Tag: Brussels

Beyond the gloomy present: your Democratic impulse! – IED/YDE Winter Academy

This first IED/YDE Winter Academy Edition gathered in Brussels about 30 young centrists from all over Europe.

Speakers with various backgrounds and responsibilities participated in making this event interesting, lively and a general success. Amongst these speakers were François Pauli (deputy Secretary General of the ALDE Group), François Lafond (member of the Scientific Committee of the IED), Claude Rolin (Belgian MEP), Henri Malosse (Former EESC president), as well as young experts such as Marinella Davide, Wilhelm Bargum, Stepan Berko, Mihai Sebe, Jeremy Van Gorp, and Mathieu Baudier.

IED/YDE Winter Academy – Dec'15 – Beyond the gloomy present: y…

What do more than 30 young Centrists do just a week before Christmas? Reflect, exchange, learn and plan on a brighter future for Europeans and #Europe

Posted by Young Democrats for Europe (YDE) on Tuesday, 29 December 2015

The European Union is facing one massive challenge and all the participants agreed on it: the EU has nearly no budget and is facing great adversity and expectations both internally and externally. The EU’s Budget – 1% of the EU-28’s Gross National Income (just a little bit above Hungary’s GNI) – is far too small for 508 million Europeans. With 75% of its expenditure going to the Common Agricultural Policy and the Regional Cohesion Policy, there is very few left to tackle tremendous crises and challenges at a continent scale such as those currently faced by the EU.

We understand that we need more Europe where it is necessary to tackle those challenges. However, the current organisation of European institutions and the Eurosceptic climate in Europe is a break we, Democrats, will have to handle.

Improving our messages and how the EU is functioning are the only ways to tackle challenges such as youth unemployment, which is “a cancer for our societies”, as Claude Rolin explained. A dematerialised economy and politicians understanding what it means for someone to be unemployed for several months or years are one of the key issues Europe needs to address.

Our internal challenges should not make us forget about external challenges, those just happening at and within our borders. We need to rethink the way we approach the Eastern partnership considering the current and the potential future geopolitical situation. We need to support Democrats where they are, battling for a better, independent, society, just like in Ukraine.

No practical solution can be found without values. Solidarity was exuding from our different talks. Solidarity between citizens after the recent terrorist attacks, solidarity with smaller countries threatened by climate change, solidarity with youngsters who thrive to integrate, solidarity between Member States in tackling the refugees’ crisis.

It is crystal-clear that European Union members have not found the answer yet to handle the refugees’ crisis following a truly humanist path regarding refugees and migrants; nor in a fair way for Member States such as Greece, Italy or Spain which have been asked to handle on their own a region-wide situation, or Germany and Sweden showing solidarity for all others. Fighting opposition one by one is the best way to fail and fall one by one.

While the present does look gloomy, it is not too late to avoid more deadlocks. But solutions will not happen without everyone’s contribution and it is about time to roll up our sleeves.

Special thanks to Eimys Ortiz and Mathieu Camescasse for making it happen.

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Also available in German, Basque and Spanish

YDE
News

Europe is a political project

The VI EDP Congress, held in Brussels, has just concluded after two days of discussion. More than 100 delegates, coming from 17 different countries have attended. The Congress took place during a signifying period for Europe and Italy.

With regards to Italy, the previous days had been marked by a controversy between Italian and German governments about the Italian debt; controversy arisen from the words of Angela MERKEL against Italian policies about debt reduction animating the last few weeks of the Italian semester.
Regarding the Italian presidency of EU Council semester, Matteo RENZI said that “we faced a big challenge: to find the soul of the EU and to find the deep sense of European togetherness” and “this challenge inevitably affected our results”. Indeed, the Italian presidency results seem below our expectations – as Matteo RENZI admits – but in consideration of the hard troubles we had to tackle, we still managed to achieve important results such as the review of tax policies and a better coordination among member states. Anyway, these achievements have not been perceived by the population: Europe is still identified as foreign institution.
At present time, the quotation of a former President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio CIAMPI, is still topical: he defined Europe mainly “a political project”.

