Brussels, 25/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Meeting for the Youth Council in Brussels on 25 November, the EU ministers for youth held a structured dialogue during their lunch break with youth organisations. The discussions showed how important it was to listen to the voice and hopes of young people and to come to an agreement with them before setting the priorities of the future work plan for youth, said Lithuania's Minister for Social Security and Labour Algimanta Pabedinskiené. European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou highlighted the crisis of political confidence that young people are currently experiencing. “There is no crisis of participation with young people, but they want the policy to change. They are not happy with the policy conducted by the decision-makers”, said Vassiliou, calling for a deepening of the structured dialogue with young people so as to find ways to improve for a more relevant policy on youth. “Cross-sectoral cooperation must be improved. Synergies in other areas must be unlocked. (…) Informal training must be encouraged”, Vassiliou added (our translation throughout).
On Monday afternoon, the ministers continued, in a public debate, with the exchanges that they had had a little earlier with representatives from youth organisations regarding the EU work plan for youth. The objective of the plan, which will guide the work of future presidencies on youth policy until 2015, should bring added value to the current youth policy and allow an exchange of expertise in the youth sector and also other fields of activity, the Council stated. During the debate, the member states laid bare the most pressing issues met by young people in their countries and they considered how the EU work plan for youth could contribute to improving cross-cutting cooperation. Several ministers stressed the cross-cutting nature of youth policy, following the example of the Irish minister - this policy is not limited to youth policy alone but is largely intertwined with other policies like education, health, sport and employment. Trans-sectoral cooperation is therefore of the utmost importance to improve young people's quality of life, the ministers stated, in order to generate the best political results, in cooperation with youth organisations. As regards the most urgent challenges to be addressed, nearly all the member states quoted continuing youth unemployment. Some also highlighted health scourges like alcohol, drugs and smoking caused by youth unemployment, and the impoverishment of young people's standard of living. Young people must be given a vision and hope, the ministers stated. The ministers stated that it is important to be honest with young people, telling them clearly what can change. (IL/transl.fl)