26^th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities – 25 to 27 March 2014

Is there a real place for young people in local and regional democracy?

Statement by Emil BOC, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

First of all, I would like to thank our hosts, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Mr. President van Staa, for the opportunity and honour to stand in front of you today.

The opportunities for young people to contribute to consolidating democracy in Europe have never been greater than today. At the same time, the youth must stand up to challenges and even threats that seem more acute than ever. On the one hand, they have fundamental rights and liberties of which young people in other parts of the world can only dream of. On the other hand, too many of them must face unemployment and the difficulties of the transition period from when they graduate from school until they find a job. And this is where we, the local and regional authorities, have the role of identifying practical ways of helping them.

My presence here is a special opportunity for Cluj-Napoca, as our city will be the European Youth Capital in 2015. The motto of our candidacy and the project which will be implemented is "SHARE".

“SHARE” refers to a way of life, an open approach and a belief that shared use of individual resources, creativity, youth participation, which can bring a boost to the development of local, regional communities, to Romania and to Europe. Sharing means finding the best combination of individual performance with the power given by all levels of communities.

In this context, a wide range of individuals and organizations are invited to be those who share at local, regional, national, European and global level.

The European Youth Capital Title was awarded to the City Hall of Cluj-Napoca, but it is a project managed by the municipality in close collaboration with the Share Federation, made of 31 local youth organizations. This is an example of how the development of our city and the consolidation of local democracy are the result of the direct contribution and active involvement of young people.

We SHARE POWER because young people are the most dynamic age category, an innovator in driving change. Power is relative. Youth power even more. It starts by changing perceptions. It might continue with changing habits, ways of doing things, ways of taking care of each other. It has an impact on how a society evolves, and how it defines its own quality of life and progress.

Power is about economic and social empowerment. Youth have to be encouraged with different instruments, structures and mechanisms to take up the challenge, feel themselves empowered and take action regarding their own future. Of course, all of this has to be done together with other generations and having a general sense of mutual respect (the power of caring for each other).

In 2013 we have initiated a pilot participatory budgeting project in Cluj-Napoca, in one of the biggest neighborhoods of the city, the first of this kind in Romania. As a result, one of the priorities will be restoring a cinema in this neighborhood. And the priorities set by the citizens for this restoration works mostly refer to future youth-related activities.

This year, through a partnership with the civil society, we will carry out a participatory budgeting project based on young people’s involvement in determining the projects which will be implemented during the European Youth Capital 2015 Program. Thus, a portfolio of projects will be created, based on the initiatives proposed by the community, as a result of an involvement and collaboration process between the young people, the local authorities and the NGOs.

POWER is also about the organized youth sector aiming to have a role in decision making, structured dialogue regarding their present and future. The will to assume the decisional role and the actions taken in forming cities', regions', countries' and Europe's future are guarantees of future generations capable of succeeding our days’ lead generation. This year, the City Hall of Cluj-Napoca will finance 39 projects dedicated to young people, suggested by the local NGOs.

The involvement of young people in the community, in all aspects of the social life, is essential nowadays in order to consolidate democracy at local, regional, national and European level.

We SHARE CULTURE, because we understand culture as being a gateway and vehicle to connect people and communities, able to accelerate, catalyze, energize and activate social processes. Young people are in this context pioneers. Through their increased mobility they learn to be more diverse faster, and they can act as a driving force of change, of opening up in sharing the European culture packed with local, regional and national specific features.

The Youth@Cluj-Napoca 2015 Initiative is a concept created and grown in the general context which takes into account the current reality of the city of Cluj-Napoca.

We are a multicultural city, multiethnic and multiconfessional. We have a rich history of living and working together: Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, Hebrews and Rroma people. This variety of cultures and of ways of "acting" and "doing" works as a catalyst for the city, as a catalyst for the "art of living together”.

