The Danish presidency of the EU starts on January 1, 2012 and in preparation for the EU Youth Conference in Sorø, Denmark, there is a call from the European Steering Committee for youth organisations to participate in Structured Dialogue. The answers from national working groups are to be submitted by February 10, 2012.
EYCA wants to encourage as many member organisations as possible to engage with their Structured Dialogue and the national working groups in their territory – most often led by the national youth council.
Allianssi, EYCA’s Finnish member organisation, is making sure that as many young people as possible are involved in Finland's response to structured dialogue for the Danish Presidency. Previously their responses were limited to a “professional” working group but now they are attempting to open this up towards all young people who hold a European Youth Card in Finland. Allianssi is translating the Danish presidency questions into Finnish and distributing them in user-friendly format - probably a multiple-choice questionnaire, which will be emailed individually to all cardholders with incentives provided.
The overall theme for the second 18 months cycle of the Structured Dialogue during the Polish, Danish and Cypriot Presidencies is to increase youth participation in democratic life in Europe. Under this theme each country has also chosen national priorities for their Presidency. The Polish Presidency focused on cooperation between young people from the EU, Eastern Europe and Caucasus. The Danish Presidency will focus on the following national priorities: 1) Youth participation in institutional democracy, especially in elections and 2) Youth participation in organisations, in particular regarding the reduction of administrative burdens and legal requirements to participation.
Part one of the questionnaire comprises of the following questions:
1.1 In terms of institutional democracy, which concrete actions, could increase youth participation at:
a) Local elections
b) Regional elections
c) National elections
d) European elections
1.2. Which actions would help increase a dialogue on lowering the voting age?
(Cf. the recommendation of The Council of Europe regarding investigating the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16).
1.3. Which concrete actions are needed to engage non-organised youth in institutional democracy?
 
With regards to the future of youth organisations, the consultation is interested in:
2.1 What should be the main principles behind supporting and funding structures, if youth organisations should be able to engage their members in creative and innovative youth work?
(e.g. independence of youth work vs. transparency and monitoring of funds, one-off funding vs. sustainable funding, possibilities for private support, fundraising, self-financing).
2.2 During the Danish Presidency the future European financial structure will be discussed. How should a future youth programmebe designed in order to be more youth-friendly and support the activities of youth organisations, structured dialogue and outreach efforts in Europe?
2.3 How can the next generation of youth programmes support an increase in the number of young people volunteering, voting or participating in organisations and thus increase active citizenship?
2.4 How should the next generation of programmesbe developed in order to support youth organisationand projects which aim to involve more non-organised youth? Please indicate concrete solutions
2.5 Which concrete actions are needed to foster young people’s creativity, innovative capacity and talent as a tool for their active participation in society?
 
For further information, please contact laura.hemmati@youthforum.org or international@duf.dk (Danish Youth Council).

56% OF RESPONSES FROM THE POLISH YOUTH CARD: SUPPORTING STRUCTURED DIALOGUE WITH THE POLISH COUNCIL OF YOUTH ORGANISATIONS

Throughout 2010, an initiative group has been working hard on building standards for creating the Polish Council of Youth Organisations. The Polish Youth Project Association (EYCA’s member organization in Poland) was taking part in the process from the beginning to the happy finale. We are proud to announce that from the beginning of April 2011 Polish Council of Youth Organizations has been the official body representing Polish Youth and Youth organizations. As Polish Youth Project Association we are one of the members with the status of a founding organization.
The main goals of the Council are:

• creating youth policy,
• promoting the idea of youth participation in public life,
• information of young people’s situation in Poland,
• representing member organizations in the public sector,
• consulting role in the youth field for authorities and other sectors,
• supporting the development of Polish youth organizations,
• supporting cooperation, exchanges of know-how and good practices  between Polish youth organizations,
• initiating of international partnerships for Polish youth organizations, making transnational cooperation easier.

