An Intergroup on Youth Issues in the European Parliament?

European Parliament intergroups are a rather unknown but still interesting subject for non-insiders to the European Parliament or the Brussels bubble, which for me is proved by the interest my article on intergroups (covering the last European Parliament) is still raising.

European youth groups and some MEPs, after the success of making 2011 the "European Year of Volunteering", are now pushing for the creation of an Intergroup on Youth Issues in the European Parliament to get more influence.

Part of their effort is displayed in the following video (via letzi from the European Youth Forum):

Parlement européen - Intergroupe jeunesse
Hochgeladen von damienabad. - Sieh die neuesten Nachrichten Videos an.

But here, as for any other intergroup, and despite the fact that I support the cause, the question will be: Necessary co-ordination or just hidden lobbyism? - and the answers will have to be given by the participating person.

Generation 1.5: Inactively interactive?

In a fascinating blog post, Steve from the European Parliament web editors shares the feelings of what might be the pre-web 2.0 generation, those already acquainted with the internet in all its forms, but still hesitant to get heavily involved in what is now called "Web 2.0".

And while the article is already an enlightening read, especially taken into account that it is written by a web editor, it also contains notions of generational conflict within the EP web editor family - which is not a bad thing if it results in such paragraphs:

"The pressure is always to be cutting edge, to be doing the latest thing, surfing the latest trend. We need to do that, but we cannot do only that. If our notion of digital democracy is to focus ALL our efforts on Facebook and Twitter (or whatever’s next), we win plaudits from the in-crowd online, but we arguably open up a digital divide of our own, cutting off an otherwise completely sentient crowd of people (I know many of them) who may have heard of Facebook and Twitter, but still think it’s a bit of a waste of time. They exist, yes, they use the internet, and they vote…"

As a standalone paragraph it sounds a little flat, but it fits into the whole article. It fits because it raises the important question whether doing more democracy 2.0 is actually involving more people, or if it is just raising the applause from the "in-crowd" (which many of us in the blogosphere are definitely belonging to), making it sound like reaching a larger share of people, without actually doing so.

I am a little too tired today to further elaborate on the topic, but I'll definitely take it into account when writing my next post on EU politics 2.0 at the Personal Democracy Forum Europe.

European Parliament elections 2009 (104): Youth against youth - FYEG and EFAy attack YEPP, ECOSY, and LYMEC

Huuh, the political youth organisations are getting active.

Now FYEG (the Young European Greens) and EFAy (the youth of the European Free Alliance) attack the youth organisations of the three major European Parties (YEPP, ECOSY, LYMEC) following their statement on youth abstention issued yesterday together with Commission President Barroso:

1. The mother parties in the European Parliament and Council of EU of the three conformist party political youth wings failed to engage proper measures to explain to all citizens how the EU institutions work during their past EP mandate. As always we can see that those efforts are only done just before and during election time. This as such shows no real interest in a continuing dialogue with Europe's citizens.


2. The youth wings of these mother parties have a shared responsibility in not tackling this issue in an earlier stage, since they have not been able to convince the ELDR, EPP and PSE of this necessity.


3. The ELDR, EPP and PSE in the European institutions together with their youth wings are thus responsible for playing a game of political illusion towards the voters and with the support of their national members feeding political passiveness in European society. European politics has unfortunately become a game where nation-states are only concerned with their own interests and show very little solidarity missing the European perspective.

So if I am getting it correctly, on the youth side, the clash is conformist youth organisations against non-conformist?

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

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European Parliament elections 2009 (102): Youth candidates running for the European Parliament - LYMEC

Last week, I have been asking four European party youth organisations - YEPP, ECOSY, LYMEC (who have been issuing a joint statement against youth abstention yesterday) and FYEG (the Green youth) - about "their" candidates for the EP elections.

Here are the questions and the answers I received from the first organisation, LYMEC (European Liberal Youth):

Julien: Do you know who is the youngest LYMEC/ELDR candidate running for the EP elections? If yes, can you tell something about him/her? (If you don't know who is the youngest, you can also tell about the youngest you know.)

