Young Active Citizenships - EU Meeting in Hyvinkää
Active citizenship, democracy education and topics such as the challenges presented by the openness of the EU youth policy will be discussed in the Young Active Citizenships – EU Meeting in Hyvinkää on 1–4 July 2006. The meeting promoting the active citizenship of young people is organised by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Finnish Youth Research Network, the Finnish Youth Co-operation – Allianssi, and the City of Helsinki Youth Department.
Approximately 250 administrators, youth researchers, representatives from youth organisations and young people from the EU countries, acceding countries and candidate countries, as well as EFTA countries and the Russian Federation are expected to take part in the meeting. Tanja Saarela, Minister of Culture, and Ján Figel’, Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, will participate in the meeting on Monday 3 July.
Three main themes of the meeting – the concept of active citizenship, democracy education, and the openness, transparency and democracy of the EU youth policy – will be discussed in several sub-working groups. The aim of the meeting is to consolidate tripartite co-operation between research, administration and youth organisations/young people, as well as the position of youth research as an administrative tool proactively guiding decision making.
The meeting will be opened on Monday 3 July by Riitta Kaivosoja, Director General of the Department for Cultural, Sport and Youth Policy of the Ministry of Education, Lasse Siurala, Director of the Youth Department, City of Helsinki, and Simo Salmela, Chairman of the Division for International Affairs of the Finnish Youth Co-operation – Allianssi. The themes of the first day of the meeting will be presented by Tommi Hoikkala, Research Director, the Finnish Youth Research Network (active citizenship), Heidi Huusko, Project Leader, the National Youth Council of Swedish Youth Organisations, and Fatmire Feka, the founder of Kids for Peace, the children’s peace movement in Kosovo (democracy education). The last theme of the day – the openness, transparency and democracy of the EU youth policy – will be presented by Pierre Mairesse, Director for Youth, Sports and Relations with the Citizen at the European Commission.
On 3 July, Eric Olson, representative of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Social Policy and Development, will give a presentation on global citizenship. The main themes of the meeting will be discussed in working groups on Monday and Tuesday, and the closing session on Tuesday 4 July will draw conclusions on the working group sessions and the political part of the meeting. The meeting is preceded by the traditional Presidency Youth Event on 1 and 2 July, which has been integrated into the meeting.
Further information:
questions about content:
- Olli Saarela, Director, tel. +358 9 160 77 277
- Seija Astala, Counsellor for Cultural Affairs, tel. +358 9 1607 7396, mobile: +358 40 515 5818
organisation
- Sofia Laine, EU Meeting Co-ordinator, tel. +358 20 755 2659, mobile: +358 50 583 0019
media relations
- Pia Ekqvist, Press Officer, tel. +358 9 160 77404, mobile: +358 40 740 0873