What organisations, bodies or places allow us to get in touch with Europe as protagonists? European Youth Capital (EYC) is the name that the Youth Forum Jeuness (YFJ) gives every year to a European town. It is a sort of relational study of European values in a number of fields: culture, knowledge and social development. The town works together with youths in order to feed innovative ideas and projects. The first European Youth Capital was Rotterdam in 2009. After Turin and Antwerp, in the European Year of Solidarity between Generations, Braga, in Portugal, picks up the baton.
The EYC initiative supports the implementation of a number of innovative projects and ideas aimed at boosting the direct participation of young people in the society and developing new youth policies in different European places, towns and areas. In order to make the best use of such an opportunity, the association RUM (Radio Universitaria do Minho – Braga) has launched the project Europa Viva with the aim of contributing to the development of the activities that will take place in Braga for the celebration of the EYC. It counts on a network of fourteen partners in seven different countries (Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Turkey and Italy). Europa Viva aims at:
- feeding discussion and active participation;
- improving the knowledge of both Europe and European policies among youths;
- promoting the dialogue among European youths;
- promoting intercultural learning;
- promoting active citizenship.
These partners and goals are in part similar to those of a network of European regions created five years ago and which, with the recent ratification of the Region of Emilia Romagna, is preparing to a two-year period of promotion of youth policies in a context that is certainly complex but full of expectations. As for the international cooperation for youth policies, the European Regions for Youth (ERY) is at the centre of a protocol of agreement among the Region of Emilia Romagna and the European regions of Aquitaine (F), Dolnoslaskie (PL), Ghawdex (Malta), Hessen (D), Pays de la Loire (F), Generalitat Valenciana (E), Vastra Gotaland (SW), Wales (UK), Wielkopolska (PL).
There exist, therefore, three international working groups that constantly deal with three networks of regions having different goals but a common purpose, that of directly involving and listening to young people. In this context, it is easy to wonder, will the ERY be able to support new projects and promote both the mobility and the democratic inclusion of youths? Will the European Youth Capital be a turning point, an actual possibility of action? Will the European Year of solidarity between generations represent a real qualitative leap? In the light of the economic crisis we are now experiencing, such questions suggest us to re-start from the dialogue to depict a new future. Thus, it is important to discuss, implement new projects, create good rela(c)tions in Braga as well in Bologna or in Brussels. This is the only way we have to give Europe a living, vibrating, social fabric.
On the inside: