Following their Congress held in Paris on the 1st of October 2016, the Young Democrats for Europe elected a new board of ten members for a two years mandate led by: Antoine Carette as President, Vincent Delhomme as Secretary General, Begona Garteizaurrecoa as Spokesperson, and Bettina Schwarz as Treasurer.
Coming from more than 15 European countries, delegates and guests discussed the need to support a stronger involvement of citizens at the EU level and the potential consequences of Brexit on the European Union. Antoine Carette, newly elected president, pointed out that: “European elections should be humanised and transnational lists, that Guy VERHOFSTADT promotes, are key to achieve it”.
On this occasion, a new member organisation in Greece also joined the European Democrats’ Youth: the Union of Centrists’ Youth (Νεολαία Ένωσης Κεντρώων), whose party recently entered the Greek Parliament. The Young Democrats therefore counts eleven member organisations in nine European countries.
The Young Democrats for Europe is the youth wing of the European Democratic Party and one of the youth wings of the ALDE Group. The European Democratic Party is one of the European political party officially recognised by the European Parliament.
Founded in 2007, The Young Democrats for Europe primarily seek the establishment of a stronger and more integrated Europe and embrace the core values of the European Union: democracy, freedom, equality, participation, sustainability and solidarity. Their mission is also to foster greater political involvement of the European youth and raise awareness on the many problems it faces, such as access to higher education, mobility and unemployment.