The Polish EURO26 card organization is an important partner for communication with young Poles about European Commission surveys, especially topics about youth policy and youth mobility through Structured Dialogue.
November 2010 – EC consultations about the future youth programmes after 2013.
 As Polish Youth Project Association we informed our EURO26 cardholders about the importance of having a Youth in Action programme in the future because active young people could take part in different projects and strengthen their skills through non-formal education. That’s why we encouraged our cardholders to fill in the special EC questionnaire and present their opinion – through our web page www.euro26.pl and our newsletter sent to almost 80 000 cardholders.
April through June 2011 – EC consultations regarding the Youth on the Move initiative and the YoM Card
As an organization providing youth information, youth mobility and youth participation we prepared an article on our website informing about the European Union inquiry for Youth on the Move initiative. The information about the consultations was also spread out through our facebook page and in a newsletter. Because the questionnaire was published on EC’s site, we don’t have the detailed number of Polish responders.
June/July 2011 – Structured Dialogue surveys about the young people’s statement regarding the youth engagement in social and democratic life in Europe
All participants of the Polish Council of Youth organizations were asked to do a survey with their target group about their participation in Europe. We prepared a questionnaire, which was sent to cardholders in our monthly newsletter and announced through our facebook profile. The questions were about the interests of young people in taking part in international cooperation projects, which countries seem to be the most interesting and open, what are the barriers (political, financial, cultural, etc.), what is the main strength of international youth cooperation (new contacts, experience, culture, languages) and how the European youth cooperation raises awareness and tolerance for young people.
We managed to get over 1000 responses while all other Polish NGOs together got another 800. In the future, we can play an important role in surveys and communication with young people in Poland.

As some of you know, Graeme Robertson started working with the European Commission at the beginning of November, on a two-year "seconded national expert" post from Young Scot / Scottish Government to the Youth Policy Unit of DG Education and Culture. He is mostly working on two high profile projects: firstly, the redevelopment of the European Youth Portal, which will be delivered in phases during 2012; and secondly, on the strategic development of the Youth on the Move Card (YoM) initiative.

The YoM Card is intended to help all young people across Europe (not just students) to become more mobile by breaking down the barriers to mobility. The concept that was presented at the GA in Amsterdam was very high level, but since then a lot of work has gone on to put more substance behind the idea, including recognising that a youth card itself cannot break down these barriers, but it needs to be packaged with high quality online and offline youth information and other services.

To help the Commission develop its thinking further, it has formed an Expert Group consisting of Bob and Jarkko from EYCA, along with representatives from ISIC, ERYICA, Eurodesk, Erasmus Students Network, European Students Union and European Youth Forum.

If the YoM Card initiative is to succeed, one of the major issues that has to be solved is the major variation of levels of card penetration across Europe, and the volume and quality of services offered to incoming cardholders. This was one of the biggest criticisms of student and youth cards of the 3,000 young people who took part in the Commission's online consultation earlier this year. It hopes that the YoM Card initiative can encourage national governments and other agencies to work with existing service providers to together raise the volume and availability of cards and support services for all young people.

The development of the YoM Card initiative is not going to be a quick process. It is going to take at least another four months for the Commission to finish its investigations and consultations, and then another six months to get a proposal through the Commission machinery. Its aim is to have something ready to announce during the Irish Presidency of the EU in early 2013.

This is an ambitious and complex project, with large numbers of stakeholders involved, each with their own points of view and interests. But when it finally comes into place we hope that it will make a real difference for young people across Europe. We are looking forward to working with Graeme and the rest of his Commission colleagues over the next two years to help turn the Youth on the Move Card concept into reality.
 

Dear friends,

It has been a very busy autumn for all of us. We have held the second meeting of the board (December 15-16). We are reviewing the vision and mission and preparing a business plan for the board and office. Youth on the Move is going forward, and by the time you will read this we have just had our first meeting of the technical working group established by the Commission. We have tackled the white territories and already during the last months, we have had Sweden and Bosnia & Herzegovina as associate members and are expecting a call for tender from Malta. We also had a workshop with the National Youth Agency in England with the aim to get the card active there again.

