European Youth Forum

Evy Hoeben News

From the 20th until the 22nd of November, Bernd from the European presidium and Roman from KjG Germany represented FIMCAP at the General Assembly of the European Youth Forum. The European Youth Forum unites the major international youth organizations as well as the national youth councils in Europe. Due to the Corona pandemic the assembly took place for the first time online.

The assembly elected Silja Markkula from Finland as new president of the European Youth Forum. Congratulations! A new board was elected as well.

Moreover, the assembly adopted two policy papers on youth participation and youth, peace and security, one motion on the Erasmus+ successor programme, and resolutions on gender-based violence, anti-gypsyism and abolition of death penalty measures in Belarus.

The motion on the Erasmus+ successor programme calls for including non-EU countries such as Switzerland in the Erasmus+ programme. For international youth organizations such as FIMCAP this matters a lot. Currently due to the exclusion of Switzerland two applications need to be prepared and submitted to receive funding for international activities involving Swiss participants – meaning a lot of bureaucratic extra work for volunteers. For participants from other countries that are not part of the Erasmus+ programme often even no support at all is available.

As FIMCAP we want to say thank you very much to the outgoing president of the European Youth Forum, Carina Autengruber. During her youth Carina was volunteering in our Austrian member organization Katholische Jungschar. FIMCAP nominated Carina for president of the European Youth Forum together with the Austrian Youth Council at the last General Assembly two years ago. Being term-limited Carina could not candidate for another term. Thank you very much Carina for all you have achieved for young people in Europe during the last years!