Brussels, 21/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 18 October, a youth delegation from the FutureLab Europe think tank had a meeting with Luuk van Middelaar, a representative from the Cabinet of the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. The delegation presented him with key messages from European youth in view of the forthcoming summit on 24-25 October. These messages are included in a manifesto drafted at the end of the “European Youth Council” held on 17 October at the College of Europe in Bruges, which brought together members from the FutureLab Europe and European students.
In the context of the Digital Agenda, the manifesto calls for:
the introduction of more solutions geared to online government, so that citizens can directly interact with the public authorities;
the setting up of a team responsible for European wide innovation and assessing the value of potential markets and opportunities for marketing innovative ideas;
creating a centralised European wide database, supported by European universities, to help scientists, universities and companies to communicate better (“European Library for Innovation Stakeholders - ELIS”);
developing a new chapter on “social and technological innovation” in the Erasmus+ programme, which brings together young creative talents with sponsors and inventors of creative ideas.
On the question of employment, the European Youth Council is urging European heads of state and government to take concrete action to create new ways of promoting mobility for aspiring young entrepreneurs and SMEs, as well as a comprehensive database of job vacancies across the European Union in an effort to facilitate finding a job for young people who would like to work in another member state. The Council is also calling on European leaders to set up a European venture capital fund, as part of a public-private partnership, in addition to tax breaks for new companies. (IL/transl.fl)