The opening of the Youth Event on June 2nd, 2009.
A three-day conference bringing together young people from all Member States, candidate and EFTA countries, the Youth Event, started today in Prague. This conference is one of the largest meetings of young people actively involved in voluntary activities on European level and is officially placed on the agenda of the Czech Presidency of the EU Council.
The participants were officially welcomed at the plenary session by Miroslava Kopicová, Czech
Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Aleš Sedláček, President of the Czech Council of Children
and Youth, Markus Köhler, HR Manager of Microsoft Czech Republic and Tine Radinja,
President of the European Youth Forum.
In her opening speech, Minister Kopicová said: “I believe that, particularly now during the
economic downturn, voluntary activities deserve our attention, as they contribute in a major way to social inclusion
and solidarity.”
The aim of the Youth Event is to finalise the evaluation of the Framework of Cooperation in the Field of Youth and to
trigger a discussion on topics to be included in the new framework, which should be adopted during the Swedish
Presidency in the second half of 2009. The evaluation of the Framework of Cooperation, introduced by the White Paper
on Youth in November 2001, was one of the priorities of the Czech Presidency and was finalised by the adoption of the
conclusions of the Council of
Ministers for Education, Youth and Culture on 11 May 2009.
After the plenary session the participants chose one of five workshops covering the following topics:
- Volunteering and education
- Better understanding of youth, youth work and research
- Information and participation
- Competitiveness, employment, entrepreneurship and fostering talents
- Social inclusion, health and sport
Each workshop is run by experienced facilitators with background in non-formal education. In addition, the inputs,
ideas and proposals are collected by rapporteurs to be ready for presentation in the final plenary session and
ensuing follow-up. The final plenary session will then familiarise all the participants with the work done within the
individual workshops and propose a strategy.
As a part of the sharing of good practices the participants will have the opportunity to participate in the opening
session of the youth festival called Bambiriáda. It is an annual four-day festival showing leisure
activities in the Czech Republic. Its aim is to show the important role of the youth organisations, youth volunteers
and leisure time centres to the public.
More information: www.ye2009.cz
Spokesperson for the MEYS for CZPRES
tel.: +420 257 193 426
fax: +420 257 193 753
e-mail: tomas.bouska@msmt
cz
