AER urges for a strong representation of young people from the Regions and local authorities in the EU Youth Convention

Call for lobbying of Convention members by the Regions and regional youth assemblies

The Convention on the Future of Europe, in its March and April sessions decided to set up a Youth Convention at is session in April. The Youth Convention of 210 young people will meet in the plenary session on the 9th – 14th July 2002 in Brussels. It will have a full Presidency and will also have its own rapporteurs to report back to the Convention. Costs will be met by the EU.

The Youth Convention is made up of 18 to 25 year olds and is open to all young people meaning that it should represent a cross-section of society and not only members or young officials of youth organisations, political organisations or parties.

Gender equality is another issue, so that young women should have an equal share of nominations. All members of the European Convention have the right to nominate young people for the Youth Convention. The procedure for how youth members will be finally selected is not very clear.

As with the exception of the representative of the German Bundesrat, the Minister-President Erwin Teufel, no other member participates with a specific regional mandate (representatives of the Committee of the Regions participate as observers), it will be difficult to have direct nominations from local and regional youth assemblies.

Nevertheless the AER asks all Regions to lobby their national representatives (Government and Parliament) to ensure that young people with a specific local or regional affiliation will be nominated. It would be detrimental to the concept of the Youth Convention if this new body consisted of a majority of representatives of established youth organisations and young politicians or young relatives of members. The EU Youth Convention needs high participation from young people from our regions in order to express their regional and local concerns.

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