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Focus: European Developments
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EU Budget - Multiannual Financial Framework: Give your feedback!To prepare and negotiate the next EU Budget for the period 2021-2027, the European Commission published its proposals on the future budget of its various actions and invites stakeholders to provide feedback on the proposals.
In the youth and social field in particular, you can give your feedback on the following programmes!
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Future of Erasmus+: the Commission proposes to double the budgetOn 30 May, the European Commission published its proposal for the next Erasmus programme, with a doubling of the budget to 30 billion euros for the period 2021-2027.
The next programme ambitions to provide learning and mobility opportunities to 12 million people, in comparison to 4 million people in the current programme. It will continue to cover schools, vocational education and training, higher education and adult learning - youth and sport. The Commission announces a programme substantially strengthened, extended and more inclusive.
The overall budget would be allocated to the different strands of the programme as follows:
- EUR 24,9 billion to education and training, including EUR 8,6 billion to higher education (as compared to ca. EUR 11,4 billion and EUR 5 billion from 2014 to 2020)
- EUR 3,1 billion to youth (as compared to ca. EUR 1,47 billion from 2014 to 2020)
- EUR 550 million to sport (as compared to ca. EUR 266 million from 2014 to 2020)
For more information, please check here. |
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European Solidarity Corps – Final steps towards a legal basis! On 27 June, an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of EU Ministers was announced, after months of negotiations on the future legal basis for the European Solidarity Corps (ESC).
The proposal for the ESC was presented by the Commission in December 2016. The ESC builds mostly on the experience of the European Voluntary Service (EVS). During a first phase, the ESC – not a programme on its own yet - relied on 8 different EU-wide programmes such as the EVS. The Commission then proposed to make it an actual programme with its own legal basis, but disagreements between MEPs and EU ministers, responsible for adopting it, took longer than expected.
Their agreement now modifies the original Commission proposal. Nota Bene:
- The ESC will devote 90% of its resources to volunteering and solidarity projects and 10% for either traineeships and/or jobs, with a maximum of 20% set aside for in-country activities.
- The budget (€376.5 million) will be funded by 80% through redeployments and 20% through unallocated margins (“fresh money”): no additional funds will be deployed from Erasmus+.
- The ESC portal will continue to play a central role as a single entry point for young applicants and organisations.
- Solidarity activities will be possible both outside the country of residence and in the country of residence of the participants for three to twelve months.
- Particular emphasis will be put on inclusiveness and young people with fewer opportunities, for instance by allowing shorter placements.
Moreover, on 11 June 2018 the Commission tabled a further proposal for the ESC beyond 2020 with an increased budget of €1.26 billion and a target of at least 350.000 participants. |
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Towards a renewed EU Youth StrategyIn a Communication published in late May, the European Commission has proposed to renew the EU Youth Strategy for the period 2019-2027 with several modifications.
The Commission proposes some important novelties:
- A new EU Youth coordinator to channel voices of young people in the Commission itself, allowing young people to contribute to shaping EU policies and to strengthen the dialogue with young people, e.g. via the European Youth Portal and the EU Youth Strategy Platform,
- A renewed EU Youth Dialogue to take youth concerns better into account and ensure wider outreach, including through innovative formats;
- Tracking of EU spending for youth in main funding programmes;
- An agenda for youth work to further improve its quality, innovation and recognition and to allow other sectors to capitalise on the potential of non-formal learning;
- A clearer link between EU youth policy implementation and related programme activities in Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps.
For more details please check here. |
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YES Forum’s activities and members’ activities
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Save the Dates! Next YES Forum Events: PPM on 10-11 October and Policy Event between 19-22 NovemberDuring the second semester 2018, YES Forum will organise two main events, open to all its EEIG and Associate members, as well as to any interested organisations so … Save the Dates!
Project Planning Meeting in Groningen, Netherlands, on 10-11 October: Participants will share about their new project ideas, get a unique opportunity to find new partners, and the perfect setting to design their future project applications together! More information here.