A few weeks ago we also met as Threee, i.e. with ERYICA and Eurodesk, and now we are planning to have a joint Summer University with the three networks probably in September 2012. CCDB is moving fast, the Partial Agreement programme was approved for 2012 and we are working hard with issues like quality improvement, member support, PR & Communications, new contribution system, etc. And not to forget the planning of our next year’s conference in Moscow and Yaroslavl.

We will let you know of the results of the upcoming meetings and we hope to get your feedback and support on all the issues. And we will wish you all the success for your end-of-the-year activities!

With best regards,
Jarkko Lehikoinen
EYCA President  


 

On November 30, a workshop took place in London to help National Youth Agency (NYA) define a clear, specific rationale for developing the European Youth Card in England. NYA was interested to hear about different business models within EYCA through presentation of a range of case studies to demonstrate the value of youth cards in developing and promoting youth mobility and youth citizenship. Establishing a sustainable member in England is now a high priority for EYCA. Besides the EYCA office and NYA staff (Fiona Blacke and Jon Boagey), representatives of seven member organisations as well as the Local Government Association took part in the event.

The purpose of this workshop was to

• help NYA define a clear, specific rationale for developing European Youth Card in England
• present a range of case studies to demonstrate the value of youth cards in developing and promoting youth mobility and youth citizenship
• expose NYA to a variety of business models for developing and delivering European Youth Cards
• and to agree on future action to support NYA to become an active member of EYCA.

CJP Flanders, Allianssi, CKM SYTS Slovakia, Movijovem Portugal and Young Scot delivered presentations, which sparked discussions among the participants about the cultural dimension of the card; using data about young people’s consumption, which allows targeting benefits more precisely. The debated issues also included collaborations with schools on one hand and city municipalities. Another aspect that NYA might consider for the future are membership cards for voluntary youth organisations or trade unions.

As a result of the workshop, the National Youth Agency proposes to lead a consortium and to explore the feasibility of setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to deliver a youth card business for England. Fiona Blacke will draft a brainstorming paper on the terms of reference for a potential Special Purpose Vehicle and pass it to the participants until the end of 2011. A follow-up workshop will take place in February 2012.

“For young Greeks there is a big confusion. They don’t know what to do, they don’t know where to go”, says Markella Peloponnisiou, Director of the Foundation for Youth and Life Long Learning, the organisation responsible for the implementation of the European Youth Card program in Greece.

Young people want to leave Greece for two key reasons:

• For learning mobility: to gain qualifications and to find work opportunities that will make them more employable in the future international labour markets.
• To find better working conditions now: job opportunities at home are drying up and working conditions are becoming worse (salary cuts, highly flexible work contracts which offer little or no job security).

The Foundation for Youth and Life Long Learning is also responsible for delivering the National Youth Programme in Greece. A major concern for the National Youth Programme now is to consider how to support young people to become autonomous, relating to their housing, work and relationships. The current situation in Greece means that transitions to autonomous lives are extremely difficult and Markella reports that psychological stress for young people is becoming a more acute issue that the National Youth Programme also needs to consider.

The European Youth Card in Greece tries to address this situation:

• A recent emphasis on partnerships with the leading post-secondary Education Centers in Greece to offer major discounts (up to 40%) on a wide range of vocational training and learning programmes. Young Greeks use these discounts in professional development seminars and training. In addition they have the opportunity to acquire technical training in many specialties or to learn foreign languages.
• Building partnerships with transport authorities to offer significant discounts on urban transport. More specifically a partnership has recently been accomplished with the Organization of Urban Transportation of Thessaloniki, which is ensuring 20% discount on unlimited-ride cards.

But for Markella and colleagues at the Foundation for Youth and Life Long Learning it is equally important that the European Youth Card should help young Greeks to access all of the potential benefits across Europe from Youth On The Move. “European Youth Cards and Youth on the Move need to work together to give young Greeks a better perspective on their future.”

The Foundation for Youth and Life Long Learning believes that European Youth Cards should be a tool in the hands of young Greeks to help them get better information about opportunities and about practicalities and systems in other European countries. Markela says ”Youth On the Move should include a platform where young people can exchange information directly with other young Europeans about discounts and opportunities and even where they can post their own CVs to find jobs directly.”