For such reasons, we must be aware that EDP role is very important: a crucial role because we – as EDP members – are concrete politicians and we have tried, even during our conference, to bring a human dimension to EU policy and policies. Our way to be politicians is intended not just as “muscle power show”, but mainly as the courage to suggest the right solutions, even if they could be difficult to understand at a first sight. We really believe that such behaviour will bring European people closer to our party.

On November 23rd, local elections in Calabria marked an amazing achievement for us, by electing Flora SCULCO, a young woman who joined the EDP project, as Congress delegate and Calabria MRP. During her electoral campaign, we talked a lot about European Institution and about all the issues we recently discussed in Brussels EDP Congress: economic growth and employment recovery, fiscal convergence, common foreign policy, immigration and fight against human trafficking. We have the proof that such topics are not unrealistic and they stimulate the debate among people and between our party and people.

In conclusion, a short hint about a crucial theme, the sustainable development. Lima’s summit (COP20), the environmental summit preparatory to Paris Conference, has just ended without gaining significant results, nevertheless reaching some progress in the fight against climate change that, we all know, represents a real challenge for the future.
The Young Democrats for Europe (YDE) will surely engage with passion these challenging issues. Together we can realize the project of Europe as a political union.

By Laura Venneri

YDE
News

A busy December for the European Democrats

 

6ème Congrès du PDE

Following the 2014 European elections, the EDP held its Congress in Brussels on the 10th and 11th of December. Delegates from our organisation attended the Congress and we also organised a Board and Council meeting.

 

Concluding the first 3 months of the new Board team, these meetings were an occasion to end the preparations of our 2015 initiatives and actions. These two days were also a warm gathering of Democrats during this festive period. With more than 80 delegates coming from 17 countries, the EDP adopted a motion supported by the Young Democrats for Europe on the importance of having a Democrat political family and cooperating with Liberals in Europe.

Our president Miroslava took the floor during the EDP Congress:

“This is not the first time I get the floor at a EDP meeting but today I am honoured to speak as the newly elected president of the Youth of the EDP and therefore to be the voice of all our members. I would like to underline some changes I think are the most important within our youth organisation:

  • the first milestone was the third congress of our organisation in September in Bilbao. I want to thank our Basque organisation, EGI, as well as the Basque national party. This was crucial and helped us to move toward a renewal: a new 10-member Board was elected with me as President and Mathieu Camescasse as Secretary General, new youth organisations were welcomed – our friends from National forum and UDI – as well as individual members. Our internal problems solved, we could now start anew on an improved and stronger footing and help you.
  • Today we also held our third Board meeting. These regular meetings allow me drawing up new policies. Being exemplary is our objective and I am therefore happy to announce that we have adopted a new Code of Ethics. We want to assure you, as well as everybody, we will work to be an example, to share our common values and beliefs, and be responsible and accountable with regard to finances. We will spend public money wisely.
  • These sound bases allow us working on concrete projects, and on specific issues. One of our next challenges is to strengthen our cooperation and work effectively with the Institute of European democrats and the ALDE group. But more especially and first of all to be the pro-active youth organisation of the European Democratic Party and work closely with you, our MEPs, our MPs. We aim at bringing your work to Youths and European citizens. We will be pleased to work with your office and assistants.”

 

©Soazig de la Moissonniere

YDE
News

YDE Council – March’14 : European elections as a focus

YDE Council - March 2014

On 27.2-1.3.2014, delegations from Young Democrats for Europe met in Brussels and participated in the EDP Council. During this Council, the European elections manifesto was approved unanimously. This manifesto promotes a more united and stronger Europe. New members joined our party: 2 individual members from the German “Freie Wähler”.

This EDP event was an opportunity to gather EDP youths. A YDE council was therefore organised, in which we discussed our projects and our future strategy for the upcoming European elections. 

One of our projects is titled 10years for 10 countries within the European Union. The 1st of May will be the 10th anniversary of the biggest EU enlargement. Concerning this event, we have started to question youngsters from these countries to find out how they feel after 10 years in the European Union. This questionnaire is available in Slovak, Poland, Greek and English.

This is just the beginning: follow us and stay informed with our latest news, events and projects.

YDE
News

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