OBESSU @the Advisory Council on Youth

The Advisory Council on Youth and Steering Committee on Youth of the Council of Europe, together forming  the Joint Council on Youth of the Council of Europe, met in Budapest from 27th to 31st March 2012 to hold statutory meetings. OBESSU Board member, Ivica Alpeza is being elected to sit in the Advisory Council and participated in the meetings of the Advisory Council on Youth and the Joint Council on Youth of the Council of Europe.At their 27th meeting on 28 March in Budapest, the Advisory Council on Youth elected Maria Paschou (Hellenic National Youth Council (ESYN)) as Chairperson; Sergio Belfor (UNITED for Intercultural Action) as Vice-Chairperson; and the following three members of the Bureau: Mihai Floran (JECI-MIEC European Coordination ); Matti Niemi (Finnish Youth Cooperation Allianssi) and Ghofran Ounissi (FEMYSO).

Moreover, the Advisory Council on Youth discussed its thematic priorities for the 2012- 2014 mandate, where OBESSU stressed the importance of having Education, formal and non-formal, as one of the thematic priorities, followed by the key activities and events in the field. OBESSU’s representative in the Advisory Council, Ivica Alpeza, was approved to follow one of the Advisory Council dossiers “Youth policy symposium with Eastern Europe and Caucasus” (Georgia 27-29 June) with two substitutes Alexandru Coica and Kyrylo Ivliev.

Finally, the meetings in Budapest were followed by news from the Youth field, such as:

• The youth policy review carried out in Belgium was approved by the Joint Council on Youth. The next review will be carried out in Ukraine in 2012 – 2013; a first visit by the expert team will be held on 16 – 22 April, the second visit in September 2012.
• The project “Young people combating hate speech in cyberspace” enters its operational phase; a first training course for young bloggers and online activists will be held in Budapest on 6-13 May.
• Other forthcoming events include an evaluation and follow-up meeting of the Enter! Project (EYCS, 1 – 5 April) and three study sessions: IFLRY on “Local Politics, Local Youth Mobilization” (EYCS, 1-7 April); FERYP on “Strategies for inclusion of young Roma” (EYCS, 15 – 22 April); RYEurope on “Bridging the age gap: working together to develop rural communities” (EYCB, 15-22 April).
• A seminar for young Russian parliamentarians will be held on 22 – 28 April at the EYCS.
• A call for applications to participate in the Youth Peace Camp (EYCS, 22-30 June) was sent out in March.
• Georgia has kindly accepted to host the 2012 “CDEJ Summer University”, planned to take place in the week 27 – 31 August 2012. The next Statutory meetings of the Advisory Council on Youth and the Steering Committee on Youth, and also Joint Council on Youth of the Council of Europe will take place from 11th to 15th November 2012 in Strasbourg.