Tag: Human rights

YDE co-signs call for solutions to refugees’ integration and employment

Investing in solutions for refugees/migrants and creating quality jobs for young people

Young people across Europe have been deeply affected by the migration and refugee crisis and have often been the first to act to protect human life. Civil Society Organisations and Youth Organisations in particular have done their best to translate the goodwill of young people into adequate responses to the urgent needs of migrants and refugees at local and national levels. Young people, often working as volunteers, are helping to stem a humanitarian crisis in countries across Europe.

As the Commission launches proposals to deal with the refugee crisis today – we state that a European solution to the migration and refugee crisis focusing on solidarity and European values is urgently needed. Europe cannot and must not return to national borders.

Young people want to continue making their contribution to a European solution to this crisis, believing that such a solution will create more quality employment opportunities for young people, including refugees and migrants themselves.

We call for efforts to focus on the following:

  • Reception of refugees and migrants: To ensure that refugees and migrants are treated in a way that protects their rights, is in accordance with European values and creates jobs in Europe – EU borders should be in Europe and not outsourced to Turkey or other countries.
  • Humanitarian programmes to provide services and decent conditions for and with migrants and refugees. This must include tailor-made support for refugees and migrants.
  • Inclusion programmes to engage refugees and migrants in local communities. Young people and youth organisations are uniquely positioned to carry out this effort, given our open and welcoming attitude to refugees and migrants. Done well, these can create social integration and harmony – one example being citizenship education and peace education programmes that can facilitate exchanges regarding identity. These can also create many quality jobs for European young people, refugees and migrants themselves, including through skills and competences acquired through non-formal education programmes.

Concrete actions of youth organisations: 

  •  Don Bosco Youth-Net volunteers in Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria offer free language courses and sports/leisure activities to young refugees as a first step to the integration in the local community.
  • Scouts are providing tents, medical supplies, basic medical assistance, organising the collection of donations among the local population, preparing food according to the different religious beliefs and organising its distribution on a daily basis

Full statement can be downloaded here.

Signatories: Austrian Youth Council, European Liberal Youth, Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), Young European Socialists,  Don Bosco Youth-Net, European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL), World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), Young Democrats for Europe (YDE). Coordinated by European Youth Forum.

YDE
News Press Release

Europe cannot keep on remaining impassive to the Hungarian behaviour!

On September 21st, the Hungarian parliament adopted a new law regarding asylum seekers: the new law allows the police and the army to open fire on migrants in certain situations as long as the shots do not aim to kill. The legislation is the newest provocation from Orban’s government violating once more every single ideal and value that are the foundation of the European project. The EU, sadly, has been passive to the Orban’s government behaviour. We, as political youth organizations, cannot tolerate the violation of numerous statuses from the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. We turn to European leaders and urge them to take exemplary actions in a short term to not give the impression that they are sitting silent while more policies incompatible with our vision of Europe are passed through.

The EU’s lack of reaction to Orban’s policies sends the signal that different standards apply to Member States. How could we justify that the EU is strong in confronting a country that is not respecting financial obligations as it has been the case for Greece, while it remains silent when a Member State transgresses the fundamental values of our union? No matter what voting power or political affiliation it may have, a Member State that calls into question more than sixty years of European construction cannot act with impunity even by calling upon the principle of subsidiarity.

In this situation we demand/urge:

Mister Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the European Commission to state the violation of the Europe’s values by Hungary (art. 2 TEU) and to initiate a sanctioning procedure as stipulated in article 7 of the Treaty of the European Union.

European Heads of State or Government to reaffirm the fundamental values of the EU as written in the Treaties and take exemplary actions against State members that transgress them.

Mister Donald TUSK, President of the European Council to breach this subject during the next Summit. The issue is yet to be discussed and has not been mentioned up until now.

Mister Manfred WEBER, Chairman of the EPP group; Mister Gianni PITTELLA, President of the S&D group; Mister Syed KAMALL, Chairman of the ECR group; Mister Guy VERHOFSTADT, President of the ALDE group; Miss Rebecca HARMS and Mister Philippe LAMBERTS, co-Presidents of the Greens/ALE to tackle the subject in the European Parliament, to take note of the violation of the European values by Hungary (art.2 TEU) and to put pressure on the European Commission so it will react accordingly.

We would like to remind our deep commitment to keep the Hungarian people in the EU. We regret the isolation of the country caused by the Orban’s government policies which have lead to the erection of both political and physical fences such as those built at the Romanian, Serbian and Croatian borders. We also regard the EU as partly responsible for aggravating the situation by not creating a deeper integration and requirements of solidarity amongst the Member States.

Appeal signed by Young Democrats for Europe and two of our organisations : Jeunes Démocrates (France) and Euzko Gaztedi Indarra (Basque Country).

You can find the appeal here

YDE
News Press Release

Stop the European Refugee Crisis!

Over the past weeks and months the ongoing migrant crisis has considerably worsened: families jeopardizing their lives in order to escape persecution and war, bloody riots in Macedonia, overcrowded refugee camps in Greece, arson attacks in Germany, people suffocated to death in trucks on European motorways – to name just a few – have shocked public opinion. Political youth organisations in Europe are closely monitoring the latest developments expressing their deep concern. We want to take a stance against these deteriorating humanitarian conditions: the EU must act and needs to assume its historic responsibility in this process.

On September 1, the most intense phase of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU is going to begin and we expect concrete results regarding refugee and asylum policies from the Council of Ministers in charge of Justice and Home Affairs as well as from the European Council. Europe’s decision-makers must negotiate a coherent and lasting strategy and find sustainable answers to this humanitarian crisis.

Political youth organisations are making a plea for solidarity and appeal to Europe’s policy-makers to point the way: progressive values in Europe cannot cede to worldviews nurtured by intolerance, racism, fundamentalism and misogyny. Europe should shine as a beacon of hope for humane and progressive values. Refugees, faced with despair and peril, require all our support. We, the youth of Europe, do not intend to silently accept the suffering of people drowning, dying of thirst, suffocating or being killed in their struggle for a better life. We request sustainable solutions to solve the refugee crisis and we will monitor and hold the European leaders accountable for any further tragedies within or at the European borders.

Appeal co-signed by some Pan-European youth organisations : FYEG (Federation of Young European Greens), Jeunes Démocrates Européens, IUSY (International Union of Socialist Youth), LYMEC (European Liberal Youth), YES (Young European Socialists), YFJ (European Youth Forum), JEF (Young European Federalists); and more than 60 national youth organisations, amongst them some of our members: Jeunes Démocrates and UDI Jeunes (France), Alternativa Giovanile (San Marino), Mladi Europania/Young Europeans (Slovakia)

YDE
News Press Release

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