28th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – 24-26 March 2015
Youth delegates participate in the Congress Session and comment it on Twitter
27 March 2015
Fifteen youth delegates participated in the 28th Session of the Congress held from 24 to 26 March in Strasbourg. The youth delegation consisted of young local and regional politicians and youth activists from fifteen countries. The delegates were allowed to take an active part in the session and committee meetings and contributed a youth perspective to the debates.
The aim of inviting the youth delegates was for them to prepare their vision of how young Europeans can participate in the Congress’ work, in the future, in a more sustainable manner. To help them with this task, they participated in a one-day training seminar on 23 March. The youth delegates presented their proposals to Gudrun Mosler-Törnström, (Austria, SOC) President of the Chamber of Regions, and John Warmisham (United Kingdom, SOC),Congress Vice-President, who was also representing the Congress’ newly created ad hoc reflection group on the participation of young people in the Congress’ work. This group has been tasked with proposing a mechanism which will enable the Congress to mainstream the youth perspective into its work and texts.
Youth delegate Tasnim Miah (United Kingdom) said “we represent such a large part of society, our generation has a monopoly on social media. Having youth on board means the Congress will reach out to younger citizens and drastically increase citizen participation in general.”
Gudrun Mosler-Törnström concluded “it is easier for you to reach the grassroots level and to explain to your peers what the Congress does. We would like to continue to invite young people in order to ensure they have their say.”
As well as presenting their proposals, the youth delegates drafted a motion for a resolution in which they called on the Congress to invite member states to implement Resolution 346(2012) on Youth and democracy: the changing face of youth political engagement and include one young person in their national delegations. John Warmisham welcomed this proposal: “Our delegations need to be balanced from gender and political perspectives but they also need to be younger.” In view of the increasing radicalisation in Europe, especially among young people, they also invited local and regional authorities to work with young people to combat this by making use of the mechanisms described in the Congress’ Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life to ensure the social inclusion of young people at risk.
Following the success during the last session of opening up the debates to Twitter activists, eight debates were covered by live Twitter feeds, creating a more interactive atmosphere and enabling people from outside the Council of Europe’s walls to contribute. Congress members also spoke up via the hashtag #youthsession2015.
See also
More information on the participation of Youth delegates in the 28th Session
Interviews Youth delegates
Interview with Tasnim Miah (United Kingdom) and Miroslav Denci (Slovakia)
Interview with Henrik Wickström (Finland) and Julija Mackevic (Lithuania)
Interview with Teona Lavrelashvili (Georgia)