Structured dialogue

On 27 November 2009 the Council of the European Union has adopted the Resolution on the Renewed Framework for European Cooperation in the Youth Field (2010-2018). This document requests for setting up a dialogue between young people and policy makers about the issues of European youth policy. Annex III. of the Resolution defines the implementation of the structured dialogue for the first 18 months under the Trio Presidency of Spain, Belgium and Hungary.

The structured dialogue with young people initiated by the European Union aims to involve young people in the discussion about the issues related to youth. The overarching priority of the Trio Presidency is the employment of young people, while each presidency country has indicated a priority theme that is tackled during the 6 months of the Presidency of the respective country.

The specific priorities of the Presidency Countries:
Spain: social inclusion
Belgium: youth work
Hungary: active participation, volunteering

Young people and their organizations can express their opinion about the overall  priority and the specific topics during the national consultation rounds related to each presidency semester. The first round of the national consultations took place between January and March 2010 under the Spanish Presidency. At this phase young people defined the most important issues related to youth employment focusing also on the theme of social inclusion.  Spanish Presidency organized an EU Youth Conference in Jerez on 13-15 April 2010. At this Conference young people and decision-makers defined together the most relevant topics at European level and closed the first round of the consultation process with drafting a Joint Conclusion. The results of the Spanish Conference served as a take-off for the Belgian Presidency which focused on the priority of youth work. At the Belgian EU Youth Conference on 2-4. October 2010 in Leuven young people and decision-makers drew up 40 recommendations in 8 themes. These recommendations provided the start of the third consultation round.

The third consultation round was based on prioritising the 40 recommendations of the Belgian Conference. The recommendations were reviewed by young people during the national consultations and they also expressed how the youth can contribute to the implementation of the recommendations. At the Conference in Hungary the participants completed the chosen recommendations with concrete actions based on the proposals coming from national levels. The outcome of the Conference served as a basis of a resolution to be adopted by the Council of the European Union about the main messages of the structured dialogue during the EU Presidency of Spain, Belgium and Hungary on youth employment.

Joint conclusions of the EU Youth Conference in Jerez
Joint recommendations of the EU Youth Conference in Leuven
Ourcomes of the EU Youth Conference in Budapest

Find out more:
The website of the European Youth Forum on Structured Dialogue