10 March 2007

Youth Conference: “Future of Europe from the perspective of a candidate country for EU membership”

On 10 March 2007, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in cooperation with the European Youth Forum (YFJ), organized a Conference on the topic of ‘Future of Europe from the perspective of a candidate country for EU membership’, at the Hotel Continental, in Skopje, Macedonia.

The seminar gathered representatives from over twenty Macedonian youth organizations, providing them the opportunity to debate this theme, in the framework of preparations for the Rome Youth Summit being organised by the YFJ and the European Commission, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. It was the only Youth Conference organized for this purpose in on of the three candidate countries (Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey).

With the participation of the Special Representative of the EU to Macedonia, Ambassador Erwan Fouere, Vice president of the Government responsible for EU affairs, representatives from the Macedonian media, and the Director of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Stefan Dehnert, the young participants gathered in plenary to consider the central theme of the future of Europe, subsequently breaking into workshops focused on specific topics: a Social and Economic model for Europe; Sustainable Development; Building democracy and civil society; and Youth and Education in the EU. The outcomes of the debate were subsequently used to feed into the conclusions of the Youth Summit held on 23-25 March in Rome, and the Declaration produced there.

The discussions in Skopje on 10 March also led delegates to consider further cooperation between the youth organisations present, and the possible development of a national Macedonian youth platform.