Brussels, 10/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday in Brussels, the Youth Convention began work after a solemn sitting during which there were speeches by the Chairman of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing; the Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Culture, Youth and Sport, French Socialist Michel Rocard; the Commissioner for Education and Youth, Viviane Reding; and Danish Socialist Helle Thorning-Schmidt, member of the EP delegation to the Convention representing the Danish Presidency on this occasion.
"We are aware that we are building Europe of the future mainly for you", said Chairman Giscard d'Estaing, who told the young Convention members: "You will be the actors of Europe in 2020 (…) You are the ones who will make that Europe come alive and no doubt also evolve". "It will have continuity", he went on, returning to the origins of today's European Union. He then recalled the "ambitious" nature of the initial project, which above all wanted to "give our continent peace and reconciliation". "The road covered in 50 years is truly wonderful", stressed Mr Giscard d'Estaing, who recalled that European history has been marked by wars. Tomorrow, the enlarged EU will have nearly 500 million inhabitants and will be the third largest human group on the planet, after China and India, a very diversified group in terms of cultures, languages, legal traditions and, at least initially, on the economic level also, said Valéry Giscard d'Estaing before affirming that "no-one must under-estimate the difficulties that this challenge raises". It is a matter of guaranteeing that a 25-member Union is effective and allowing it to raise the challenges of globalisation, recalled Mr Giscard d'Estaing, who considers that, if Europe wants to have a role in the world, if it has values to defend and solidarity to share, then it "only has a chance of doing so by speaking with a single voice on the international scene". "We need your imagination and your freedom of expression", he told the young members, citing Ronsard: "The green thoughts of Man's youth is his sole treasure". The Chairman of the European Convention told the young members that what was wanted of them was the expression of their "personal thoughts", of their "hearts, and (…) minds", and "not just suitable ideas". He called on them to "avoid the trap of Brussels speaking in Brussels" for which the Convention had been reproached during the session when it listened to the civil society. Mr Giscard d'Estaing then called on young people to define the Europe that they want for the future, the respective roles of the Union, the Member States and regional authorities, "the faults it must cure itself of and those it must avoid in the future", the place it is to hold in the world and the way it should ensure its own defence. "The talent to dream is the privilege of youth", said Mr Giscard d'Estaing, calling on young people to become the "components of dream at our side".
Mr Rocard, who also invited the young people to "express their misgivings and doubts as well as their aspirations and hopes without taboo and in all openness", did a pedagogical trip through history at the time when "the ECSC Treaty expires". He recalled the "hopes of the founders" such as Jean Monnet for whom the ECSC was a "beginning of federation", conceived for circumventing the resistance of national sovereignties by first of all placing in common the industries upstream of war. While the world is not doing well (he cited the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Africa, international crime, greenhouse gases and the scourge of AIDS), Europe has still not given itself a "personality, a single voice", noted Mr Rocard, stressing that "our governments remain divided, almost half-half". "You must recall that Africa, half of Latin America and some countries of Asia are blocked in under-development (…). The need for Europe is the most urgent from the outside", said the former Chair of the development committee, who also stressed that there is for now no real legal base for the subjects dealt with by the parliamentary committee that he chairs: culture, youth, education, media and sport. He went on to invite young people to say whether Europe must deal with this or not, and how.
"Politics is often carried out by adults for the young. It is a mistake!" exclaimed Ms Reding, who recalled that the White Paper on Youth had been prepared by the young. "This Convention is not a gadget" but comes within the continuity of the dialogue begun with the 75 million young Europeans, she said, inviting their representatives to leave the beaten track, to take risks, to leave aside "the slogans, the platitudes and the trite remarks".
"Don't imitate, innovate", Danish national Helle Thorning-Schmidt told the young, saying that "this Convention must not be used as an alibi". She said she wanted "new ideas (…) a way of looking at things that we cannot imagine". "Do not be formalistic, do not stick to procedure", she continued, inviting the young people to produce documents which, by their quality, cannot not be taken into account. She went on to invite them not to forget other young people, who do not belong to youth organisations, who do not have university diplomas or who are marginalised … not to forget the rights and the interests of young people under 18 years of age either. She said she hoped the Youth Convention would be able to meet again or at least, according to other arrangements, react in six or eight months to the project that will come out of the European Convention.
After these speeches, the Chairman of the Youth Convention, Italian national Giacomo Filibeck, and the members of the youth Praesidium, took the floor to begin their work. "We shall innovate and not simply reproduce the petty diplomatic games of the Senior Convention. We shall work according to our methods, in openness and transparency", said Giacomo Filibeck without hesitation. He added: "We want our proposals to be taken seriously and we want a clear follow-up system so that the work done this week is not a one-off procedure. The meeting must be a first step for the young to be able to express their views".