Just a month before the General elections in Cyprus, the Young Democrats for Europe are glad to welcome its second Cypriot member organisation: Citizens’ Alliance Youth.
They will promote our democratic and pro-European values and ideas during this campaign.
Our organisation is now present in 8 countries thanks to its 10 member organisations.
We are also happy to welcome a new Board member from this organisation: Kyriacos.
The Young Democrats for Europe are glad to join the European Youth Forum family this weekend! This will be an important step towards our long-term development. Being the 101st member will allow us to take part more actively in the policy-making process involving young people at the European level.
We will also be able to cooperate with other European Non-Governmental Youth organisations and more especially political youth organisations such as JEF, LYMEC.
We will therefore be given the opportunity to develop and promote our positions on Youth empowerment, freedom of movement amongst other issues and work actively on strengthening democratic ideas and values in Europe, promoting and defending European citizens’ rights and freedoms, and fighting against populism in Europe.
This first IED/YDE Winter Academy Edition gathered in Brussels about 30 young centrists from all over Europe.
Speakers with various backgrounds and responsibilities participated in making this event interesting, lively and a general success. Amongst these speakers were François Pauli (deputy Secretary General of the ALDE Group), François Lafond (member of the Scientific Committee of the IED), Claude Rolin (Belgian MEP), Henri Malosse (Former EESC president), as well as young experts such as Marinella Davide, Wilhelm Bargum, Stepan Berko, Mihai Sebe, Jeremy Van Gorp, and Mathieu Baudier.
IED/YDE Winter Academy – Dec'15 – Beyond the gloomy present: y…
What do more than 30 young Centrists do just a week before Christmas? Reflect, exchange, learn and plan on a brighter future for Europeans and #Europe
Posted by Young Democrats for Europe (YDE) on Tuesday, 29 December 2015
The European Union is facing one massive challenge and all the participants agreed on it: the EU has nearly no budget and is facing great adversity and expectations both internally and externally. The EU’s Budget – 1% of the EU-28’s Gross National Income (just a little bit above Hungary’s GNI) – is far too small for 508 million Europeans. With 75% of its expenditure going to the Common Agricultural Policy and the Regional Cohesion Policy, there is very few left to tackle tremendous crises and challenges at a continent scale such as those currently faced by the EU.
We understand that we need more Europe where it is necessary to tackle those challenges. However, the current organisation of European institutions and the Eurosceptic climate in Europe is a break we, Democrats, will have to handle.
Improving our messages and how the EU is functioning are the only ways to tackle challenges such as youth unemployment, which is “a cancer for our societies”, as Claude Rolin explained. A dematerialised economy and politicians understanding what it means for someone to be unemployed for several months or years are one of the key issues Europe needs to address.
Our internal challenges should not make us forget about external challenges, those just happening at and within our borders. We need to rethink the way we approach the Eastern partnership considering the current and the potential future geopolitical situation. We need to support Democrats where they are, battling for a better, independent, society, just like in Ukraine.
No practical solution can be found without values. Solidarity was exuding from our different talks. Solidarity between citizens after the recent terrorist attacks, solidarity with smaller countries threatened by climate change, solidarity with youngsters who thrive to integrate, solidarity between Member States in tackling the refugees’ crisis.
It is crystal-clear that European Union members have not found the answer yet to handle the refugees’ crisis following a truly humanist path regarding refugees and migrants; nor in a fair way for Member States such as Greece, Italy or Spain which have been asked to handle on their own a region-wide situation, or Germany and Sweden showing solidarity for all others. Fighting opposition one by one is the best way to fail and fall one by one.
While the present does look gloomy, it is not too late to avoid more deadlocks. But solutions will not happen without everyone’s contribution and it is about time to roll up our sleeves.
Special thanks to Eimys Ortiz and Mathieu Camescasse for making it happen.
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This 2015 edition of ALDE Group’s Summer Academy aims at explaining what the parliamentarian group represents and discussing solutions to get our continent growing and youth working. It will be an occasion to understand how the ALDE Group’s galaxy works for us: the parliamentarian group, its two European political parties (EDP and ALDE party), their political foundations (IED and ELF), their youth organisations, as well as the group at the Committee of the Regions.
We want to be given the tools to understand and confront the problem that most affect our generation: unemployment. For that youths will approach issues such as brain drain, mobility, free trade, entrepreneurship and apprenticeship. During these two days of intensive work, young Liberals and Democrats will gather in Brussels to work and network for a Europe that works for young people!
Democrat speakers will attend this event, amongst them: Marian Harkin, Jean Arthuis, Jean Marie Beaupuy, François Lafond.
Follow us during the Summer Academy on Twitter: #Youth4Europe
The 1st Summer Academy was organised in 2007. This event brings together more than 100 liberal and democrat youths from all over Europe as well as from Macedonia, Russia, Ukraine, San Marino and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Academy provides a unique opportunity for the young people to come together, to listen to and discuss with Members of the European Parliament, representatives from EU Institutions and experts in the area related to the topic of the Academy.
More details here
Access to a free digital network is essential. All data should be treated on the Internet equally and not discriminated or charged differentially by user, content or mode of communication. We sign the Youth4NetNeutrality manifesto to guarantee freedom of speech, safeguard equality and open internet principles.
For the first time in history, the youth of Europe is united from conservative to progressive, from left to right, from North to South and from East to West to stand up together for an issue that we deeply care about.
We stand up for the open internet. An internet without censorship. An internet where all data is treated equally. An internet without network discrimination. An internet without anti-competitive agreements.
As youth of Europe, we therefore call upon the Council of the European Union to preserve network neutrality in the Telecoms Single Market Regulation proposal as drafted by the European Parliament. We strongly urge the Council to define net neutrality clearly – and without any loopholes – in order to safeguard equality, facilitate fair competition and foster innovation.
Find more about the initiative here
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