On April 21st, Sylvia, Tom and Maurizio traveled to Budapest for the Spring COMEM preparatory BICC meeting. COMEM is the European Youth Forum’s Council of Members meeting which happens bi-annually and focuses on things such as member admission and policy motions. BICC is the name of the subgroup of youth councils that the British Youth Council is a part of. That’s a lot of acronyms! Our main focus whilst we were there was to discuss the proposed changes to the financial system of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) in order to ensure that the payments expected of each youth council were fair, as well as the proposed entry of the Hungarian Youth Council into the European Youth Forum. We had fruitful and heated discussions and now feel prepared to vote for the proposals in Brussels next month. It was a particular privilege to hear from the Youth Council of Ukraine, on zoom, and we so admire their bravery, tenacity and commitment to continuing their work despite their awful current circumstances.
As well as all of the hard work and long days in meetings, our Hungarian hosts ensured that we had a fantastic social side to the trip. As well as a delicious gala dinner on our final night, complete with a Jazz band, we were treated to a traditional Hungarian restaurant on the evening of our arrival and a Hungarian folk dance evening on Friday night. It’s hard to articulate how fun the dance evening was: we were led by a fantastic folk band and dance caller and finished the night absolutely exhausted and ready to pursue careers as professional Hungarian folk dancers…
After spending such a long period of our mandate online, it was such a treat to meet other delegates in person and hear about the fantastic work that they are all doing in their own youth councils. It feels so special and such a privilege to have friends all around Europe. It’s important to mention that this was the first time Maurizio, Sylvia and Tom had all been in the same room at the same time and it was fantastic to really get to know each other! These preparatory meetings ensure that when the time comes for the all-important voting at COMEM, we are ready to make well-informed and well-considered decisions on behalf of the young people of the UK. Brussels, we are ready for you!
