EU Youth Strategy and Eurodesk: the challenge ahead
Europe is offering many possibilities for youth mobility, but often the picture of cross-border opportunities is not that clear. Even if young people are eager to broaden their horizons, those opportunities reach only few, because information sources are limited and hard to find.
There is still a strong need to make them accessible and networks like Eurodesk are working actively to meet it at a local, regional, national and European level. Established in 1990, Eurodesk was among the first platforms created with this purpose. Since then, it has become one the main networks providing access to quality information about EU policies and mobility opportunities for young people.
From 26th to 27th September 2017, a new Eurodesk network meeting was hosted in Golden Sands (Varna) on the shore of the Black Sea Coast. As a partner, YDCMA NGO attended it with other multipliers from Bulgaria and national coordinators from 34 countries of Europe. During the event, participants took stock of Eurodesk role in the future EU Youth strategy and also shared experiences, tools and good practices in the field of youth information and mobility.
The meeting opened with an update on European Youth Affairs by Tommaso Parlatore, Digital Communication Officer of EYE 18 Unit (European Parliament), and Violeta Birzniece, Information and Outreach Officer (European Commission). Parlatore presented the European Youth Event that will take place in Strasbourg in June 2018.
For the third time, young Europeans will have the chance to exchange visions about the future of Europe and discuss them with policy-makers to develop innovative solutions in a global event like the EYE. Birzniece speech was about the priorities of EU Youth policy and programme from 2017, “the year of listening”, to the upcoming years, like “opening up a Structured Dialogue” and “more coherence, more impact, more opportunities, more to offer”.
This was followed by the group discussion “Eurodesk 2021”. A hands-on session about the relevance of Eurodesk for future EU youth programmes, with a special focus on the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). Launched by the Commission in 2016, ESC is the new European Union initiative that aims at engaging young people in solidarity-related projects around Europe to build a more inclusive society.
As an official support organization of the Erasmus+ programme, Eurodesk “can be of great added value to the implementation and development of the European Solidarity Corps”. In fact, if on one hand, ESC needs an innovative and comprehensive approach to information provision that has high ambitions in reaching young people, on the other Eurodesk shares the values of solidarity fostered by ESC and can provide experience, competencies and a strong coordination body to ensure coherence and quality.
Participants also reflect about Eurodesk in terms of quality and communication with several training workshops. Quality indicators and processes to measure the impact of Eurodesk network, as designed by the colleagues from the UK, were presented along with tools to provide information in a youth-friendly way and the case study “How to use these tools during Time To Move (TTM) activities”.
According to several reports from the Commission, and as YDCMA ORG experienced during the Eurodesk network meeting, youth engagement and awareness of EU policies and mobility opportunities are the common goals EU Youth Strategy and Eurodesk network. Both are continuously expanding and improving to reach it, so the future scenario can be only optimistic and inclusive. “Investing in young people means investing in the future of Europe” as Tibor Navracsics -EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport- stated.
Hopefully, everyone of us can play an active role in this challenge ahead.