This diversity of the city is precisely the source of inspiration and our initiative may thus provide a model for the entire community and for Europe, for whose destiny we are all responsible. Not only us, but the entire Europe needs examples of coexistence, of shared values and civic vision.

Based on the example offered by youth in 2015, we want to candidate for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2021.

A young person from Cluj-Napoca has recently suggested the municipality a project we will soon implement: during a book festival, all the citizens who read while traveling by bus will be granted free public transportation.

We SHARE SPACE because space refers to the places built around us, man-made if we speak about built environments, and natural if we refer to everything else. What we will try to do by sharing space is to show how the young can influence these two major systems, man-made and natural, and transform this moment in time into a breakthrough.

Every spring, in Cluj-Napoca we plant 10,000 saplings in an area already known as “Youth Forrest”. Hundreds of pupils, students, athletes and young representatives of the NGOs get involved in this community project. The young parents may choose to plant a tree when their child is born, a tree that will be taken care of by the respective family.

Since we are a dynamic city, ready to embrace new opportunities, always in motion, we will soon give in operation the bike-sharing project, aimed to encourage the use of bicycles in the city; 500 bicycles will be available free of charge.

We SHARE WORK because this represents what we do to build our society. Work refers to the artifacts of human activity as well as the sum of skills, abilities and values derived from education and experience. Education, formal or non-formal, career, individual skills and collective approaches are also part of it.

The local communities have to take care of the youth, to invest both in secondary and higher education, and afterwards to develop programs aimed to ease employability. 

To be more precise, in our city we offer 15000 scholarships to pupils, free public transportation for pupils and students and we have signed collaboration protocols with the biggest universities and companies in Cluj-Napoca, aimed at adapting the curricula and the internships to better meet the demands of the labour market.

As Prime Minister, I developed a start-up support program for young people. At the City Hall we have an ongoing project for building a Regional Center for Excellence in Creative Industries which will grant several incentives for young entrepreneurs.

Last week we organized, together with Cluj Hub, Hackathon Cluj City Apps, the first programming marathon during which the aim was to create IT applications for the benefit of the community/citizens. 65 young software developers, web designers and young people passionate about technology entered the competition and developed applications dedicated to the citizens of Cluj and to tourists who visit our city.

Nowadays, information and technology are the key components of all activity fields. Acknowledging this, we envisioned an ambitious project for the following years called Cluj Innovation City. The aim of this project is to stimulate research and development in various fields. This project will attract talent from all over the country and even from abroad, and will help create 20000 new jobs, most of them for young people. 

We are the second most important academic center in Romania, with more than 100000 students (approximately one third of the population of the city) – a well trained and highly qualified labour force.

Last but not least, I would like to say that the average age of the team I work with closely at the city hall is 30.

We SHARE JOY, because whatever we do, how we do it, how we envision the future, we believe the present, this very moment and how we feel in this moment (the limit between the past and the future) is of high importance. When we feel joy we do everything in a more efficient way.

There are several proposals of events, shows, youth-related activities which will come to Cluj-Napoca in 2015.

The Youth@Cluj-Napoca 2015 Initiative is built around generating positive feelings and connecting people through these feelings. COLLABORATION is the form through which positive feelings can be multiplied and shared above the individual experience. Collaboration leads to better understanding, mutual acceptance and an open society in general.

We are a city of festivals (TIFF, Comedy Cluj, Electric Castle etc), where we know how to work hard but also take the time to enjoy ourselves.

We SHARE VISION, because young people are the future of Europe and we in Cluj-Napoca want to contribute to building this future.

We have won the title of European Youth Capital in 2015 by considering young people and youth-related topics a priority in the development strategy of the city.

We must encourage and empower the young generation to participate in creative thinking, policy formation, decision making concerning their future. Participation means taking ownership, and this leads to responsibility in the future for one’s own decisions.

I invite you all to discover the way in which the youth of Cluj-Napoca find their place and are involved in developing the local democracy in Cluj-Napoca, the heart of Transylvania!