LYMEC:
Name: Ingrid Lundqvist
Organization: The Center party youth
Country: Sweden
Age: 21
E-mail: ingrid.lundqvist [ at ] centerpartiet.se
Personal blog: lundqvist-ingrid.blogspot.com (language: Swedish)

"I’m on the 35th place of the Center party list and I’m also the one who is the youngest. I’m 21 years old, living in Stockholm and especially interested in matters concerning trade, environment and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

My dream for EU is open borders and that we work together in order to get a healthier environment, all over the globe. I want to make it possible for every citizen in EU to work towards achieving ones goals. I also want to make it easier for companies to establish in EU and for countries outside EU to trade with us on similar conditions.

I hope to inspire others, especially young, to take an active interest in politics."

Julien: Who in the LYMEC leadership is running for the elections and also has high chances of entering into the European Parliament?

LYMEC:
Alexander Plahr, LYMEC vice-president (FDP list, Germany)
Sibel Redzheb, LYMEC treasurer (MRF list, Bulgaria)

They are not without chances of being elected and are working hard on achieving this goal.

Julien: Are you satisfied with the number and position of young ELDR candidates on the electoral lists of member parties?

LYMEC: We can be very satisfied as a lot of our parties have put forward young candidates on their lists and some are in the places where they can realistically get elected.

The answers were provided by Srd Kisevic, LYMEC Secretary General.

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

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European Parliament elections 2009 (101): YEPP, ECOSY and LYMEC met with Barroso calling for more youth participation

The three major European youth organisations of political parties - YEPP (EPP youth), ECOSY (PES youth) and LYMEC (ELDR youth) - met with EU Commission President Barroso today to discuss youth participation.

Jointly, the three party organisations issued the following statement urging young people to vote (statement at the end of the article)

Although I support the message and its content, I am not a big fan of using the EU Commission President, whose personality is probably one of the reasons why young people won't be attracted to go to vote, to get this message passed.

But apparently, the youth organisations needed the presence of Mr Barroso to make their voice heard, which is already a bad sign.

So why should this actually raise citizen participation? Isn't this kind of boring political, self-referential talk without heart exactly the kind of politics young people don't care for? It is nice PR, and it will bring some attention to the three youth organisations and to Mr Barroso, but not more.

Just take a look at this extract from the press conference (first Barroso, then Laurent Schouten (YEPP), Petroula Nteledimou (ECOSY), Aloys Rigaut (LYMEC)):



Will this encourage young people to vote? Just because it happened in the presence of Barroso?

I think this professionalised kind of political communication won't reach out to any young voter, and the only one profiting from this meeting might be Barroso who can now claim to support youth activities.

They should have come up with something more creative, more youth-like thing!

But probably, the apathetic Commission President would not have allowed to destroy the image of the Union that he has built over the last five years: Less spirit, less dynamism, less young faces.

Therefore bravo, YEPP, ECOSY and LYMEC for your incredible courage to call young people to vote (what else should political youth organisations do?), and your willingness to follow the boredom of Barroso, risking not to reach out to anyone!

And here is the famous statement:

"We, representatives of the European party political youth organizations, namely YEPP, ECOSY and LYMEC, wish to urge all young Europeans to participate in the forthcoming European elections, to act and express themselves with a clear voice on Europe's future.

It is our decision and our choice to give the European Parliament a strong mandate in order to face citizens' needs and demands in the next period, taking the European Union out of the institutional and economic crisis, and designing a better future for all. And participation is a democratic right which we should not denounce or neglect - because this is what makes our voices stronger.

At the same time, we urge the European institutions, the Commission and the new Parliament, to deal in a more effective way with the everyday problems with the citizens, and to make European policies more visible, more understandable, more concrete.

We, Young Europeans expect from them a clear and effective plan on how to overcome the economic crisis, how to deal with unemployment, how to ensure sustainable development, how to expand the Erasmus programme, how to prepare a new Youth Pact with impact.

Therefore, our message today is simple:

When young people participate, and representatives provide effective solutions, Europe becomes stronger!"

Update: Some photos from the event by an ECOSY activist here

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

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Is the European Youth Forum in bad shape?

Nonformality, a former board member of the European Youth Forum (YFJ), has blogged a long article on his view on the current situation in the YFJ, and it is very negative.

