• Regional Youth Council Schleswig-Holstein
• Baltic Youth Office
• Baltic Times
• Norden

• Partner

• 
• Union of the Baltic Cities
• 
• Commission on Youth Issues
• 
• BSSSC
• 
• Baltic Sea Net

• Council of the
  Baltic Sea States

Meeting 27-29 Oct. 2003 in Tartu

Chair: Piret Talur, for the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research

Topics of the Meeting:

• 1. Cooperation with other CBSS Working Groups


• 2. Report of the activities of the Secretariat


• 3. Evaluation


• 4. Baltic Youth Forum (Baltic Sea Youth Project & Baltic Sea Youth Centre)


• 5. European meeting of the Nordic Youth Committee


• 6. Russian contribution in kind


• 7. Role of the European Commission in the WG


• 8. Reports on national youth policies


• 9. Next meetings

Cooperation with other CBSS Working Groups

- see attached report of Lars Lööf, Children’s Unit

Lars Lööf, representing the Children’s Unit at CBSS was invited as a guest and gave an overview on the tasks, structure and activities of his Working Group on Children at Risk. He introduced the website of the Children’s Unit, which is an important working tool for the Unit. It is mainly used by researchers and as a platform to publish scientific articles.

It was discussed how youth NGOs could be involved in this field and what common activities could be organised.

The Secretariat gave a short overview of other CBSS Working Groups. It became clear that the topics and possibilities for cooperation are rather limited.

The WG members decided that the most important issue is the exchange of information between the Working Group on Children at Risk and our WG, e.g. minutes of meetings, conference materials and results, etc.. The discussion made clear that the topics of the work of the two WGs do not really overlap. Therefore we will concentrate on the information exchange and might decide on common activities at a later stage.

The agenda of the CBSS CSO meetings will also be distributed to the WG members.

Report on the activities of the Secretariat

The Secretariat presented a report on its activities in 2003. The main focus was on the cooperation with other Baltic Sea structures such as the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC), the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation (BSSSC), the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) and the Baltic Youth Forum (BYF).

The WG discussed the selection process of the youth participants at the BSPC and proposed that the Baltic Youth Forum as well as the Nordic Youth Committee should be involved.

The issue on a “Baltic Sea Youth Foundation” was brought up. Thies Grothe of the Regional Youth Council of Schleswig-Holstein informed about the activities of the Youth Council and of the Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein. The Regional Parliament of SH is working on getting financial contributions from other Regional Parliaments in Germany.

Piret Talur, Estonia, declared that Estonia might have some financial contribution to the Foundation.

The BYF representative Vegard Thise underlined the good cooperation between the Secretariat and the BYF, also on the issue of the Baltic Sea Youth Project.

The monthly activity report send by the Secretariat was very much appreciated. The WG asked the Secretariat to send more detailed information the activities, e.g. minutes, participants so that they could be followed up by the ministries. Furthermore the Secretariat should send information on activities, seminars or conferences in advance in order to receive some input from the ministries.

Evaluation

The WG concluded the following:

The Regional Youth of Schleswig-Holstein will officially order the evaluation.

Scope:

• 1. How has the WG and the Secretariat contributed to the implementation of the Plans of Actions?


• 2. How did they involve other actors (BYF, BSYP, BYO, BSSSC, UBC, BSPC) in the focussing on youth questions in the Baltic Sea cooperation?


• 3. How their work has contributed in each country to the interest in the Baltic Sea youth cooperation as part of the international cooperation in the youth field?


• 4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Baltic Sea Cooperation in the youth field?

Task force "EVALUATION":

Sweden, Regional Youth Council of Schleswig-Holstein & Estonia

The task force will choose the evaluators.

Finances: 25,000 EUR

Time Frame

• 1. Meeting of BYF in March 2004 – interview with members


• 2. Meeting of the WG in spring 2004 – interview with members

Final results of the evaluation should be send to the WG by 1st October 2004.

Follow up activities :

• 1. Application at the European Youth Foundation on behalf of a non-governmental structure – asking for an ad-hoc decision


• 2. Letter from the Secretariat to the ministries indicating the sum for the financial contribution to the evaluation at the beginning of November. The letter should include the whole budget and a plan of activities.


• 3. The evaluators will be asked to turn in offers according to the new scope.

Baltic Youth Forum (Baltic Sea Youth Project & Baltic Sea Youth Centre)

- see attachment

Vegard Thise gave a presentation on behalf of the Baltic Youth Forum informing about the development of the Baltic Sea youth Project into the ABC project and asking the ministries for political support for the project.

Furthermore he asked the WG to nominate 2 members for a joint task force (Baltic Youth Forum, Working Group and the Secretariat) on the Baltic Sea Youth Centre. The investigation for the need of a Youth Centre in Lithuania is the follow-up of the Vilnius Plan of Action.

