1. PRESENTATION The European Youth Forum:
Santa Ozolina
Policy Officer Employment and Social Affairs
26/11/2010, Brussels
The European Youth Forum:
working towards better chances for youth entrepreneurship
PRESENTATION

2. What is the European Youth Forum?
* The European Youth Forum (YFJ) is a European youth-platform independently established by youth organisations, it is made up of more than 90 National Youth Councils and International Non- Governmental Youth Organisations, which are federations of youth organisations in themselves.
* It brings together tens of millions of young people from all over Europe, organised in order to represent their common interests.
* Representation, internal democracy, independence, openness and inclusion are among the main principles for the functioning of the European Youth Forum and its Member Organisations.

3. YFJ Vision and Mission Our Vision
“To be the voice of young people in Europe, where young people are equal citizens and are encouraged and supported to achieve their fullest potential as global citizens.”
Our Mission
* To be an independent, democratic, youth-led platform, representing national youth councils and international youth organisations from across Europe.
* The Youth Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations.

4. Youth Organisations & Entrepreneurial skills
* Youth organisations as main providers of non-formal education for young people:
-personal development:
-active citizenship;
-various soft and interpersonal skills;
* Youth organisations as active catalyst of youth entrepreneurship:
-organising career days and workshops;
-organising internships and supporting creation of workplaces;
-organising and facilitating learning, internship and volunteering mobility;
-developing instruments for recognition of skills and competences;

5. YFJ Work on Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship: a strategic priority
* Youth employment has been a strategic priority for the Youth Forum - youth entrepreneurship is an indispensable part of it
* The youth employment and entrepreneurship issue became even more significant in due to the way in which young people in Europe were disproportionately affected by the Global Financial Crisis. With over 5 million people under the age of 25 unemployed in the EU27 by 2010
* Demands for better youth entrepreneurship opportunities are always present in the main YFJ policy, position and reaction papers, among them on internships, youth employment in crisis and a “youth guarantee”, reaction to Europe 2020 Strategy and its Flagship initiatives
* Strong advocacy towards these policy areas in Council of EU, Youth Intergroup in the European Parliament, European Commission and other insitutions

6. YFJ Work on Entrepreneurship: Youth Employment Action project
* YFJ member organisations that are particularly concerned about the employment of young people have started “Youth Employment Action” (YEA) project in order to strengthen, support & promote existing activities of youth organisations in improving the employment situation of young people in Europe(
* Youth Council of Slovakia set up Young Entrepreneurs Support Network to launch co-operation and an exchange of knowledge and experience
* AEGEE-Europe is carrying out Youth UnEmployment project, which aims at helping young people to increase their employability. Among the activities is setting up European School of Entrepreneurship to empower young people to set up their own enterprises
*Rural Youth Europe employment project focuses to increase youth employment through youth entrepreneurship, main activity “Think Globally, Act Locally” and the follow-up up activities

8. YFJ Work on Youth Entrepreneurship: Europe 2020 Strategy and beyond
*Closely following the process of Europe 2020 with regulars inputs, especially regarding Flagship Initiative “Youth on the Move”;
*Awareness raising among our members about Europe 2020, monitoring of the implementation process in Member States;
*Encouraging and strengthening youth employment projects among youth organisations (Youth Employment Action), working on the EU Structured Dialogue with Youth;
*Working to ensure that young people can participate in making decisions that are taken and are related to them; Most strands of Europe 2020 are highly relevant for young people, so we work on engaging youth in their formulation, implementation and evaluation not only on employment and entrepreneurship matters but also education training, poverty, health, sustainable development and others;

9. EU Structured Dialogue on Youth Employment: youth employment a priority for ES, BE, HU Presidencies
* On 27th November 2009, the Council of Ministers adopted the Resolution on the renewed framework for the European cooperation in the youth field ( ), which reinforced the EU Structured Dialogue with Youth and forms an integral and important part of the EU Youth Strategy;
* The Structured dialogue involves consultations with young people and youth organisations at all levels in the Member States, and at EU Youth Conferences organised by Presidency countries and during the European Youth Week.
* YFJ is currently chairing the Structured Dialogue European Steering Committee and therefore has a strong role in the design of the process
* The current Trio Presidencies decided that “Youth employment” will be the general topic during the 18 months aiming to identify and define priorities on youth employment to be further discussed at European and national level, come up with concrete actions to address the chosen priorities, and work on preparation of the political outcome.

10. EU Structured Dialogue priority: Entrepreneurship and self-employment of young people
Joint Conclusions of the Spanish EU Youth Conference (Spain April 2010) on entrepreneurship and self-employment of young people:
Priority 1: Entrepreneurship should be encouraged and all young people willing to become an entrepreneur should have equal opportunities to do it.
Priority 2: Procedures linked to entrepreneurship should be simplified.
Priority 3: Better information on entrepreneurship and support programmes is needed.
Priority 4: There is a need to support new ideas and provide access to loans and EU funding programmes.
Priority 5: There is a need for specific training and support in going through the complex procedures.
Joint Conclusions of the Belgian EU Youth Conference (Belgium 2-4 October 2010) on entrepreneurship:
*Member States and educational institutions should ensure that career-oriented training and guidance is integrated at all levels of education in preparation for career search, both for employment and entrepreneurship for all young people.
*EU and Member States should enable formal education curricula to promote and support creative thinking and entrepreneurial skills in young people.

11. Thank you. For more information: santa. ozolina@youthforum. org www
Thank you! For more information: