The sixth edition of European Youth Week (EYW2013) was celebrated across Europe during the week of 26 May – 2 June 2013. EYW2013 consisted of a broad range of events and activities organised in all 33 countries participating in the EU’s Youth in Action (YiA) programme.
The event offered an opportunity to showcase the successful implementation of the programme, before it is succeeded by a new programme in favour of youth in 2014. The active citizenship of young people was a further theme of the EYW2013, which also focused on the participation of young people in society and in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament.
In Brussels, Commissioner Vassiliou hosted a high profile event on 31st May that celebrated the 25th anniversary of EU youth programmes. The event included a political debate and an awards ceremony for outstanding projects supported by the YiA programme.
The debate followed the screening of a video depicting the history and achievements of EU youth programmes and explored the value of youth participation, both for young people themselves and in shaping communities and society at large.
The event concluded with a ceremony to present awards to outstanding YiA projects, which had been nominated by all countries participating in the programme and selected by a jury composed of representatives of EU institutions and the European Youth Forum.
The European Commission also hosted a conference linked to the EU’s on-going Structured Dialogue (SD) with young people and youth organisations. SD underpins the process of dialogue between young Europeans and EU policymakers;
SD provides a platform where young people and youth organisations – the European Youth Forum and national youth councils – meet with representatives of national youth authorities to discuss the priorities and the implementation of EU youth policy. In short, SD provides the medium for youth representatives to influence the EU youth strategy. SD is now in its third cycle, devoted to “social inclusion”, and will conclude during the Greek presidency in the first half of 2014.
The Youth in Action (YiA) programme in Greece
Volunteering In Community Life
Twenty-four youth workers and youth leaders from 24 different organisations in Europe and in the EuroMed area were invited by Solidarity Tracks to pool their experience of volunteering at Lefkada and to produce together a guidebook with advice for organisations and young volunteers. They came from Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Morocco, Palestinian Territory, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.
Most of the participants on the 10-day training course had already taken part in EuroMed and European Voluntary Service (EVS) projects. The themes discussed coincided closely with the objectives of the European Year of Volunteering, and included creating a framework for future cooperation in volunteering projects and other activities under the Youth in Action programme.
The Youth in Action (YiA) programme in Cyprus
‘Human Libraries’ For Social Inclusion
Become a ‘book’, tell your own story and be ‘read’ by other people to help to dispel prejudice and intolerance. That is the principle behind the development of ‘human libraries’. The 16 young people who gathered for six days in Nicosia were from: Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
They followed a training course which introduced the ‘human library’ technique aiming at raising participants’ awareness of how certain minorities or individuals are socially excluded on the basis of their status, life choices or beliefs. Various other non-formal learning methods were used on the course such as different forms of theatre, brainstorming and group building games.
