youth organizations play an important role for the future of the EU. Participation of young people is key to achieve the goals in the new strategy. A strong European civil society is also a fundamental cornerstone in the European project. Two of the reasons the unification of Europe has proved to be successful in preventing war and creating well being has been the removal of barriers and the construction of a strong social contract in the sates. For the EU to move forward, it is simply not enough to see the union mostly as a cooperation between member states-you need a European political dimension to the political process. This means you need a European civil society that brings together different actors to shape the visions for the future and that can bridge the gap between the national and European level. Mobility of individuals also naturally increases the feeling of citizenship. Now, these dimensions must be strengthened for the EU to face its current challenges. This requires that European youth organizations have a stronger financial backing-if you are every day struggling for your existence, it is difficult to be visionary or do activities. It also requires investment in youth mobility programs that reach out to more young people. It is here that youth organizations have a big role to play-youth organizations have the means to reach out and support young people from all backgrounds to be mobile. The EU budget needs to reflect these political ambitions. Currently, the €130 billion budget represents about 2.5% of all public spending in the Union. A slight increase to this, in particular with a focus on young people, would be a small price to pay for continuing the successful European project. On this, Charlemange would most certainly agree.
The first thing to remember, is that the financial problems of present must be taken seriously, and second, that a rethinking of the budget needs to be made for it to make sense. Of course, an increase should not be made just for the sake of it, and of course, countries struggling with deficits have a hard time motivating investment in the EU budget. There are many aspects to this question, and one could write about the need to invest in research and foreign policy, for example. Here, I focus more on the youth civil society aspect of it.
The Youth on the Move initiative forms a part of the recently adopted Europe 2020 strategy. The good news is that for the first time, youth is mentioned at this level in the EU context. This is due to the fact that in the light of the financial crisis, the structural problems young people are facing are becoming obvious. The high unemployment numbers and the the gaps in the social security systems are not helping the EU to build sustainable growth and well being.
Youth organizations play an important role for the future of the EU. Participation of young people is key to achieve the goals in the new strategy. A strong European civil society is also a fundamental cornerstone in the European project. Two of the reasons the unification of Europe has proved to be successful in preventing war and creating well being has been the removal of barriers and the construction of a strong social contract in the sates. For the EU to move forward, it is simply not enough to see the union mostly as a cooperation between member states-you need a European political dimension to the political process. This means you need a European civil society that brings together different actors to shape the visions for the future and that can bridge the gap between the national and European level. Mobility of individuals also naturally increases the feeling of citizenship. Now, these dimensions must be strengthened for the EU to face its current challenges. This requires that European youth organizations have a stronger financial backing-if you are every day struggling for your existence, it is difficult to be visionary or do activities. It also requires investment in youth mobility programs that reach out to more young people. It is here that youth organizations have a big role to play-youth organizations have the means to reach out and support young people from all backgrounds to be mobile. The EU budget needs to reflect these political ambitions. Currently, the €130 billion budget represents about 2.5% of all public spending in the Union. A slight increase to this, in particular with a focus on young people, would be a small price to pay for continuing the successful European project. On this, Charlemange would most certainly agree.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Youth Employment-The Big Question
Finally in Stockholm after quite many days on the road. Came home yesterday from Cyprus, where we met for one of the last board meetings of this mandate. Beside the meeting, we had the opportunity to attend the opening session of the General Assembly of the Cyprus Youth Council, where some familiar and persistent challenges of young people were addressed, namely the question of youth employment. It is clear that the next two years will be very, very important in this regard. The economic crisis has put the spotlight on some structural, and maybe cultural, problems in our societies. One question I have been asked repeatedly is: why should young people be put into special focus in all this? Is it not true, that everybody, regardless of if they are young or not, face these problems? Of course, young people are not the only ones facing challenges in a time where the economic model we are used to has transformed into something of a question mark. What we need to focus on is the transition period from education to work-this is a period in which we can say that young people are particularly vulnerable: to enter the labour market without previous experience is difficult. Then, what lies at hand is the internship option. Internships can be valuable experiences if the educational aspect is there, and if they lead to a "real job". Now, in many countries what happens is, as we know, that many get locked into a vicious circle of repeated unpaid or very badly payed internships. In a liberal market economy, you should be properly compensated for your work-which is also crucial for keeping the wheels of the economy rolling. It is quite clear that this is a problem where an agreement between governments and social partners needs to be reached, setting out clear rules for internships.
