The Slovenian EU Presidency has pushed some things forward in relation to young people, youth policy and intercultural dialogue that are noteworthy for everyone dealing with European Citizenship.

The promotion of dialogue between cultures, beliefs and traditions in the context of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue is one of the main five programmatic priorities of the Slovenian EU Presidency; and Youth policy is part of the policy field Education, Culture and Youth, one of 10 policy areas the presidency has concentrated on.

«The voice of young people must not only be heard but also taken properly into consideration,»

said Zorko Škvor, the Slovenian Director-General for Youth, during a meeting with his 27 EU colleagues following the presidency’s youth event entitled

Promoting the Participation of Young People
with Fewer Opportunities in Society.

As reported here (for example), all actors in the youth policy field call for a fundamental change in youth policies, finally beginning to address the increasing poverty and unemployment of young people. According to the Slovenian presidency, youth unemployment has risen to more than 38% — that is 4.7 million young people without a job (source).

There is a summary of the youth event’s main conclusions here, the final declaration is online here and available as a document as well. The conclusions of the working groups can be found here (pdf), and a press release is here.

It goes without saying that the youth event has its own website, too, highlighting the aim to be the provision of

• a valuable opportunity for young people to meet and discuss the need to promote the participation of young people with fewer opportunities in the society

and pointing out the objectives of the youth event, namely

• to draw attention to the key challenges of the participation of young people with fewer opportunities in the society,
• to enrich structural dialogue with the European and national authorities responsible for youth,
• to develop conclusions which represent ideas, solutions and lines of action to ensure the participation of young people with fewer opportunities in the society, and
• to look at the role young people can have in the intercultural dialogue and to develop a contribution to the implementation of the European Year of Intercultural dialogue.

Quite excitingly, Orange — the event magazine of the European Youth Press — reported from the youth event, covering the different discussions around young people with fewer opportunities in relation to mobility, employment, non-formal education, integration and intercultural dialogue.

You are most welcome to read the articles and enjoy the gallery.

Need a little teaser? Here you go:

Head on over!

Last but not least we want to share with you that on 21 April 2008, five Members of the European Parliament tabled — following an initiative of the European Youth Forum — a written declaration

More youthful EU policies!

calling on the European Commission to take young people into account when developing policies that affect them, and to ensure that the main policy areas that affect young people are taken up in the dialogue between youth organisations and the European institutions.

More information on the declaration is available here.

All photos taken by Thomas Alboth and copyright Orangelog.