Strasbourg, 27/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, on Tuesday at first reading (542 votes in favour, 76 against and 2 abstentions), of the co-decision report by Lissy Gröner (PES, Germany) on the "Youth in Action " programme (2007-2013), the European Parliament is showing its willingness to promote active citizenship and a mutual understanding between the young people of Europe. The MEPs call upon the European Commission to increase the budget earmarked for the future programme (1.128 billion EUR instead of 915 million as proposed), insofar as decisions to be taken for the forthcoming budget allow. Although the planned age range for the programme goes from 13 to 30 years, the Parliament would rather restrict it to 15 to 28. Furthermore, the MEPs supported the rapporteur's repeated calls for the inclusion of young people living with a disability under equal conditions, "in order to stop any form of discrimination", and recommend more positive promotion for sport and cultural activities in order to stimulate social integration, tolerance and non-discrimination. Due to the success of the European Youth Week, the Parliament takes the view that this event should become an integral part of the EU's youth policy, concentrating on information regarding the actions of the European institutions, activities allowing young people to report back to their MEPs on their concerns and award prizes for the best projects promoted by the youth programme. Lastly, the Parliament believes that the programme "Youth in Action" should be re-named "Youth of the World". Maarten Coertjens, Secretary General of the Federation of Young European Greens, pledged the support of European youth organisations to the Gröner report. Although the programme is far from revolutionary in nature, it is not bad overall, despite shortcomings which the Gröner report tries to balance out, he commented. In particular, he welcomes the request of the Parliament to increase the budget. Commissioner Jan Figel, for his part, welcomed the "excellent report, which is the fruit of good cooperation", adding that he felt that most amendments could be adopted, except the one on the creation of an agency with responsibility at national level for the management of the programme.