The Bulgarian EU presidency has disappointed the youth of the EU – 2024-07-31 03:22:30

/ world today news/ Representatives of the European Youth Forum are outraged by the superficial organization, bad management and inappropriate behavior of government officials at a forum in Sofia

At the European Youth Conference, organized by the Bulgarian EU Presidency in Sofia from April 17 to 19, young people and politicians met to discuss how to improve the lives of young Europeans. This is the most important event of the sixth cycle of the Structural Dialogue with young people. At these youth conferences, which take place under each EU presidency, selected young people together with representatives of national governments and the EC discuss youth-related issues and draw up conclusions which are then submitted to the Council of Ministers – a way to ensure that that young people can participate in shaping the policies that affect their lives.

“The future of young people in Europe is one of the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU,” reads the official website of the presidency. But according to Luis Alvarado, who is the chairman of the European Youth Forum, what happened in Sofia “was far from this reality, destroying the work of generations before us and without paying attention to young people”. “This conference was an example of what youth participation is not. Europe is a global example and an inspiration to the rest of the world of what is possible when it comes to empowering young people. We achieved it the hard way. And this conference undermined and put in danger all this,” says Alvarado. “There were no youth and elected European representatives in any of the debate panels during the conference… Is this how they understand the struggle to empower young people?” he asks. The European Youth Forum says that there were “many UN officials” at the conference who “of course are always welcome for inter-institutional coordination”, but according to Alvarado “they are not involved in the Structural Dialogue, the EU’s policies on of youth” and the currently discussed new EU youth strategy and in the negotiations on the Erasmus + program budget.

Luis Alvarado also cited state representatives from other member states who said the presence of the UN was not appropriate at an EU conference and that governments, academics and youth leaders were disappointed by Bulgaria’s EU presidency. He points to problems in the organization of the conference and claims that the Bulgarian presidency wanted to change every process that was used in similar events held in the past. “The purpose of these conferences is to support disadvantaged youth groups. A key tool for achieving this is to ensure that they do not have to pay out of pocket to participate,” he added. Alvarado explains that for the first time in the history of this process, young people had to buy their own tickets – in the past this was done by national governments, as these costs were covered by EC funds. Every six months, the EC provides the host country with funds for the organization of the youth conferences. “Why was it different this time? There were young people who could barely afford the ticket… It’s a practical detail, but it shows how ‘seriously’ young people are taken,” he added.

Free alcohol, half naked women

Alvarado complained that free hard alcohol was offered during the conference and that because of the drinks, some of the delegates were unable to participate in the work session the next morning. More shocking, however, was that despite the debate on gender equality and the empowerment of young women, a party took place in the evening where “semi-naked” women danced on the tables. He described this as “unacceptable” and “a clear sign of the patriarchal stereotypes that are encouraged in our union”. This embarrassed many youth leaders and government officials. “It is outrageous that the public funds of the EU are spent in this way. This is not the EU that the young people I represent are fighting for,” he believes.

The European Commissioner responsible for youth was very busy

The chairman of the European Youth Forum also notes that the European Commissioner responsible for education, culture, youth and sports, Tibor Navracic, left after the end of his speech without listening to the young people’s recommendations. “We expected that he would take into account our recommendations regarding the developing EU Youth Strategy. Commissioner Navracic should understand that young people in Europe expect much more from him. We expect the new EU youth goals to be reflected in the next Youth Strategy EU for youth. It must be ambitious and propose an increase in the Erasmus+ program budget instruments, as we requested during our Erasmus x 10 campaign. It is sad that the Member States are more ambitious than the EU institutions , when it comes to increasing the budget of the most successful EU program in history”. Alvarado notes that young people were disappointed by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who, according to them, in his speech urged them not to forget their first natural duty to reproduce and gave the example of a German minister who has 7 children. Alvarado says that after the conference, Bulgarian government officials slandered young people on social media who “dared” to criticize the organization of the conference. “They realized their mistake and started deleting their posts,” he added. Asked for a comment by “YurActiv”, Raicho Raichev, deputy chairman of the Bulgarian Youth Council, confirmed Alvarado’s words about the lack of youth participation in the panels and added that there were debates without any interaction between the participants. He also complained that the issue of plane tickets made it difficult for some participants to enter.

Applause for Borisov

“It is very important to emphasize that the ministry forced the volunteers to stand up and applaud after the prime minister’s speech, and in addition, some of the participants were given questions about the civil dialogue with the commissioner beforehand,” said Raichev. He noted that the Bulgarian Youth Council faces the same attitude from the government in its daily work. The Bulgarian Ministry of Youth and Sports did not allow them to participate in planning, joint management and evaluation during the presidency. “Deaf people participated in the event, but all the time they were not provided with an accessible and inclusive environment. While the process of approving the decisions was going on until 03.00 in the morning and the representatives of Estonia and Austria were working hard, the representatives of the ministry were at the party in a club with dancers . I can say that the ministry has found a good way to promote the youth goal of gender equality,” he said wryly.

The position of the Bulgarian government

“YurActiv” contacted the permanent representation of Bulgaria in the EU for a comment. Regarding the absence of young people in the panels, the spokesperson Elitsa Zlateva emphasized that the European Youth Goals, which are the main result of the conference, were prepared by 11 working groups consisting of young people and representatives of the state authorities responsible for youth policies in the EU. The Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries. “The chairman of the National Youth Forum of Bulgaria and the chairman of the European Youth Forum actively participated in the whole process,” she added. “On the first day of the conference, a youth representative was included as a participant at the highest level in the discussion panel together with representatives of the European Commission, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the United Nations,” adds Zlateva. Regarding the plane tickets, she commented that there is no mandatory procedure that must be followed. “In order to give greater flexibility to the young delegates, the presidency decided to follow the model of refunding the money spent,” explained Zlateva.

“Beyond the strict EU format”

The Bulgarian Presidency created an “ambitious agenda” in the field of youth and decided to pay special attention to cross-sectoral issues related to the priority “Youth and the World” in the European Youth Strategy,” she said. “In accordance with Resolution 2250 of the Security Council of UN, one of the elements that will be included in the draft conclusions of the Council on Youth Affairs will be related to the role of young people in building a harmonious and peaceful society in Europe. With this aim in mind, the EU Council Working Group on Youth has created a unique cross-sectoral partnership with the UN Council Working Group and the initiative has been highly welcomed”. The young participants in the conference “suspect that there are personal motives behind the UN focus”. “Structured dialogue is a positive and powerful tool for young people to participate in policy-making at the EU level. Although it is far from perfect and in need of reform, it is unique and must be protected from public officials who try to use it for personal gain, undermining the efforts of an entire generation,” commented Luis Alvarado.

Photo: Alvarado’s Twitter account The chairman of the European Youth Forum, Luis Alvarado, spoke to the delegates in Sofia. He expressed great disappointment with the organization of the conference.

Photo: Alvarado’s Twitter account. Luis Alvarado with French President Emmanuel Macron, who attended an event at the European Youth Forum in November this year.