Brussels, 12/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - Discussing the outcome of the Youth Convention that ended on Friday morning with the presentation of its results to the European Convention proper, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said that he would have preferred a "bit more fresh air" and an area where broader views were expressed. Chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing would have hoped that "congealed Europe" would have been shaken up a bit more by the people who attended this week's Youth Convention. To questions about how the Youth Convention members had been selected, he admitted that a group close to the European institutions had formed, with too many young people from youth organisations. After three days of activity, the 210 young people from 28 countries issued a final "text" focussing on clear proposals for reforming the institutions that also outlined the young peoples' attempts to trace out a more generous Europe. The Vice-Chair of the Convention proper, Jean-Luc Dehaene, invited all the Youth Convention members, especially the President and Vice-Presidents, to follow the Convention's work, saying that at the end of the session they would see whether another initiative along the lines of the Youth Convention could be undertaken (in response to a question about holding a second session of the Youth Convention to assess the Convention proper's draft conclusions).
Happy to be able to announce that the Youth Convention members has discussed the contents of their "text" until 2 o'clock in the morning, the Youth Convention President Giacomo Filibeck presented the results, accompanied by the two Vice-Presidents. He stressed the broad range of views and the fact the text had been voted through by a qualified majority. In order to build the European project, we cannot continue to work by consensus but must have the courage to confront our opinions, he said. Almost 50 members of the Youth Convention (a quarter of its members) refused to accept the "text", adopting a minority statement criticising the undemocratic functioning of the Youth Convention that they saw as having been dominated by the European Youth Forum (an umbrella group of European youth organisations). Dane Ellen Norby unveiled the conclusions on the reform of the institutions, saying that "most of us" want a federal structure for the future of the European Union. The Youth Convention members want much clearer structures and procedures such as a "catalogue of exclusive competencies and of competencies shared between the EU and Member States", greater budgetary powers and the European Parliament should have the right of initiative. The "Council should meet in public" and "be reformed to a genuinely second chamber", and the Commission "transformed into a true European executive" and "all matters within the competence of the Union should be subject to the Court of Justice". The Young Convention members note in their "text" that "Neither the citizens in general no we, young people in particular, understand who is responsible for which policy in this labyrinth of European legislation".
More generally, the Youth Convention called for the European Union to be not only economic and political, "but also a social entity with great cultural diversity", encouraging active citizenship and youth involvement, whether or not they were members of political parties or associations. They said lessons on "European culture, citizenship and institutions" should be given "in every primary and secondary school" as a way of bringing Europe closer to the citizen. "There can be no global progress as long as there will be (stet) an economical (stet) division between "North and South" of the world", explained the text under the heading "Europe in a globalised world". This was echoed by the second Vice-President when presenting the results. The Youth Convention feels that Europe has to speak in a single voice to be able to play its role and that "Foreign Policy must become an exclusive competence of the European Union", adding "no Member State, however, should be forced against its will to participate in any European Defence structure". They called on the EU to respect the 0.7% GDP target for development aid and want the CAP and customs duties to be revised to no longer present obstacles to poor countries' products. Immigration is "a constituting character of European culture", they wrote, wanting a common immigration policy to be established and calling on the EU to pay particular attention to neighbouring countries. They described the EU as "the most successful integration model in the world".
The European Convention members had a few minutes to give their views. French Socialist Olivier Duhamel thanked the Youth Convention for denying the critics who had seen the Youth Convention as a media operation and called for dialogue to continue, also with other young people. Jens-Peter Bonde (EPP-ED, Denmark) dismissed the conclusions on institutional structures, saying there was nothing new in this idea that had been waved around by federalists for half a century. Sam Dobbyn of the Youth Convention defended the point of view of the Youth Convention members who criticised the way the Youth Convention operated.