| | | Bulletin no. 39 - June 28th, 2002
ACC International programme office
· Launching Youth2002
· Experimental Constitution Community College
· Publications and articles
· Welcome to new members
· Coming opportunities
· Calendar and events
Launching Youth2002
New project gives young Europeans a voice in the EU debate
What implications does the EU enlargement have for the next generation of Europeans? What values should the united Europe build upon? And what are the most important challenges for EU in the future? These are some of the questions presently being discussed by 1000 young Europeans from 33 different countries. The 1000 young citizens participate in the Youth 2002 that altogether is one of the most extensive attempts so far to give young Europeans a voice in the EU-debate. The initiatives begins on July 1st with a common programme for all the 1000 participants in Copenhagen and continues for the coming two weeks at 13 different folk high schools all over Denmark in order to reach a concrete result: A common proposal for a future European Constitution.
An alternative European Convention
Unlike the Convention, the participants in Youth 2002 represent a new voice in the debate. They are not established politicians or specially appointed youth politicians, they are young people - 18 to 25 years old, mostly students from the present EU countries, the candidate countries and the Balkan, who above all share an interest in the future of Europe.
The Copenhagen event
1000 participants meet in Copenhagen on 30 June for The Youth 2002 Copenhagen Event. The events will first be taking place at the City hall where the Mayor will be welcoming the young Europeans and be the host for a meeting between the young people and a number of established Danish and European politicians. After that there will be a party in Tivoli Gardens organised by Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd (Danish Youth Council) called 'Party of Diversity'. ' The artist Bjørn Nørgaard has made a special poster for the project, and the 1000 participants will be wearing a t-shirt with the same motive.
Two weeks at 12 folk high schools
The main part of the Youth 2002 meeting in Denmark takes place at 13 folk high schools all over the country. Here the participants are to work intensively with the central question: If we are to have a joint European constitution, what do we want it to include? That the folk high schools are the hosts for the participants' work on this controversial question is no coincidence. The folk high schools master to create a common room for participants with many different backgrounds where one in the best way can navigate between the known and secure as opposed to the new and insecure - and hereby find new, common solutions. That's why the folk high school is ideal if you want to create a common European public. The folk high school is rather unique and something Youth2002 is looking forward to presenting to the European youth, and something this project would very much like to share with the rest of Europe.
The work of the 1000 participants culminates on 11 and 12 July at Rønshoved Højskole where representatives from each school meet to write the last weeks' discussions into a young proposal for a European constitution. In a direct TV transmission from Rønshoved Højskole the participants will present the results of their work to the Youth convention and the official 'adult convention' in Brussels. All of it will be translated into 25 languages and sent to 30,000 email-addresses of European organisations and decision-makers.
Youth 2002 is a common European youth project organised by a cooperation of a number of folk high schools, communities and international organisations, with the intension of involving the European youth in the debate on the future of EU and contributing to the establishment of a common European public. The initiative to Youth 2002 was taken by ACC - Association for Community Colleges, IUC-Europe, Folkehøjskolernes Forening in Denmark and 12 Danish folk high schools. Youth 2002 is, among others, supported by the European Commission, EAC, the European Parliament, Undervisningsministeriet, Danske Bank, Landbrugsraadet, Metal, Folkehøjskolernes Forening i Danmark, Nævnet vedrørende EU-oplysning, NGO-Centret, Gouda Forsikring and Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd.
More about the initiative on www.youth2002.org.
EXPERIMENTAL CONSTITUTION COMMUNITY COLLEGE
This community college course took place at Ronshoved Hojskole in Krusa, Denmark.
There were 13 participants representing 12 identities in Europe. The aim of this community college course was to go through the process of drafting a text of the Constitution of the furure Europe. The programme lasted for 7 days, from April 21st - 28th. Participants started by analysing questions and dilemmas like: do we want a federate or a confederate Constitution, what will happen with the states if…, and do we want the states to remain or not, took almost two days. At the end, the participants decided that their Europe should something different from the currently known options. Once the participants agreed on this, they went on with the concrete design of the new structure of the European Union. A final text was drafted and this text is available at the ACC International Programme Office. Soon, it will also be available on the www.acc.eu.org.
The group of the Experimental Constitution Week was visited buy two journalists of regional newspapers (der Nordschelsvige, and Jyskevestkysten). Articles in both these newspapers appeared during the course and the participants were pleased to see themselves and their work already taking a lot of the publicity in this region.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS
June 5th, Hanna Wennerström, Lund
COMMING OPPORTUNITIES
Civil Servants and Volunteers of the Youth Sector in Europe
This is a training course on the development of youth policy and youth work in Europe organized by the Council of Europe. It will take place in the European Youth Centre in Budapest, September 16th- 22nd, 2002. Deadline for applying is Friday, July 19th, 2002.
Introductory material for this training course and the application form is available at the ACC International Programme Office.
CALENDAR AND VISITS
25th Mar. A cover- page article in Politiken about the Youth2002 project where an interview was made with 4 ACC people (Barna, Dasa, Helena and Mjellma)
9th Apr. Brandbjerg Hojskole, Mjellma meets the chairman of the Youth2002 project, Mr. Asbjorn Lyby 10/Apr. Informal meeting of some of the ACC Board members with Elly Andersen (Agota, John, Jesper, Mjellma)
11th Apr. Article in the Jydskevestkysten about the ACC in general and about Mjellmas volunteership at the ACC International Programme Office.
15th Apr. Meeting at Mondag Morgen in Copenhagen about the Bridging Europe Dialogue (Helena, Dasa, Hannes, Agota, Barna, Mjellma)
19th Apr. Visit payed to Ronshoved Folk high school, for an introduction to the facilities and rooms that were to be used by the participants of the following Experimental Constitution CC (John, Mjellma)
21st- 28th Apr. Experimental Constitution Community College at the Ronshoved Folk high school in Krusa, Denmark. 13 participants (EVSes with the Youth2002 project)
29th Apr. Article in the Jydskevestkysten about the Experimental Constitution CC at Ronshoved Folk high school and the summer Youth2002 project.
1st May Board meeting of the Youth2002, Copenhagen, present, John
1st May Meeting of the AWE, Copenhagen, present John
4th Jun. Mjellma had a meeting with the principle of the Rejsby Europaiske fterskoler, Ms. Anne Brudvig, on possibilities for cooperation between the ACC and his school, ACC International Programme Office, Aabenraa, Denmark.
5th Jun. John meets with Erik Lindso, the Information officer of the FFD in Ronshoved, Krusa, Denmark
7th Jun. Isabel Perez a former volunteer doing her Future Capital visits ACC International Programme Office to get more thorough information about the aims and activities the ACC has carried through.
10th-11th Jun. Seminar of the Youth2002 at Brandbjerg Hojskole, Jelling, Dnemark.(Agota, Barna, Dasa, Mjellma, Helena, John, Hannes, Hanna).
14th Jun. John was present at the FFD General Assembly held at Kerteminde, Denmark.
Mjellma Mehmeti
ACC International Programme Office
Flensborgvej 48, A6
6200 Aabenraa DK
ph. +45 7363 0043
fax +45 7462 4701
www.acc.eu.org
mjellma@acc.eu.org
| | |
|
| |
