Eddie O’Sullivan, Megan Doherty and I, three of the four UK Young Ambassadors to the EU Youth Dialogue (the successor to the EU Structured Dialogue) have returned from the first European Union Youth Conference in Bucharest, Romania. The conference was focused on the Romanian Presidency’s key priority for young people: the future of work.
Our day arriving was filled with meeting our new colleagues from across Europe – as well as representatives from other countries, International Youth NGOs, and representatives of Youth Departments/Ministries from various governments – as well as having a short walk around the surrounding area in Bucharest.
Then the EUYC itself began! We heard from a range of speakers, from Romanian Ministers, speakers and experts on a number of topics, as well as members of the Romanian Youth Council. We then broke up into our choice of working groups, each one focused on the interaction between each of the 10 other EU Youth Goals (youthgoals.eu) and Youth Goal #7, which was closest to the Romanian Presidency’s focus on “The Future of Work.”
Day 2 of the EUYC saw a panel debate regarding youth employment, a session on promoting cross-sectoral cooperation on improving youth employment, as well as a number of working groups set on the implementation of our ideas for the future of employment. There was also some frank discussions between the youth delegates and those attending about the nature of EUYCs and the EU Youth Dialogue, particularly focusing on the extent to which it actually involved young people, as well as the lack of focus of this trio of presidencies on the actual youth goals themselves. This led to the creation of a series of separate working groups where youth delegates could focus on improving the process in the future.
The final day brought the EUYC to end with another action-packed morning of debate and discussion related to the future of work, beginning with a ‘high-level panel debate’ on the future of work in relation to the European Union, before we led into the conclusions of the conference, and the handover to Finland for their upcoming EUYC in the next few months.
This conference is only the start of our work over the next 18 months, so we hope you’ll keep up to date with your Young Ambassador’s to the EU Youth Dialogue as there will be many chances to get involved!