An extract:

[T]here is, regrettably, no open discourse on the situation of the Youth Forum between the different movements and strands—with most youth organisations, in united hypocrisy, happily ignoring their own call to politics for more transparency—these voices cannot be easily heard, but the increasing frequency, intensity and attractiveness of networks and meetings working on the establishment of organisational alternatives will soon lead to visible results, which will exemplify for how long the dissatisfaction with the Youth Forum has simmered.

The few large organisations that currently dominate the platform—most notably the scouts and the socialists—share a lack of interest to make the European Youth Forum a strong voice of young people with key institutional players such as the European Commission: both sides fear the loss of power and influence.

Luckily for these players, the Youth Forum is, in its current state, caught in internal power struggles and ensnared by a lack of critical voices: seemingly endless discussions culminate in carefully negotiated position papers that lack both courage and authenticity.

This article comes at the time of the Council of Members of the European Youth Forum, that today has elected Guiseppe Porcaro as its new Secretary General.

Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) with new leadership

Last week, the Young European Greens (FYEG) have elected a new leadership team at their General Assembly in Maastricht.

The new team includes:

• Eline van Nistelrooij (The Netherlands) - female spokesperson
  
• Gordan Isabegovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - male spokesperson

• Battal Erdogan (Belgium) - re-elected treasurer
  
• Monia Franceschini (Italy) - fundraiser (re-elected)
  
• Marta Mendec (Poland)
  
• Catrinel Mocanu (Romania)
  
• Ivan Ninenko (Russia)
  
• Bruno Nicostrate (France) - Secretary General (remaining)
  

(Source: FYEG)

European Parliament elections 2009 (90): The "Euro Election Gang" in Germany kicks off

(Original post: Die "Eurowahlgang" der Politikfabrik für die Europawahlen 2009: Gelungene Kick-Off Veranstaltung)



On Sunday evening I went to the kick-off event of the "Euro Election Gang" , a campaign of the voluntary student initiative Politikfabrik in the House of Europe in Berlin.

The goal of the Euro Election Gang is to make young people all over Germany interested in and enthusiastic about these European elections, in particular through panel discussions in 80 German cities (which is why 80 young "Election Gangsters" have been recruited and trained as ambassadors for the campaign), but also through printed and audiovisual materials, which will be distributed all over Germany.

The event yesterday evening to start this campaign was a raving success!

The organisers had invited representatives of all five German parties represented in the European Parliament today.


From the left:

• MEP Alexander Count Lambsdorff (FDP/ALDE)
  
• MEP Dagmar Roth Behrendt (SPD/PES)
  
• Hajo Schumacher (Moderator)
• MEP and President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering (CDU/EPP)
  
• MEP Gabi Zimmer (LINKE/UEL)
  
• MEP Rebecca Harms (Greens)

The atmosphere was excellent, and the mixture of probably more than 200 young people superb.

So you can say a lot of stupid and intelligent things about European elections, politics, and young people, but in this room I didn't see any lack of interest or enthusiasm nor disenchantment with politics.

If passion for European politics and the willingness to engage for a common cause brings together 200 young people, you can feel the spirit of Europe. And eurosceptics all around can jump up and down just as they like, they'll never be able to create such a good mood!

The candidates (and the moderator) seemed to feel good as well in a room full of young people enthusiastic for politics and Europe. The discussion was open, direct, and particularly European, and even though sometimes you could hear the typical politician breaking through, the five MEPs seemed to be able to adapt to this special audience.

Only EP President Pöttering wasn't at his best several times, chuntering in reaction to the Green Rebecca Harms, telling long stories to prove his political convictions (which were absolutely boring and sounded like standard stories) and he even cut short one of the people asking a question.

If there is one person I wouldn't vote for after this evening, it's Mr Pöttering!

I could tell a lot more about the event, but it would become too long, so here just a list of topics and questions that were raised by the audience to the candidates:

• Is low turnout the result of lack of information or lack of identification?
  
• Should the EU militarise?
  
• Should the EP have the right to initiate legislation?
  
• What significance does the German Parliament ('Bundestag') have compared to the EP?
  
• Different weight of votes in different EU countries
  
• Europe without nations - Europe of the regions?
  
• The role of religion in Europe
  
• Why is there so much conflict between politicians?
  
• Should Turkey join the EU?
  
• Reduction of agricultural subsidies?
  