Policy Event “YourEP – Why so serious? EU politics can be fun!” in Brussels between 19-22 November: The event will conclude our YourEP project, focused on using an extremely potent method for political education – a simulation of the European Parliament – to make it inclusive and accessible to youngsters facing any kind of difficulties and/or with no prior interest in the European Union.
Join us to discover our results, engage with our young participants and policy-makers, and discuss how such “political games” can contribute to bridging the gap between the European Union and youth! More information here. |
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YourEP – Simulation Accomplished! Strasbourg, 29 May - 3 JuneOn 29 May -3 June in Strasbourg, the YourEP Project held its simulation of the European Parliament involving all its participants, with a majority of young people experiencing one of their first trip abroad as well as their first Erasmus+ experience.
Designed for one year with the young participants themselves, the main objective was to make the simulation inclusive, accessible and as informal as possible for young people that are not familiar with the European Parliament.
And a bonus: our group could also take part in the European Youth Event 2018, and make the European Parliament their home for two additional days! For more information, you can check the full Report on our week in Strasbourg, or more pictures here! |
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Have your say! – YES Forum at the European Youth Event, 1-2 June, StrasbourgOn 1–2 June 2018, the European Youth Event took place in Strasbourg and YES Forum was on site with 35 young participants and youth workers!
Participants were free to choose their own activities (workshops, debates, conferences, etc) on their favourite subjects. The youngsters could make the European Parliament their home for 2 days, meet MEPs, and take part in the YO Fest, the European youth festival, to meet and exchange with European youth.
As an organization, our objective was to bring diversity at the #EYE2018 as most of the EYE participants are already engaged in European projects and where higher education students were over-represented in the last editions.
To go further, here you can find some short interviews of 3 of our participants, Elias, Laura and Giulia. And a lot more pictures here! |
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YES Forum’s own workshop at the #EYE2018!At the European Youth Event on 2nd June, YES Forum had the exceptional opportunity to organise its own workshop inside the European Parliament. Named „Why so serious? EU Politics can be fun!", the objective was to show - and discuss - how it is possible to teach (and learn!) about the European Union in fun ways.
Our participants could try several examples of such fun EU games, and discussed how these methods can be a solution to make EU awareness raising more attractive towards those who are not interested at first, as well as more inclusive and accessible as games are easier to take part in for youngsters with fewer opportunities!
We also discussed how these methods can be developed further, as well as how EU politicians can help to do so! Want some more details? Check here! |
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YES Forum marches forward! 2018 Annual Event & General Assembly, Athens, 14-15 JuneYES Forum, its members & partners held their Annual Event in Athens on 14-15 June to stay on course on helping European youngsters. The objective was also to discuss the future strategy to support the network’s growth and provide more and more European projects, and encourage young people.
That was also the perfect opportunity to celebrate new achievements, our expansion to broader horizons thanks to new partners and to welcome new members! Action Jeunesse Pessac (France) and Jong Goud Slochteren (Netherlands) joined the network: YES Forum members look forward working with them!
Check our Report and stay tuned for our next events! |
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“YeToVo!” In the starting blocks! Meeting in Athens, 13-15 JuneOn 13-15 June in Athens, the “YES to Volunteering!” Strategic EVS led by YES Forum held its 1st event.
The “YeToVo!” Strategic EVS is a new YES Forum project which will implement, with a total of 10 partners in 6 EU countries (for now!), 19 European Voluntary Services by mid-2020. The project will ensure accessibility to youngsters facing additional obstacles compared to their peers.
The 1st YeToVo meeting focused on providing space to the project partners for the exchange of experience and planning of the future EVS activities. 5 “newcomer” organisations are starting their involvement in the EVS field: they could benefit from the more experimented EVS partners’ experience.
The event also involved additional guests under the theme “Say YES to Volunteering!”. The objective was to provide more insight on EVS and volunteering in general not only to YeToVo partners themselves, but also to the whole YES Forum Network, to encourage more organisations in the youth and social field to get involved in volunteering.