Apart from the internship question, there is the wider problem of how a flexible labour market could also be secure. Flexibility per se is not a problem-it is the lack of a safety that is. The social security systems are often not adapted to this new reality-thus we need a rights based approach to social security, making young people less vulenrable in a situation like we are experiencing now. The safety net should also be designed to be encouraging; options to passive unemployment should be provided, which is why the idea of a youth guarantee is appealing. A youth guarantee, meaning that the state provides an opportunity to for a young person to have a job, internship or the possibility to further education after a short period of unemployment, is an idea to be taken seriously. As we know, the paradox in all this is also, that our generation is very well educated and, to use commission language, has a huge potential. To use this potential, young people need to be better at taking initiatives, a way of thinking in which entrepreneurship is seen as a real option has to be encouraged.
These are, to say the least, huge questions, and I don't expect easy solutions. It requires political will beyong party boundaries and traditional ideologies to make changes. And it takes responsibility on the part of all stakeholders from states to trade unions to employers and individuals themselves. And as stakeholders in these times, youth organizations have a big role to play, and a lot to say.
Apart from the internship question, there is the wider problem of how a flexible labour market could also be secure. Flexibility per se is not a problem-it is the lack of a safety that is. The social security systems are often not adapted to this new reality-thus we need a rights based approach to social security, making young people less vulenrable in a situation like we are experiencing now. The safety net should also be designed to be encouraging; options to passive unemployment should be provided, which is why the idea of a youth guarantee is appealing. A youth guarantee, meaning that the state provides an opportunity to for a young person to have a job, internship or the possibility to further education after a short period of unemployment, is an idea to be taken seriously. As we know, the paradox in all this is also, that our generation is very well educated and, to use commission language, has a huge potential. To use this potential, young people need to be better at taking initiatives, a way of thinking in which entrepreneurship is seen as a real option has to be encouraged.
These are, to say the least, huge questions, and I don't expect easy solutions. It requires political will beyong party boundaries and traditional ideologies to make changes. And it takes responsibility on the part of all stakeholders from states to trade unions to employers and individuals themselves. And as stakeholders in these times, youth organizations have a big role to play, and a lot to say.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
PACE Behaving a Little Bit Badly
Now back in Brussels after a meeting in Strasbourg...one thing that could be improved is the train connection between the cities: more than five hours, come on!
In Strasbourg we had a meeting to prepare input to the Parliamentary Assembly Report on a Convention on Youth Rights. In the end, the time to speak to the PACE representatives was very limited, apparently. It is of course frustrating that we put time and resources on coming together, working on an input and then are allowed to speak for five minutes. So improvement on this would be good from the PACE side! In the same time, we are obviously very happy about our good cooperation, and there will be, however, more opportunities to give input. At our General Assembly in Kiev, the rapporteur on the topic from the PACE, Elvira Kovac(EPP), will be present.
Now we need to see how to continue working on the topic. The report will be out in May, I guess, so we have time to gather a broad input. But then what? Of course, much will depend on what the report will be saying. I think we need to make sure that the report mentions a convention on youth rights, and encourages a continued discussion on the topic, with a clear timeline on how we should move on.
As I said, I'm now back in Brussels, where we are doing a Youth Policy Conference. The intention of the conference is to give a broad overview on the different instruments in youth policy that exist in the EU, CoE and UN context. In the future, we should develop this conference to be a key training event on youth policy for MO's. A space to exchange views, develop ideas for our advocacy work and bring something home to the organizations. This is very, very important, since the advocacy we are doing must involve the member organizations since that is where a lot of the expertise lies. The weekend will be spent at a quite stuffed board meeting in Cyprus...But, I love the sun and food-gives reserves to the Nordic winter that lies ahead.
In Strasbourg we had a meeting to prepare input to the Parliamentary Assembly Report on a Convention on Youth Rights. In the end, the time to speak to the PACE representatives was very limited, apparently. It is of course frustrating that we put time and resources on coming together, working on an input and then are allowed to speak for five minutes. So improvement on this would be good from the PACE side! In the same time, we are obviously very happy about our good cooperation, and there will be, however, more opportunities to give input. At our General Assembly in Kiev, the rapporteur on the topic from the PACE, Elvira Kovac(EPP), will be present.