• What about the Lisbon Treaty?
  
• Should there be referenda for Treaty changes?
  
• Length of ballot papers (quite long in certain German federal regions)
  
• How to secure wealth in Europe?
  
• How are political youth organisations' opinions taken into account by EP politicians?
  

Because of the large amount of questions, the five on the panel could pick the preferred ones, and so the answers were generally quite in their favour, which was appreciated by the audience with frequent but honest applause, no matter who was answering.

There is one thing that was highlighted cross-factionally: The special role of the individual deputy in the EP:

They all agreed that, different to national parliaments with their group discipline and governmental majorities, a deputy in the European Parliament has much more freedom when looking for political majorities, even across party lines, and even regarding the individual voting behaviour. For a politician, this seems to be a quite comfortable position, and non of the panellists made the impression that she or he would like to change the job in Strasbourg/Brussels against a seat in the 'Bundestag' or a regional parliament in Germany.

A successful evening, altogether, I had a lot of fun, and I can only hope that the 80 "Election Gangsters" will be able to bring this enthusiasm to the German "provinces" and will be able to motivate much more young people for Europe and for the European elections!

Thanks to the Election Gang and to the 'Politikfabrik'!

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PS.: In a previous post I have remarked that the information office of the European Parliament was not really dominated by the European Parliament elections.

However, the Commission representative to Berlin informed that since October almost all financial and human resources of the Commission were dedicated to the EP representation and the campaign aspects for the European Parliament elections. This means that even though I might not have remark a lot of visible elements at the time that nothing happens.

And, seeing the House of Europe from a distance (which I didn't at the time), it is at least hard to overlook that the elections are about to come, and when they will be.



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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

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European Parliament elections 2009 (79): Can You Hear Me Europe?

Looks like the Commission, in co-operation with MTV, is getting something done ahead of the European Parliament elections.

A youth campaign under the label

Can You Hear Me Europe?

is trying to get the voices of young voters, both in the campaign and on the ballots in June.

Poland in the EU had already put to our attention a campaign spot running on MTV some days ago, but I have to admit I didn't really get it when I saw it. I wasn't even interested, because the message of what was going on did not make it into my brain.

Yet, having a look at the campaign website, I see that the goal is to collect the voices of the European youth in a collective shout, making the campaign motto "Can you hear me Europe" echo across the Union.

The "big shout" shall take place on 30 April 2009, at 15.30 and everyone is invited to record their own shouts and to upload them to MTV for a special show which will be broadcasted ahead of the elections.

In addition, three major events are supposed to be organised by MTV in Milan, Berlin, and Prague, the locations are displayed on the site.

I don't know whether this will work, especially since 30 April is a school and working day, but maybe with the help of Twitter - the campaign organisers have introduced a special hastag #CanEUhearme - we'll be able to get some crowd out there that shouts at Europe.

If things go well, other cities should also manage to organise their own mass events, co-ordinated by Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else is out there to communicate collectively. Flash mobs could be funny, too...

I think I will try to be in Berlin on that day and time, and to shout with the crowd, how big or small it may be.

Who will shout with me?

Update: After reading two rather negative posts, by Bruno Waterfield and Pubic Affairs 2.0 - they both sound like old guys who don't like the slogan or criticise the lack of content - I would like to add some reasons why I am favouring this campaign, although I am not fully convinced that it will work:

Europe is more than just the right message, Europe is more than just good arguments, Europe is also a feeling, it is a new focus of attention; Europe still is a question mark where you don't know whether you are actually heard when you shout. Maybe you just disturb your neighbour.

Having something like shouting for or at Europe will exactly raise the questions that are important to ask: At whom are we actually shouting? Who will hear us? Is this enough? What can we do in addition?

I admit, shouting a simple question is not very intellectual. It doesn't transport a particular message. But it is easy to do. It doesn't exclude those who don't know much about EU politics. It doesn't exclude those who are europhile or those who are eurosceptic.

But if it works, it will bring together young people who will be aware of European Parliament elections and who might make their peers aware of these elections. It might create room to discuss Europe and European politics. And although this particular campaign is "patronising", coming from above, it offers a starting point for more creative activities, new events, videos etc.