For more information on the project or details on the event, have a look at the Project Webpage! And you can find all our pictures here. |
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H2020 PROMISE at the #EYE2018, the biggest youth event in Europe!With its partner YES Forum, the youth research project H2020 PROMISE joined thousands of young Europeans at the European Parliament in Strasbourg for the largest youth engagement opportunity this year in the EU: the European Youth Event 2018!
YES Forum used this unique gathering of young Europeans as an opportunity to discuss their social and political engagement, and to complement its partners' research on this matter. The exchanges with the young #EYE2018 participants, as well as a survey conducted on site by the YES Forum, will contribute to the work conducted by PROMISE researchers from the German Research Institute GESIS.
For more information, you can read this article, or have a look at the official PROMISE Website! |
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H2020 PROMISE at the YES Forum 2018 Annual Event, 14-15 June, Athens On 14-15 September, H2020 PROMISE was once again a prominent part of YES Forum’s latest youth engagement event, with its 2018 Annual Event organised in Athens.
During a session called “YES Forum’s New Horizons”, Alessia Mefalopoulos from the Italian Research Institute IPRS gave a presentation to young people and youth workers from the YES Forum network. She explained about the PROMISE project’s overall objectives, how it is showing that young people all over Europe are turning their conflict with authorities into positive social change, and illustrated the project’s progress by giving more details on a specific case study conducted by IPRS.
For more information about PROMISE, have a look on its official website! |
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Calls for Proposals, Conferences and Training
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Next Deadlines – Erasmus+ … and (tbc) European Solidarity Corps in October! The next deadline to apply for Erasmus+ projects this year is on 4 October. In the youth field in particular, the deadline applies to both KA1 “Mobility of individuals in the field of youth”, KA2 “Strategic partnerships in the field of youth” and KA3 “Meetings between young people and decision-makers in the field of youth”. More details here.
Moreover, the European Solidarity Corps is now expected to enter into force, as an actual programme, by October (cf. article in the 1st section). Volunteering Activities (formerly EVS) between Programme Countries are expected to move from Erasmus+ to the ESC for the next call, potentially in October. Stay tuned to make sure you don’t miss this opportunity! |
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Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme The REC (Rights, Equality and Citizenship) EU Programme offers several funding opportunities relevant for the youth & social fields.
The current relevant calls are, among others:
- Call for proposals to prevent and combat gender-based violence and violence against children (Deadline: 13 November)
- Call for proposals to support national or transnational projects on non-discrimination and Roma integration (Deadline: 9 October)
- Call for proposals to prevent and combat racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance (Deadline: 4 October)
For more information and to get a complete overview of open Calls under the REC Programme, please check here. |
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Public consultation on integration of long-term unemployed into the labour marketThe European Commission published a public consultation on the integration of long-term unemployed people in the labour market. The consultation is open until 31 July.
All citizens, organisations and public authorities are welcome to respond to this consultation. In particular, the consultation seeks to gather views from individual citizens, in their personal or professional capacity, civil society organisations working on the issue of long-term unemployment as well as social services providers, employers and public authorities at both national and local level.
For more information, check the consultation here. |
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Call: Network of experts on the social dimension of education and training The Directorate-General for Education and Culture opened a Call for tender to create a Network of experts on the social dimension of education and training.
The Network of experts will through its advice support the European Commission in the analysis of education and training policies and reforms, and of their implications. It will provide access to key knowledge and evidence from the most relevant European and international research on the social dimension of education and training. For more information, you can find all relevant documents here. |
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Your Vision for Europe – Social Platform surveyDuring the summer of 2018, Social Platform organises a survey among its members, including the YES Forum network!
In May 2019, we all are going to elect a new European Parliament. Social Platform wants to make sure that the voices of civil society organisations working in the social field are heard by the people who will represent us and who will be making laws and policies affecting all people across the EU for the next 5 years.
To help them and provide your own “Vision for Europe”, you can simply fill their survey here! |
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Liaisons - Toolkit for the prevention of violent extremism through youth information ‘Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate and hate leads to violence. This is the equation’. Ibn Rushd, Averroes
It is with this in mind that the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA) and its members created a toolkit with the aim of contributing to the prevention of violent extremism of young people through youth information. To learn about their advice and methods, have a look there! |
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