- Carta Giovani in Italy is planning four focus groups in the region of Sardinia to investigate on the needs of the local young people – a thousand questionnaires will be distributed. In the Lazio region, the card will participate in events promoting participation; they will run a seminar on how to handle a job interview and how to fill in a CV.

- In Greece, the General Secretariat for Youth will remain the supervisor of the European Youth Card program. However, the Institute for Youth which issues the card merges with 3 other public organizations, all related to youth policy, and the four of them will constitute the new Foundation for Youth and Lifelong Learning.

- Cyprus is negotiating with the national Telecommunications Authority to get a free internet connection for a year to all students/cardholders. Also, the Youth Board is developing a discount on flight tickets with Cyprus Airways for young Cypriots who study abroad.

- The youth card in Serbia is preparing a facebook game and a video, which will present their recent work. Moreover, they have plans for a new design of the card to be launched during a celebration.

- jugendinfo.cc in Austria is discussing with the national Chamber of Commerce a co-branded card for young people that are training to work in the tourism sector.

- MOBIN, EYCA’s member in Slovenia, started in 2011 a new portal for young people called Ej!KA KULT (http://ejkartica.wordpress.com). The portal consists of articles on different topics, mostly on culture for young people (music, books, movies, events, festivals…) but also on other topics (ecology, sports, health, study…). The portal is designed by young people for young people. There is a team of young volunteers who are writing articles (along with pictures and videos) for the portal and they decide which topic will be covered. The basis for the portal is Wordpress, a free blog application which can be used also as a website. MOBIN is giving young volunteers technical support and advices related to the content. Volunteers will gain a lot of practical experience and references for future employment.

- Zigzag Travel in Lithuania is about to launch a new website and update their facebook profile – check it out after December 12.

- EURO26 Hungary issued a co-branded card with D-card, a loyalty scheme card.

- Allianssi in Finland is about to sign an agreement about a co-brand with the Student Union of the Universities of Applied Sciences, which would bring them 50.000 new cardholders.

- Estonia is conducting a survey to find out their cardholders’ interest in the “card in the mobile” application. Also, European Movement Estonia would like to add a cultural dimension to their card by rewarding cardholders for using cultural discounts.

- Armenia has issued a co-branded card with the ASHB bank combining the benefits of the European Youth Card and ISIC.

News from the online world – tips from card organisations on Google+, getting user’s feedback on your website and more. Join the EYCA buzz group on facebook and follow the news section of the eyca.org website.

- David McNeill: Just to say that at an event today we switched on our new Rewards Platform for young people. It's all very exciting... check out this video to see how it works!

- Peter Turecek: join interesting conversations on TED or find thousands inspirational videos and unique ideas.

- Stani Gajdosova: What will be the future of Youth in Action? Have your say! Check out the European Youth Forum’s campaign to preserve the programme for youth organisations like ours.

- More about the new Erasmus for All programme proposed by the European Comission, which is due to start in 2014.  

- Board member Milos Milenkovic represented EYCA at the Central European Initiative’s youth forum in Subotica, Serbia. To find out more about this institution, follow this link.

- A digest from the partnership of the Council of Europe and the European Union website with information about publications and initiatives on youth policy and youth participation.

2011 is promising to end as a successful year in terms of welcoming new members to the EYCA family. The governmental youth agency Agenzija Zghazagh that operates under the Ministry of Education, Employment and Family is willing to revive the European Youth Card in Malta. Up until today the European Youth Card was practically non-existent in Malta as it was perceived only to be a travel card.

Agenzija Zghazagh, which was founded in 2010 for fostering the implementation of the National Youth Policy, has the potential to develop a more comprehensive and useful card not only to give discounts to young people but also to provide them with opportunities through which they can further develop their personal and social skills.

The meeting with their CEO Miriam Teuma in Tallinn gave Board member Kristiina Ling confidence that they are the right organization to take that task as they involve young people in all the stages of their work. Moreover Malta is a member of the Partial Agreement on youth mobility through the youth card in the framework of the Council of Europe. EYCA hopes to receive a final application for membership from Malta in December.