Spring Academy in Lanzarote, Canary Islands

10/03/2023 – YDE attended the event in cooperation with IED

On March 10th 2023, in cooperation with the Institute of European Democrats (IED), Young Democrats for Europe (YDE) organized a gathering of young Europeans. The Academy took place at Lanzarote, a magnificent island in the Canary Islands. Lanzarote welcomed 24 young people from all over Europe including President and Secretary General of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC).

The Academy started with an opening speech of Mikel Burzako, Director of Institute of European Democrats followed with the speech of YDE spokesperson Sergio Soares (JFW) who shortly introduced our attendees to YDE, its history, mission and vision.
Participants held a minute of silence for the victims of a tragic shooting in Hamburg that happened a night before the Academy.

The first presentation on the topic Erasmus and Youth Mobility was held by Iñigo Arbiol from Department of International Relations and Humanities of the University of Deusto. He presented the advantages and disadvantages of the Erasmus program and how the program could be improved.

Presentation was followed by a workshop on implementing local policies in the agenda of European Union. Participants were divided into five working groups with the task to discuss local projects they think could be useful to implement on the EU level. Afterwards, each group had to present and shortly explain their conclusions to the rest of the participants.

Second presentation on the topic Gender Equality and Social Cohesion within the EU was held by David Gutzeit, Chairperson of the Freie Wähler Youth. Presentation was followed by a short and productive workshop on the topic. Each of the five groups discussed a different aspect of gender equality such as gender pay gap, gender equality and career, gender equality and climate change and gender equality and education.

To conclude our Academy, Gabi Schmidt, Deputy Federal Chairwoman of the Freie Wähler Party and Vice president of IED made closing remarks encouraging young people to be involved and take action because they are the future of European Union.

After the long but productive day, participants enjoyed the EDP sponsored dinner where they could exchange information about their different countries and cultures while strengthen bonds between each other and at the end realizing what it really means to be European.

Many thanks to all the participants for attending, see you next time!

4th Summit of Young Elected Local and Regional Leaders

Following on from the success of the previous Summits of Young Elected Local and Regional Leaders that took place in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Renew Europe CoR group have yet again teamed up with European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) and Young Democrats for Europe (YDE) to organise a fourth in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the event will take place online.

When?

25 September 2020

Where?

Online

Why?

To provide an opportunity for young liberal democrat local and regional elected leaders to meet and share ideas and best practice amongst themselves.

Who?

You are encouraged to apply if: 1) you are between 18 and 35; 2) you hold an elected mandate at local or regional level; and 3) you hold a position of responsibility either in government or in opposition.

How?

Apply by filling an online form.

3rd Summit of Young Elected Local and Regional Leaders

Last year, twenty young elected local democrat and liberal leaders from twelve different countries debated how to address the issue of climate change at local and regional level and also how can leadership be shown to achieve climate action. You can see the highlights from the 2nd summit which took place in 2018 here.

Therefore following on from the success of its Liberal Mayors Summits, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Committee of the Regions (ALDE-CoR) together with LYMEC and YDE yet again teamed up to organise a 3rd Summit of Young Elected Local and Regional Leaders in 2019: in Brussels on the 20th of September.

 

When?

20 September 2019

Where?

Brussels, European Committee of the Regions

Why?

To provide an opportunity for young democrat and liberal local and regional politicians to meet and share ideas and best practice amongst themselves, and afterwards to meet with experienced local and regional politicians in a joint meeting with ALDE-CoR.

Who?

Young (18-35) local and regional politicians with an elected mandate and having a responsibility either in government or in opposition are encouraged to apply.

How?

Apply by filling an online form. When applying please indicate your elected mandate, your current position of responsibility in government or opposition, the dates these began, and your policy interests under comments. Places are limited and selection will be carried out by ALDE-CoR based on experience, and with a view to ensuring geographical, policy and gender balance. The full agenda and confirmations will be sent in August.
Deadline for applications is 19 July.
Travel arrangements and accommodation will be organized by ALDE-CoR.

Resolution on democracy (YDE Congress 2018)

The national interests often take over the common European ones, leading to a lack of unity and commitment to a solid and shared supranational Project.
Additionally, Democracy, Human Rights and legality, which we consider as the main assets of the European Union, have been violated in recent years.
Therefore, sovereignty has become one of the main issues to be addressed, understanding it as the right of the citizens to decide their own future and political, economic and social destiny. Indeed, the concept of sovereignty must be approached in conjunction with the notion of democracy. We cannot accept that citizens still have no access to sovereignty in a society that demands greater political and social participation. We strongly oppose any model of governance that prevents citizens from taking an active role in it.
In this sense, Young Democrats for Europe stand for shared sovereignty between the European Union and citizens in a multilevel governance framework. In fact, Democracy being a main pillar of the legitimacy of the European project and, therefore, Young Democrats for Europe show their fierce commitment towards the democratic values of the EU: equality, inclusion, diversity, cohesion, tolerance and respect.