Now we need to see how to continue working on the topic. The report will be out in May, I guess, so we have time to gather a broad input. But then what? Of course, much will depend on what the report will be saying. I think we need to make sure that the report mentions a convention on youth rights, and encourages a continued discussion on the topic, with a clear timeline on how we should move on.
As I said, I'm now back in Brussels, where we are doing a Youth Policy Conference. The intention of the conference is to give a broad overview on the different instruments in youth policy that exist in the EU, CoE and UN context. In the future, we should develop this conference to be a key training event on youth policy for MO's. A space to exchange views, develop ideas for our advocacy work and bring something home to the organizations. This is very, very important, since the advocacy we are doing must involve the member organizations since that is where a lot of the expertise lies. The weekend will be spent at a quite stuffed board meeting in Cyprus...But, I love the sun and food-gives reserves to the Nordic winter that lies ahead.
Friday, October 1, 2010
A Good Work Plan Consultation Day
Yesterday we organized the consultation meeting for the next work plan of the European Youth Forum-a big number of the members turned up and we had a very constructive and good discussion on the priorities for the next two years. As our President Tine pointed out, it is important that the membership is deeply involved in the process, since a successful implementation requires a commitment and enthusiasm from all youth organizations in Europe.
We propose three main pillars around which the plan is structured: Young Volunteers: Builders of European Society; Strong Youth Organizations for Stronger Civil Society; Youth Rights for an Inclusive and Participatory Europe. Based on the discussions yesterday, we will make the plan even better, so thank you to all those who participated!
We propose three main pillars around which the plan is structured: Young Volunteers: Builders of European Society; Strong Youth Organizations for Stronger Civil Society; Youth Rights for an Inclusive and Participatory Europe. Based on the discussions yesterday, we will make the plan even better, so thank you to all those who participated!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
“There is no global project more worthwhile”
Sunny day in Stockholm-but it is getting cold. Before starting to work this morning, I went for a good walk to the hills in the southern part of the city, "Söder", as it is called: Old, narrow streets, described by the Stockholm writer Per Anders Fogelström as the most beautiful in the whole city, with great views over the Old Town.
Good were also the news coming from New York. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban-Ki Moon, recognized in a speech that Children and Women need to be a priority if we are going to move forward in at least partially fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. He even promised money, some 40 million dollars, for this purpose. Ban Ki-moon also recognized young people as being a critical part of the population by stating that:
“It is increasingly clear that economic infrastructure and productive capacity-building hold the key to generating decent jobs, especially for the large youth populations of these countries”.
As I wrote earlier, there is a momentum gathering for the advancement of youth rights in the world, a momentum being created not out of niceness, but out of necessity. The world will move towards a breaking point if we do not understand that concrete measures need to be taken, starting by the realization of the situation of young people, continuing with policy making and legal recognition and of course implementation and enforcement mechanisms. When it comes to youth, the facts are clear. In Africa and the Middle East, hundreds of millions of young people are likely to face unemployment and poverty-it does not take a big strategic brain to understand that this not only a human social&economic disaster, but also a security threat.
Good were also the news coming from New York. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban-Ki Moon, recognized in a speech that Children and Women need to be a priority if we are going to move forward in at least partially fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. He even promised money, some 40 million dollars, for this purpose. Ban Ki-moon also recognized young people as being a critical part of the population by stating that:
“It is increasingly clear that economic infrastructure and productive capacity-building hold the key to generating decent jobs, especially for the large youth populations of these countries”.
As I wrote earlier, there is a momentum gathering for the advancement of youth rights in the world, a momentum being created not out of niceness, but out of necessity. The world will move towards a breaking point if we do not understand that concrete measures need to be taken, starting by the realization of the situation of young people, continuing with policy making and legal recognition and of course implementation and enforcement mechanisms. When it comes to youth, the facts are clear. In Africa and the Middle East, hundreds of millions of young people are likely to face unemployment and poverty-it does not take a big strategic brain to understand that this not only a human social&economic disaster, but also a security threat.
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