Because if we are willing to do more, we won't let ourselves patronise, we will create and recreate - and Cédric has shown how you can use a campaign from above and to remodel it creatively. Sometimes it needs a stupid little event-based campaign to get the ball rolling!


Read also: Kosmopolit's post "EP elections made cool(er)"


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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

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Laurent Schouteten new president of the EPP Youth

The 28-years old French UMP member Laurent Schouteten (photo) has been elected new president of the Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP) on Friday.

Schouteten has been a vice president of YEPP in the previous term and replaces the Greek Ioannis Smyrlis. It looks like both were running against each other for these elections.

More:

• Laurent in an interview on the work of YEPP (February 2009, page 10-11; French)
  

Is Europe a country?

I know that this is rather old in web terms, but I just learn about it at Europawahlgang.de, a German initiative that wants to get young Germans interested in the European Parliament elections:



"I thought Europe was a country?!"

I hope that one day this will not be a stupid question, but at least getting closer to reality than it is today...

(PS.: I don't support the sexism in the clip, but it's still funny from an EU perspective.)

European Parliament elections 2009 (64): Main European youth organisations call for a true European debate during the EP election campaign

All major European youth organisations, including the

• European Youth Forum (YFA), 
  

the (party) political youth organisations

• Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP),
  
• Young European Socialists (ECOSY),
  
• European Liberal Youth (LYMEC),
  
• Federation of Young European Greens(FYEG),
  
• Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC),
  
• European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy)
  

as well as the

• Young European Federalists (JEF)
  

have signed and published a joint declaration asking for a proper electoral EP campaign.

I will re-post their press release in the original form since I have nothing (or not much) to add:

EUROPE: GIVE YOUR IDEAS A FACE!

The European Youth Forum, the Party-Political Youth Organisations and the Young European Federalists ask for a truly European debate during the EP Elections Campaign in order to allow the citizens to choose their candidates to key positions in the EU.

As young Europeans, sharing a vision of Europe based on the values of democracy, peace, human rights, solidarity, freedom and sustainable development, we recognise the success of European integration, but we stress that we can successfully face future challenges only if the EU will be able to speak and to act as a real political Union.

In the pursuit of a more transparent Europe, the European Youth Forum (YFJ) the Party-Political Youth Organisations - Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP), Young European Socialists (ECOSY), European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC), European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) and the Young European Federalists (JEF) hope that in due time before June 2009 the citizens should know names and faces of the candidates to the main political positions of the European institutions. In particular the composition of the Commission should reflect the results of the elections as indicated by the Lisbon Treaty which has to be ratified as soon as possible.

The European Parliamentary Elections, the renewal of the Commission and the subsequent legislative period present a unique opportunity in which the European citizens have a direct say on the policy development within the EU. Therefore it is important to make the elections a truly European affair, addressing issues that concern all EU citizens and not 27 Member States particular interests.

Hence, we believe politicising and personalising the EU policy-making is a natural step forward in European integration and the best way of guaranteeing a cross-border debate on issues affecting our lives and of getting young people and all citizens interested in voting at EP elections. In parallel, we also need to inform them in more simple words about the role of EU institutions: their complexity is indeed difficult to grasp for most citizens.

Too many European citizens don’t go to vote because they cannot put faces to European politics. Our generation is not afraid to bring the EU closer to its citizens and expects brave decisions from our national and European leaders and institutions; moreover, we want concrete benefits from the EU in our everyday life.

It’s time for a democratic election of the European leaders and institutions!

There is only one thing to add: I am glad that all these organisations found the will and words for this joint declaration!

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

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European elections 2009 (37): A young conservatives' approach to the EP elections

According to a press released issued by the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament last week, their young Members of Parliament have met last week to underline the importance of networking.

Their main point is that:

"A mutual understanding of the issues at stake and a continuous dialogue between national and European politicians will help us position ourselves strongly for the upcoming elections."

This is their point: Young politicians should network, and this will raise the interest of young people in the elections.

To underline the importance of the elections for the EPP (-ED), neither the party nor the parliamentary group show any signs on their main websites that there might be this "important European event" during this year. Bravo!

Taking into account that young people tend to use the internet much more than traditional media, this clearly reflects the failure of the European Peoples Party - and its young MP/MEP network - to consider youth reality!

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Under the category "Tracking: European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

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