Resolution on Identity, Culture and Education (YDE Congress 2018)

Strengthening European values and shared identity through culture and education

We, Young Democrats for Europe, see growing populist movements and Euroscepticism as a threat to European values and democratic societies. We consider the best way to address those challenges is through Education and Culture to improve open mindedness and develop multicultural comprehension.

Strengthen European shared identity

Our modern European societies are the result of a common history and not the result of a sum of single national narratives, we feel it is necessary for young Europeans to become aware of this reality. And what places would be more appropriate than schools to ensure a historical transmission and a citizen awakening?

Inexpensive and symbolic, history textbooks co-constructed between European countries may be an appropriate response. Recognizing the specificities of each culture, this manual may develop a transnational perspective of the relations between countries in order to propose a common and enriched History to high school students who could then better understand each national vision.

Now in a context of renewed internal tensions on the continent and in the face of the emergence of populist political forces, it is more necessary than ever to carry out this project.

In line with school education, Europe Day must be a crucial moment in the education of young Europeans. We propose to make this Day special in European schools in particular with special events on European History and values.

Improve mobility across Europe

Geographic mobility rates within EU countries and between EU countries are around one percent, which is twice lower than mobility rates in the US, Canada or Australia.

We know however that geographical mobility can be a powerful tool to fight youth unemployment and reinforce the European cohesion. We should also notice that today young people moving to another EU countries are rather well-educated and come from wealthy origins, which are less likely to suffer from long unemployment periods. Our challenge is therefore to develop geographical mobility for all young Europeans.

In past decades, Europe launched several programs to ensure Young Europeans are able to get education or work experience abroad. Former Leonardo program, current Erasmus+ and Comenius actions managed to increase awareness on intra-European
mobility for a short period of time, and lowered barriers to move abroad to study or work. But more should be done.

We advocate for new initiatives to be launched Europe-wide. We aim first at increasing support from the Erasmus program to associations. Young Europeans are engaged in many associations to lead and carry out projects in different fields from sport to poverty mitigation. Those young leaders should benefit more from EU action to foster youth commitment across the continent.

Second, we would like to set a common framework for secondary school’s final exam in order to initiate convergence in Europe for access to higher education and professional education.

Third, we think time has come to launch a renewal of the so-called “European classes” initiated by public authorities. More Europeans should take part in such classes and spend a semester in another European country before they turn 18.

Build a common cultural policy for young people

Since 1992, culture is a European competence. It is therefore very important in the process of European construction: it makes it possible to think of it as a global project and not only as the addition of national perspectives. Art and culture have a prominent role to increase the sense of belonging to a community, and ensure social integration, economic development, equity and inclusion. That’s why it makes sense to promote it at the European scale.

It is necessary to make culture accessible for as many people as possible. For that, on one hand, it could be interesting to connect territories in which culture is not always accessible.

First, like the European capitals of culture in terms of selection, we could imagine traveling exhibitions from the largest European museums in medium-sized city areas that do not have internationally known museums and thus give a new impetus to the local artistic community.

In parallel, long-term partnerships can also be created between different urban areas and more rural ones, thus bringing internationally renowned artists to areas that would otherwise not have had access to that, and reciprocally publicizing works that would not have been otherwise. For this, an European impulse would be relevant.

On the other hand, we have to admit that Eurovision is currently the only time of the year when Europeans find themselves side by side around their television. That is why we could imagine the creation of a European media dedicated to youth, which would raise awareness of our common membership while showing the richness of the diversity of our different nations.

Finally, a third proposal could be the creation of a European “culture voucher” that could be distributed to 18-year-olds through a system of partnerships with different cultural institutes allowing them to access a cultural offer for free. This would promote access to cultural practices of various kinds for all young Europeans: opera, theater, but also cinema and concerts.

These three proposals are therefore intended to raise the European public’s awareness of culture, even outside large urban areas, and also to sensitize the youth to the awareness of the richness that exists within the European Union.

Young Democrats for Europe (YDE)
Jeunes Democrates Europeens (JDE)
YDE is the youth wing of the European Party.We embrace the key role of democratic principles, underlined in the Lisbon Treaty and shrined in our political belief: democracy, freedom, equality, participation, sustainability and solidarity.

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