WG-members:
Seija Astala of the Finnish Ministry of Education and
Snieguole Andruskaite of the Lithuanian State Council for Youth Affairs

BYF-members:
Miroslavas Monkevicius of LIJOT

Marius Seljedal of LNU

European Meeting of the Nordic Youth Committee

At the meeting of the NUK in June it was proposed to organise a common meeting of the youth structures in the Baltic Sea, the Barents and the Nordic. The respective Working Groups were asked to discuss this issue at their meetings.

The WG on Youth Affairs decided that the Secretariats for the Nordic, the Baltic Sea and the Barents cooperation should reinforce their contacts and exchanges of information before other steps are taken.

Russian contribution

Roman Alexandrov offered to translate (into Russian) and publish the brochure “Work and Study in the Baltic Sea Region”. He indicated further that Russia is willing to translate or print other material relevant for the work of the Secretariat or the Working Group, e.g evaluation report.

Follow-up:

All changes to the brochure have to be send to the Secretariat by 15th November 2003.

Role of the European Commission

Nathalie Stockwell participated in the meeting as an observer from the European Commission, DG Culture and Education and was interested to see what initiatives the WG is taking.

She informed that the Commission is currently working on issues of voluntary services, research and youth participation. This issues will be developed by the Commission and common objectives should be adopted by the Council of Ministers.

These common objectives could also be a content for the work of the Working Group on Youth Affairs.

She further more explained that the EC supports initiatives and activities on a regional level, because that’s closest to the citizens.

The WG expressed its interest to look into the proposal for the new EU Youth Programme and to receive information on the EC point of view concerning regional cooperation.

The future status of the EC in the Working Group was discussed, e.g. member or observer.

The Secretariat as well as the EC will investigate how the CBSS deals with the issue.

Reports on national youth policies

Poland

• new office for international youth exchange


• important issue for youth policy is youth unemployment


• working on the establishment of a National Youth Council, at the moment there is a
  informal NYC (NGO level), members are persons not youth organisations

Estonia:

• see attachment and www.hm.ee


• age group of young people: 7-26


• young people need a permission from their parents to become a member of a youth organisation


• 2 networks for youth policy: 1. ministerial level – "Round table for youth work", ministries involved in youth work 2. Youth Policy Council– advisory body for ministries of education and research, mainly youth organisations


• decrease in youth work budget for 2004

Norway:

• government presented white paper to the parliament in 2002, was endorsed by parliament in 2003


• international report developed, will be published before the end of the year


• reform in the area of child welfare service – all the different institutions at county level, dealing with the children, e.g. children at risk etc., will be taken over by the state, one central institution will be located in Oslo and 5 regional bodies will be established


• lack of reporting system on the results of the different policies (children and youth)

Latvia:

• since 2002 no department in the ministry responsible for youth issues


• instead state youth work centre working on the basis of legislative papers, has legislative powers but shall also execute – not working very well


• preparation of youth development plan


• NGO youth organisations working/ following the EU White Paper


• Latvian youth Councils works on the youth law – at the moment two versions, discussions on the final draft- will be forwarded to the government in December


• content of youth law: definition of responsibilities of the governments concerning finances (www.ljp.lv)


• www.vjic.lv

Lithuania:

• drafting a new law on youth policy basics, should be ready be the end of 2003


• will not differ very much from youth policy concept from 1996


• CoE review recommends establishment of relations between the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and the State Council

Finland:

• new element in governmental programme: 4 inter-sectoral policy programmes that all deal with youth issues – information, employment, entrepreneurship, civil participation


• aim of participation – encourage active citizenships, participation in elections and also in the decision making btw. elections - democracy learning


• special attention is paid to young people


• looking for new means how to make them become part of decision making processes (internet etc.)


• employment: some special parts for young people


• state budget for 2004 – increase of 37% of the budget for youth policy activities

Next meetings

• spring meeting in Germany – 29th-31st March 04


• Russia offers to host the autumn meeting of the WG – date: end of October

Issues for meeting in Germany:

• financial report at next meeting, detailed on the expenditure side (money that is used for the WG meetings should not be calculated into the budget)


• mandate of the Secretariat after 2004, continuation of the agreement


• terms of references


• Minister(ial) conference

Secretariat will do one paper of terms, mandate for S. and list of members in the WG

issues of Advisory Group and Chairmanship

Participants

Estonia:
Piret Talur, Katre Mermäe

Poland:
Barbara Sochal,Annekreet Heinloo

Russia:
Roman Alexandrov

Finland:
Seija Astela

BYF:
Vegard Thise

Latvia:
Arina Bogdzevica

RYC:
Thies Grothe

Lithuania:
Snieguole Andruskaite

European Commission:
Nathalie Stockwell

Norway:
Bjorn Hansen

Guest:
Lars Lööf, Children’s Unit

Secretariat:
Sandra Weidemann